Enggano language
The Enggano language, or Engganese, is an Austronesian language spoken on Enggano Island off the southwestern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
Enggano is notable among the Austronesian languages of western Insular Southeast Asia because of many unusual sound changes, and a low number of words shared with other Austronesian languages. There is however general consensus among Austronesianists that Enggano belongs to the Austronesian language family. Failure to fully identify the inherited Austronesian elements in the basic lexicon and bound morphology of Enggano resulted in occasional proposals that Enggano might be a language isolate which had adopted Austronesian loanwords.
When first contacted by Europeans, the Enggano people had more cultural commonalities with indigenous peoples of the Nicobar Islands than those of with Austronesian Sumatra. For instance, beehive houses were typical of both Enggano Island and the Nicobar Islands. However, there are no apparent linguistic connections with Nicobarese or other Austroasiatic languages.
Classification
The classification of Enggano is controversial, ranging from proposals that negate its inclusion in the Austronesian family all the way to classifications that place Enggano in the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup together with other Austronesian languages of the area.Based on the low number of apparent Austronesian cognates, Capell concludes that Enggano is a language isolate rather than Austronesian as previously assumed. Blench considers Enggano to be a language isolate that has picked up Austronesian loanwords, and notes many basic vocabulary items in Enggano are of non-Austronesian origin. Based on lexical evidence from the Enggano language, he considers the Enggano people to be descendants of Pleistocene hunter-gatherers that had preceded the Austronesians.
Edwards demonstrates that pronouns, numerals and many affixes in Enggano can be directly derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. Based on this evidence, together with regular sound changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian to Enggano, Edwards concludes that Enggano clearly belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages. Within Malayo-Polynesian, he considers Enggano to be a primary branch.
Edwards thus rejects Capell's and Blench's proposal that Enggano is a non-Austronesian language with Austronesian loanwords, and considers it to be clearly Austronesian. While a large portion of its lexicon obviously cannot be derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, it remains unclear whether this represents a non-Austronesian substratum from an unknown source language, or the result of internally-driven lexical replacement.. He notes that Enggano possesses many aberrant phonological features and a low lexical retention rate, which is more typical of Austronesian languages spoken in eastern Indonesia and Melanesia than rather than those of western Indonesia. Enggano's lexical retention rate is only 21%, while the lexical retention rate for Malay is 59%. Some non-Austronesian languages in Southeast Asia, such as Nancowry, Semelai, and Abui also have low lexical retention rates.
Evolution
Enggano has historically undergone several sound changes which are more far-reaching than changes observed in other Malayo-Polyesian languages of the area. These include for example :- PMP *ŋ > h
- PMP *m > b
- PMP *n > d
- PMP *s > k
- PMP *t > k
An unusual feature is nasal harmony in its identifiable Austronesian vocabulary, where all stop consonants and vowels in a word became nasal after a nasal vowel, and oral after an oral vowel, so that there is no longer a phonemic distinction between them. For example, *eũ’ada’a became eũ’ãnã’ã, while nasal consonants are no longer found in e-uba 'house' or ʔa-riba 'five'.
Phonology
The only major linguistic treatment of Enggano was conducted by Hans Kähler in 1937; he published a grammar, texts, and a dictionary. However, phonology is limited to a simple inventory and a short paragraph of basic features; the grammar and dictionary disagree with each other, the dictionary is not consistent, some words are not legible, and doubts have been raised about the accuracy of the transcriptions. Nothofer discusses loanwords and also lists phonemes. Yoder is a thesis on Enggano vowels, with some comments on consonants; it will be followed here.Stress was once reported to be penultimate but appears to occur on the final syllable. Alternating syllables preceding it have secondary stress.
Yoder and Nothofer report seven oral and seven nasal vowels:
Diphthongs are.
Vowels do not occur word-initially in Enggano apart from what Yoder analyzes as before another vowel; these are then pronounced as semivowels. The vowels are all pronounced as semivowels in vowel sequences after medial glottal consonants, as in and 'wild'; otherwise, apart from diphthongs, vowel sequences are disyllabic, as in 'to graze'. optionally triggers a glide after a following glottal consonant, as in 'to say'. Diphthongs lower to etc. before a coda stop, as in 'ten', and undergo metathesis when that stop is glottal, as in 'twenty'. An intrusive vowel appears between glottal stop and another consonant, as in 'female leader'; this does not affect the pattern of stress.
In many words, a final vowel transcribed by Kähler is not found in Yoder.
The offglide of diphthongs lowers before glottal consonants, and a glottal stop may intrude when another word follows, as in 'another'.
Yoder notes that the voiced stops are in complementary distribution, depending on whether the word has nasal vowels, but lists them separately. Voiced oral consonants,, do not occur in words with nasal consonants or vowels. Nasal consonants nasalize all vowels in a word, and there is therefore no contrast between and apart from the contrast between nasal and oral vowels. For example, with the oral stem tax 'bag', the possessive forms are tahi’ 'my bag' and tahib 'your bag', but with the nasal stem 'age', the forms are ’umunu’ 'my age' and ’umunum 'your age'.
occurs in only a few native words. are infrequent and apparently a single phoneme; they only occur word finally, where they contrast with : occurs after the non-front vowels, after the front vowels, and after vowel sequences ending in . The resulting may actually be, as most such words are attested with alternation like 'box'. When a suffix is added, so that this consonant is no longer word-final, it becomes, as in tahi’ 'my bag' above.
Nothofer is similar, but does not list the uncommon consonants and and counts as consonants rather than allophones of vowels. Kähler's dictionary adds, as well as as marginal phonemes, and claims that are only found in southern villages. However, Yoder states that at the time of his research in 2010 there were no differences among the six villages on Enggano Island, and that initial and final are rare in native words. Medial and are in free variation in a few words, with older people preferring and younger speakers.
Grammar
The main reference on the syntax and morphology of the Enggano language is the grammar produced by the German scholar Hans Kähler, which was published in 1940. There are also some references to syntax and morphology in more recent work, such as Yoder and Edwards. This section compares some of the findings in Kähler with those of Yoder, where the language appears to have undergone some changes.Pronouns
The pronouns listed in Kähler are as follows:| Pronoun | Independent | Enclitic | Proclitic I | Proclitic II |
| 1sg | ’ua | -'u | 'u- | 'u- |
| 1du. | ’ika | -ka | ka- | ka- |
| 1pl. | 'ika'a | -ka'a | ka- -a'a | ka- -a'a |
| 1pl. | 'ai | -dai, -nãĩ | 'u- -'ai | 'u- -'ai |
| 2sg | ’o'o | -bu, -mũ | u- | 'o- |
| 2pl | adiu | -du, -nũ | u- -a'a | 'o- -a'a |
| 3sg | kia | -dia, -nĩã | i- | ka- |
| 3pl | ki | -da, -nã | da- | ki-/di- |
Kähler notes that the form
The pronouns listed in Yoder are as follows:
| Pronoun | Independent | Suffix |
| 1sg | ’u | -’ |
| we. | ’a | |
| we. | ’ik | -k |
| 2sg | ’ə’ | -b ~ -m |
| 2pl | ’ari | -du ~ -nu |
| 3sg | ki | -d ~ -n |
| 3pl | hamə’ | -d ~ -n |
| this | ’ẽ’ | - |
| that | ’ẽõ’ | - |
| who | hã | - |
| what | ’i.ah | - |
Most of these appear to be Austronesian: Compare Malay 1sg aku ~ ku, 1. kami, 1. kita, 2pl kalian, 3sg/pl dia, and suffixes 1sg -ku, 2sg -mu, 3sg -nya, with *k, *t, *l, *m, *n having shifted to ’, k, r, b, d in Enggano, and with final consonants and vowels being lost. The possessive suffixes appear on nouns, and they are often preceded by a vowel. Few forms are attested, but this vowel is i or ai after , an echo vowel after several other consonants, and with several words not predictable on current evidence: ’eam – ’ami’ ' fishing rod'.
Nouns
Nouns in Enggano can be subcategorised into three different classes: humans, proper nouns and common nouns. They take different articles to indicate singular and plural reference:| Noun Class | Singular | Plural |
| Human | e- | ka- |
| Proper | ∅- | ∅- |
| Common | e- | e- |
Blench notes that e- may be a determiner and Edwards argues that the articles not only mark noun class but also case. Nouns marked with e- and the other articles above can express both subjects and objects. The prefix e- can also be used to derive gerunds from verbal stems. Plural number can also be indicated through reduplication. In this case, the meaning is exhaustive, e.g. all of the nouns.
Nouns with an oblique function, e.g. those expressing nominal possessors, subjects of gerunds and any noun that follows the oblique marker i'ioo, take the article u- in place of e-. Finally, locative nouns take the locative prefix i-.
Nouns in Enggano can be modified by demonstratives and relative clauses. As in other Austronesian languages, these typically follow the nominal head. There are three demonstratives in Enggano:
| Demonstrative | Enggano | Rough Translation |
| Proximal | ei'ie | this |
| Medial | e'ana | that |
| Distal | ea'a | that |
Relative clauses are introduced by a relativiser mõ'õ. Kähler suggests that older speakers of Enggano would use different relativisers depending on whether the head noun was singular or plural. However, in 1937 when he was conducting research, this practice was already uncommon in everyday language. An example of a relative clause in Enggano is given below. This shows that demonstratives also follow relative clauses:
Kähler describes some processes of nominal derivation in Enggano. Specifically, he notes that instrumental nouns can be formed via the addition of a vowel or paV- to a verbal root, e.g. poko 'to chisel' > e-opoko 'a chisel' or kui 'to sew' > e-paukui 'needle'. Locative nouns are formed with an -a suffix, e.g. parudu 'gather' > e-parudu-a 'gathering place'.
Verbs and Adjectives
Adjectives commonly have prefixes ka-, ka’-, ki-; the first two are attested in derivation, and the last is assumed as it is very common and many such adjectives otherwise appear to be reduplicated, as in kinanap 'smooth'.Verbs may have one or two prefixes and sometimes a suffix. Attested prefixes are ba-, ba’-, ia-, iah-, ka-, ka’-, kah-, ki-, kir-, ko-, pa-, pah-, ’a-. The functions of these are unknown. Ki- and pa- may occur together, as in pe, pape, kipe, kipape, all glossed as 'give'. The three attested verbal suffixes are -i, -ar, -a’.
Numerals
The counting system is, or at least once was, vigesimal: Kähler recorded kahai'i ekaka 'one man' = 20, ariba ekaka 'five man' = 100, kahai'i edudodoka 'one our-body' = 400. However, most people now use Malay numerals when speaking Enggano, especially for higher numbers. Yoder recorded the following:| Numeral | Enggano |
| 1 | kahai’ |
| 2 | ’aru |
| 3 | ’akər |
| 4 | ’aup |
| 5 | ’arib |
| 6 | ’aki’akin |
| 7 | ’arib he ’aru |
| 8 | kĩpã’ĩõp, ’ãpã’ĩõp |
| 9 | kĩpã’ĩõp kabai kahai’, ’ãpã’ĩõp ’abai kahai’ |
| 10 | kĩpã’ãũp |
| 20 | kahai’ kak |
1–5 are Austronesian, assuming ka- is a prefix on 'one' and ’a- is a prefix on 2–5. Compare the remaining -hai’, -ru, -kər, -up, -rib with Lampung əsay, rua, təlu, əpat, lima; *s, *t, *l, *m have shifted to h, k, r, b in Enggano, and final consonants and vowels have been lost.
’aki’akin 6 may be reduplication of ’akər 3. ’arib he ’aru 7 is 'five and two'. The two forms for 8 mean 'hugging', from the verb pã’ĩõp 'to hug', and 9 appears to be 'eight, one coming'; it may be shortened to kaba kahai’ in enumeration. Yoder believes 10 may also be a verb, based on an unelicited root ’ãũp, as ki- and pa- are verbal prefixes ; indeed, the apparent prefixes on 1–5 are identical to verbal prefixes as well.
Numbers above 10 and 20 are formed with he ~ hi 'and': kĩpã’ãũp he ’aru 'ten and two' for 12, kahai’ kak he kĩpã’ãũp 'twenty and ten' for 30. kak is 'person', so twenty is 'one person'. Multiples of twenty are formed from kak, as in ’akər kak he kĩpã’ãũp 70, ’arib kak 100.