Enggano language
Encyclopedia
The Enggano language, or Engganese, is the language of Enggano Island
off the southwestern coast of Sumatra.
Although adjacent to Austronesian languages
, Enggano has not been established as Austronesian; it may instead be a language isolate
with Austronesian borrowing. Much of the basic vocabulary cannot be related to Austronesian words. When first contacted by Europeans, the Enggano people had more in common culturally with the Nicobar Islands
than with Austronesian Sumatra; however, there are no apparent cognates with Nicobarese or other Austro-Asiatic languages
.
Enggano has historically undergone nasal harmony in its identifiable Austronesian vocabulary, where all stop consonant
s and vowels in a word became nasal after a nasal sound. For example, *eũ'ada'a became eũ'ãnã'ã. On the other hand, many nasal stops became oral, as in ub 'house' (cf. Malay rumah) and ’arib 'five' (Malay lima). Enggano is also the only western (possibly) Austronesian language in which *t shifted to /k/, an unusual change that occurred independently several times in Oceanic.
The counting system is vigesimal
: kahai'i ekaka 'one man' = 20, ariba ekaka 'five man' = 100, kahai'i edudodoka 'one our-body' = 400. (The last may be based on two people counting together: each time I count all twenty of my digits, you count one of yours; when you have counted all of your digits, the number is 20×20=400.)
Yoder (2010) reports seven oral and seven nasal vowels; /a ã/ is reported to be a front vowel.
The consonants listed by Nothofer are as follows. Consonants in parentheses are only found in the southern dialect. In vocabulary lists there is also an r.
Yoder lists the following:
[s] and [x] may be allophones, and are only found finally in a few native words. [x] is found after non-front vowels [ɨ], [ə] and [u], with an allophone [ç] after front vowels [a], [ã], and [i]. /l/ only occurs in a few native words.
Enggano words have eroded from the front, so they will frequently be missing the first consonant of an Austronesian cognate. Nouns may have a prefix e-, which may be a determiner. Verbs may have a prefix ki-, infix ⟨ba⟩ or ⟨pa⟩, or suffix -ãʔã.
Yoder (2010) reports the numeral system, though most people now use Malay numerals when speaking Enggano:
2–5 appear to be Austronesian, and possibly 1, if ka- is a prefix: Cf. -hai, -ru, -kər, -up, -rib with Lampung
say, rua, təlu (*t, *l have shifted to /k/, /l/ in Enggano), pat, lima.
Numbers above 10 and 20 are formed with -p he ~ hi 'and': /kĩpãʔãũp heʔ aru/ 'ten and two' for 12, /kahaiʔ kak he kĩpãʔãũp/ 'twenty and ten' for 30. /kak/ is 'person', so twenty is 'one person'. Multiples of twenty are formed from kak, as in /ʔakər kak he kĩpãʔãũp/ 70, /ʔarib kak/ 100 (also /kahaiʔ ratuh/ from Malay ratus).
/ʔakiʔakin/ 6 may be reduplication of /ʔakər/ 3. /ʔarib he ʔaru/ 7 is 'five and two'. The two forms for 8 mean 'hugging', from the verb /pãʔĩõp/ 'to hug'. The full for of 9, 'eight and one coming', was only elicited in compounds, with 19 attested as /kĩpãʔãũp he ʔãpãʔĩõp ʔabai kahaʔ/ and 29 as /kahaiʔ kak he kĩpãʔĩõp kabai kahaiʔ/, from ka-ba 'to come'. 10 may also be a verb, based on /ʔãũp/, as ki-pa- are verbal prefixes (as in ki-pa-pe 'to give').
Enggano Island
Enggano Island is about 100 km south west of Sumatra, Indonesia. It is about 35 km long from east to west and about 16 km wide from north to south. Its area is 402.6 km², the average elevation is about 100 m and the highest point is 281 m. Politically it is a...
off the southwestern coast of Sumatra.
Although adjacent to Austronesian languages
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, Enggano has not been established as Austronesian; it may instead be a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
with Austronesian borrowing. Much of the basic vocabulary cannot be related to Austronesian words. When first contacted by Europeans, the Enggano people had more in common culturally with the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
than with Austronesian Sumatra; however, there are no apparent cognates with Nicobarese or other Austro-Asiatic languages
Austro-Asiatic languages
The Austro-Asiatic languages, in recent classifications synonymous with Mon–Khmer, are a large language family of Southeast Asia, also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name Austro-Asiatic comes from the Latin words for "south" and "Asia", hence "South Asia"...
.
Enggano has historically undergone nasal harmony in its identifiable Austronesian vocabulary, where all stop consonant
Stop consonant
In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
s and vowels in a word became nasal after a nasal sound. For example, *eũ'ada'a became eũ'ãnã'ã. On the other hand, many nasal stops became oral, as in ub 'house' (cf. Malay rumah) and ’arib 'five' (Malay lima). Enggano is also the only western (possibly) Austronesian language in which *t shifted to /k/, an unusual change that occurred independently several times in Oceanic.
The counting system is vigesimal
Vigesimal
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
: kahai'i ekaka 'one man' = 20, ariba ekaka 'five man' = 100, kahai'i edudodoka 'one our-body' = 400. (The last may be based on two people counting together: each time I count all twenty of my digits, you count one of yours; when you have counted all of your digits, the number is 20×20=400.)
Phonology
According to Kähler, Enggano has eight vowels, all with nasal equivalents.| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | i ĩ | ɨ ɨ̃ | u ũ |
| mid | e ẽ | o õ | |
| open | ɛ ɛ̃ | a ã | ɔ ɔ̃ |
Yoder (2010) reports seven oral and seven nasal vowels; /a ã/ is reported to be a front vowel.
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | i ĩ | ɨ ɨ̃ | u ũ |
| mid | e ẽ | ə ə̃ | o õ |
| open | a ã |
The consonants listed by Nothofer are as follows. Consonants in parentheses are only found in the southern dialect. In vocabulary lists there is also an r.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Stop / Affricate |
Voiceless | p | (t) | t͡ʃ | k | ʔ |
| Voiced | b | d | (d͡ʒ) | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | (f) | s | h | |||
Yoder lists the following:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Stop | Voiceless | p | t | k | ʔ | |
| Voiced | b | d | ||||
| Fricative | (s) | (x) | h | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | (l) | j | w | |||
[s] and [x] may be allophones, and are only found finally in a few native words. [x] is found after non-front vowels [ɨ], [ə] and [u], with an allophone [ç] after front vowels [a], [ã], and [i]. /l/ only occurs in a few native words.
Vocabulary
The following are the Enggano words attested for the most stable lexemes, in order of stability. Blench (2009) was able to find clear Austronesian cognates for very few of them. [K] indicates data from Kaslim et al. (1987), which often do not have extraneous morphology found in other sources.Enggano words have eroded from the front, so they will frequently be missing the first consonant of an Austronesian cognate. Nouns may have a prefix e-, which may be a determiner. Verbs may have a prefix ki-, infix ⟨ba⟩ or ⟨pa⟩, or suffix -ãʔã.
| Lexeme | Enggano | Austronesian cognate? |
|---|---|---|
| louse (1) | e-nãẽ | not Austronesian |
| louse (2) | hɛ[y]up [K] | not Austronesian |
| two | ʔadua, rua, lua | Malayic dua |
| water rain |
e-bō [K bə] e-bō [K ɛ-be] |
Cf. Bajaw boe, isolated Manus bo, Serili (Maluku) be. [Lampung wai] Cf. Tanema [Solomonic] emba, Mussau baoo |
| ear | e-kadixa | not Austronesian? [Malay talinga] |
| to die | kaʔao [K kaʔa], kakudu | not Austronesian? (One of the most diagnostic Austronesian roots) [AN (ma)tay → kay?] |
| I, me | ʔua, ɯɯ [K] | Perhaps? Many Austronesian languages have ≈ au ← aku. |
| liver | e-nĩũnĩũ | not Austronesian? [AN dalem → nãnẽ] |
| eye | e-baka | not Austronesian? [AN *mata → baka] |
| hand/arm (1, hand) | e-ʔapo | not Austronesian [Lampung puŋew, Tagalog kamay] |
| hand/arm (2, arm) | e-parahaodi | |
| hear | dohoi | not Austronesian |
| tree | e-oʔoba, e-ʔõmẽ-ãʔã (stick) | not Austronesian |
| fish (1) | e-ʔaiyo, e-paəadia | cf. Yapen dia [Lampung punyew] |
| fish (2) | yay | ? (perhaps reduction of forms such as Bajaw dayah) |
| name | e-nĩə ̃[K ni] | Western Oceanic languages have numerous lookalikes, e.g. Bilibil ŋian or Gedaged néan. More remotely Banjarese Malay ŋaran. |
| stone | e-ʔea [K i-ɛa] | not Austronesian |
| tooth | e-ahau, e-kaʔa [K kaaʔ] | Cf. isolated Papuan Tip, e.g. Saliba kawa [Lampung kedis] |
| breast | e-koko | not Austronesian? [Lampung dado → kako?] |
| thou (1) | ʔoʔo | [Malay kau] |
| thou (2) | ari [K] | Cf. Solomonic, e.g. Babatana, Senga re. |
| path (1) | e-ʔekoa [K (h)ɛko] | Cf. Teanu [Solomonic] anoko. Other Solomonic languages have final -ka, e.g. Babatana zuka [Lampung gut] |
| path (2) | e-parabia | |
| bone | e-ʔā | Nothing obvious, but so minimal it could be cognate with almost anything. |
| tongue | e-dio [K di] | not Austronesian? [Malay (li)dah, AN (di)la] |
| skin | e-ʔudi | Reflex of widespread Austronesian kuli, eg. Iliun [Celebic] ‘uli also Kwara'ae (Solomonic) ‘uli‘uli |
| night | e-pȭ, [K kar-po'-as̄] | Perhaps Western Oceanic, e.g. Kayapulau poni, Saliba boni [Lampung bingei] |
| leaf | e-pũnũ, e-puru | not Austronesian? [Lampung bulung] |
| kill | — | |
| blood | e-kiaki | not Austronesian |
| horn | — | |
| person | e-kabake [K kakh] | Probably not Austronesian. (But cf. Vitu kaka and Solomonic languages with -ka element in person words, i.e. Vano lamuka, Tanema anuka.) |
| knee | — | |
| one | kahaiʔi, [K kahakh] | Cf. Cheke Holo [Solomonic] kaha, but also Bajaw dakau [ka-hai'i w Lampung -say] |
| nose | e-pãnũ [K panum] | Solomonic languages have numerous lookalikes, e.g. Are’are, Oroha panona. |
| full | — | |
| come | k⟨ab⟩ai, ei | Not unless Solomonic mai with loss of first consonant |
| star (1) | e-ʔaperu-au | Cf. New Ireland, e.g. Tinag papara, Ririo paraʔat |
| star (2) | e-kaʔomĩmĩ [K koʔmim] | Perhaps? Cf. Bajaw mamaw |
| mountain | e-kohoi | [AN (bun)dok] |
| fire | e-ʔobi | Perhaps? Cf. PMP *hapuy |
| we | — | |
| drink | | not Austronesian? |
|
| see (1) | ka⟨ba⟩pəa [K pə], ki-pĩnã | not Austronesian |
| see (2) | ki | Cf. PCMP kita |
| bark | — | |
| new | — | |
| dog (1) | e-beo [K bɛɛ̄] | not Austronesian |
| dog (2) | e-ʔayedi | not Austronesian |
| sun | — |
Yoder (2010) reports the numeral system, though most people now use Malay numerals when speaking Enggano:
| Lexeme | Enggano |
|---|---|
| 1 | kahaiʔ |
| 2 | ʔaru |
| 3 | ʔakər |
| 4 | ʔaup |
| 5 | ʔarib |
| 6 | ʔakiʔakin |
| 7 | ʔarib he ʔaru |
| 8 | kĩpãʔĩõp, ʔãpãʔĩõp |
| 9 | kaba kahaiʔ |
| 10 | kĩpãʔãũ |
| 20 | kahaiʔ kak |
2–5 appear to be Austronesian, and possibly 1, if ka- is a prefix: Cf. -hai, -ru, -kər, -up, -rib with Lampung
Lampung language
Lampung Api commonly known as Lampung is the name of an ethnic group and its language that is spoken in the Indonesian province of Lampung in south Sumatra...
say, rua, təlu (*t, *l have shifted to /k/, /l/ in Enggano), pat, lima.
Numbers above 10 and 20 are formed with -p he ~ hi 'and': /kĩpãʔãũp heʔ aru/ 'ten and two' for 12, /kahaiʔ kak he kĩpãʔãũp/ 'twenty and ten' for 30. /kak/ is 'person', so twenty is 'one person'. Multiples of twenty are formed from kak, as in /ʔakər kak he kĩpãʔãũp/ 70, /ʔarib kak/ 100 (also /kahaiʔ ratuh/ from Malay ratus).
/ʔakiʔakin/ 6 may be reduplication of /ʔakər/ 3. /ʔarib he ʔaru/ 7 is 'five and two'. The two forms for 8 mean 'hugging', from the verb /pãʔĩõp/ 'to hug'. The full for of 9, 'eight and one coming', was only elicited in compounds, with 19 attested as /kĩpãʔãũp he ʔãpãʔĩõp ʔabai kahaʔ/ and 29 as /kahaiʔ kak he kĩpãʔĩõp kabai kahaiʔ/, from ka-ba 'to come'. 10 may also be a verb, based on /ʔãũp/, as ki-pa- are verbal prefixes (as in ki-pa-pe 'to give').