APLL8 Saad slides

Coming of Age: Diagnosing contact-induced change in Abui-

Malay Bilinguals

George Saad (Leiden University)

13-5-2016SOAS, London

Outline

○ Background○ Aims of talk○ Methodology○ Language Socialization○ 2 varieties in contact○ Outcomes of Contact□Semantic transfer○Future Plans○Conclusions

BackgroundDemographics, Linguistic Profile, Sociolinguistic Situation

Abui

Map

Sources: Ross (2013), Schapper (2014)

The Abui People

Demographics

Abui is a Papuan (non-Austronesian) language spoken on the island of Alor in Eastern IndonesiaPart of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family (Holton et al. 2012; Klamer 2014)

Speakers• 17,000 (Kratochvil 2007)• Largest linguistic group in

Alor & Pantar• 7 main dialect groups

(Delpada p.c.)• Fieldwork conducted in

village of Takalelang (around 500 inhabitants)

○ Founded in the 1950s & 60s when inhabitants of mountain villages speaking a similar variety migrated to the coast.

○ close to coastal highway○ Heavy contact with local

Malay & Standard Indonesian

○ Different levels of bilingualism in community: Young speakers are more dominant in Malay, whereas older speakers (35+) are more dominant in Abui

Fieldsite: Takalelang

“While it is still possible that many of the small indigenous languages from eastern Indonesia will continue to be used

well into the next century and beyond, it seems that virtually all of thsese langauges will undergo dramatic

changes in the direction of Malay. Although there may not be any language death in any sense that indigenous

communities would recognize as such, there is undoubtedly going to be a great reduction in the typological variety of

languages found in the region. Although language death is not very widespread in eastern Indonesia, typological death

is advancing at some speed”.- Bowden (2002)

○ Outline the social factors responsible for the varying levels of bilingualism.

○ Examine linguistic variation in Abui lexical semantics across age-groups.

Aims of the talk

MethodologyData Collection

Data Collection

YellowIs the color of gold, butter and ripe lemons. In the spectrum of visible light, yellow is found between green and orange.

~3,5 months of fieldwork across 2 years.Recordings- Surrey Stimuli (Fedden & Brown

2014): elicitation task involving ~45 participants (aged 9-59)

- Sociolinguistic interviews with speakers, parents, headmasters, teachers.

Language SocializationTakalelang: 1970-present

Alor Malay L1: New GenerationBorn roughly after the 1980s

Present day speech community

Abui L1: Old generation: born roughly before the 1980s

Accounting for the shift: Crucial points

1980-1995• School attendance rose due to government

pressure• A new primary school opened up in the area:

SD Lembur Barat• Teachers were becoming increasingly strict

with regards to enforcing Indonesian or Malay (MI)

Children would get beaten and told they would be stupid if they wouldn’t speak MI Children would report eachother for

speaking Abui Ranking systems were introduced for those that spoke MI

Teachers would urge parents to raise their kids in MI (this happened at parent-teacher meetings, at home and also at church)• By the time kids who went to school during

this period had children of their own, they were convinced it was best to raise kids in Malay

1995 – present • Virtually all the children in primary

school speak Malay to eachother

Speech Community

Old Generation: Abui L1

-Adults (age 35+) Bilingual Abui/MalayLearned Malay after age going to school ( onset between age 6-12)

-Adults (70+) monolingual

Speech Community

Age 0 – 15: Children being

spoken to mostly in Alor

Malay – passive

knowledge of Abui

Age 16-24:Many young

Adults speaking Malay flavoured

Abui + Malay

Age 16

Increase in Abui input & output

Old Generation: Abui L1

New GenerationAlor Malay L1 Abui L2

-Adults (age 35+) Bilingual Abui/MalayLearned Malay after age going to school ( onset between age 6-12)

-Adults (70+) monolingual

Speech Community

Age 0 – 15: Children being

spoken to mostly in Alor

Malay – passive

knowledge of Abui

Age 16-24:Many young

Adults speaking Malay flavoured

Abui + Malay

Age 16

Increase in Abui input & output

Old Generation: Abui L1

New GenerationAlor Malay L1 Abui L2

-Adults (age 35+) Bilingual Abui/MalayLearned Malay after age going to school ( onset between age 6-12)

Age 25-34:The older people

get, the more they

communicate with elders in

Abui

Age 25

People typically get

married, make active

efforts to integrate

into community

-Adults (70+) monolingual

The 2 varieties in contactAbui & Alor Malay

Alor Malay

• Lingua franca of Alor & Pantar• Pidgin-Derived Malay variety

descendent from Bazaar Malay (in the sense of Adelaar & Prentice 1996)

• Probably introduced by the Dutch administration in the 1900s

• Little knowledge of Malay in highland villages in the 40’s (Du Bois 1960)

• Many children today are being brought up as Alor Malay L1 speakers

(Baird et al, in prep)

Abui• SOV word order• Inalienable vs alienable

possession• Agglutinating• Serial verb constructions• Complex argument

marking based on semantic alignment (Donohue & Wichmann 2008)

Linguistic Profiles

Alor Malay• SVO word order• No distinction in

possession• Highly isolating• Serial verb constructions• Agent obligatory,

undergoer optional

Topics in focus

Lexical semantics Abui Malay

‘to wake

someone up’

‘to fall’

Haruida vs hateina

Del ong hayei vs Dakai, dakuoili

Kasi bangun

Jatu

Potential Outcomes of contactWork in progress…

Areas Affected by contact

○Morpho-syntax:□Neutralization of 3rd person reflexive

possessive□Imperfective Aspect (?)○Semantics□Neutralization of lexical distinctions□Reduplication○Phonology□Pitch accent

Areas Affected by contact

○Morpho-syntax:□ Neutralization of 3rd person reflexive possessive□ Imperfective Aspect (?)

○Semantics□Neutralization of lexical distinctions

□Reduplication

○Phonology□ Pitch accent

Semantic Transfer

Breakdown of participants

Age groupParticipants

Male Female Total

Children (age 9-15) 5 7 12

Young Adults (age 16-24) 7 7 14

Adults (age 25-34) 7 6 13

L1 Adults (age 35+) 3 3 6Total

22 23 45

○Surrey stimuli:□Evaluation of two verbs: ‘to fall’ & ‘to wake someone up’

Semantic Transfer effects

○ Semantic transfer in bilinguals (Jarvis & Pavlenko 2008)

○The verb ‘to wake someone up’

Haruida ‘erect

something/someone, cause someone to

get out of bed’

Abui

Hateina ‘cause

someone to wake up, but

remain in same position’

Semantic Transfer effects

○The verb ‘to wake someone up’

Haruida ‘erect

something/someone, cause someone to

get out of bed’

Abui

Hateina ‘cause

someone to wake up, but

remain in same position’

Kasi bangun CAUS get.up

‘wake someone up’

Alor Malay

Semantic Transfer effects

○The verb ‘to wake someone up’

Ha-rui-da ‘erect something/someo

ne, cause someone to get

out of bed’

AbuiHateina ‘cause

someone to wake up, but remain in

same position’

Kasi bangun CAUS get.up ‘wake someone up’

Alor Malay

‘To wake someone up’

Age group Verb root

*ha-rui-d-a

ha-tein-a other Total

Children (age 9-15)10 2 0 12

Young Adults (age 16-24) 7 6 1 14

Adults (age 25-35)1 12 0 13

L1 Adults 0 5 1 6

total 18 25 2 45

Examples Transfer effects

○The verb ‘to fall’

Hayei ‘fall away from deictic centre (Kratochvil 2007), fall from above’

Abui

Dakai ‘fall towards deictic

centre (Kratochvil 2007)

Dakoili ‘throw oneself down,

stumble’ (Kratochvil 2007)

Examples Transfer effects

○The verb ‘to fall’

Hayei ‘fall away from deictic centre (Kratochvil 2007), fall from above’

Abui

Dakai ‘fall towards deictic

centre (Kratochvil 2007)

Dakoili ‘throw oneself down,

stumble’ (Kratochvil 2007)

Jatu ‘fall from above, fall down,

fall off’ Alor Malay

Transfer effects

○The verb ‘to fall’

Hayei ‘fall away from deictic centre (Kratochvil 2007), fall from above’

AbuiDakai ‘fall towards

deictic centre (Kratochvil 2007)

Dakoili ‘throw oneself down,

stumble’ (Kratochvil 2007)

Jatu ‘fall from above, fall down,

fall off’ Alor Malay

Hayei vs other verbs

Age groupVerb root

*hayei Dakoili/ dakai Total

Children (age 9-15) 10 2 12

Young Adults (age 16-24) 14 0 14

Adults (age 25-34) 9 4 13

L1 Adults (age 35+) 0 6 6

Total 33 12 45

Discussion

Age groupharuida hatein

a Verdict

Children (age 9-15)10 2 Clear preference for

Malay calqueYoung Adults (age

16-24) 7 6 No clear preference

Adults (age 25-35)1 12 Clear preference for

correct form

DiscussionAge group

haruida hateina Verdict

Children (age 9-15)10 2 Clear preference for

Malay calqueYoung Adults (age

16-24) 7 6 No clear preference

Adults (age 25-35)1 12 Clear preference for

correct form

Age grouphayei Dakoili/

dakai Verdict

Children (age 9-15)10 2 Clear preference for

hayeiYoung Adults (age

16-24) 14 0 Clear preference for hayei

Adults (age 25-35)9 4 Clear preference for

hayei

Future work○ Increase the number of lexical items

○ Comprehension: Forced choice task □ semantic transfer □ pronomial prefixes □ reflexive possessive marker □ imperfective marking

○Spontaneous speech□Code-switching

○ Compare semantic transfer effects to other areas of grammar like pronomial marking, aspect marking, reduplication and 3rd person reflexive possession.

Conclusions

○ Widespread bilingualism of varying levels in Takalelang due to pressure from school teachers

○ Semantic variation: □ Verb ‘to wake up’: Eldest Malay L1 group (age 25-34)

seems to catch up and pattern like L1 speakers

□ Verb ‘to fall’: All Malay L1 groups seem to have a preference for generic form.

References

Adelaar, K. A., & Prentice, D. J. (1996). Malay: Its history, role and spread.Atlas of languages of intercultural communication

in the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, 2, 1.Bowden, J. (2002). The Impact of Malay on Taba: A type of incipient

language death or incipient death of a language type? (M. Bradley, Ed.). In D. Bradley (Ed.), Language Endangerment and Language Maintenance: An Active Approach (pp. 114-143). London and New York: Routledge.Donohue, M., & Wichmann, S. (Eds.). (2008). The typology of semantic alignment. OUP Oxford.Kratochvíl, F. (2007). A grammar of Abui: A Papuan language of

Alor(Doctoral dissertation, External Organizations).Jarvis, S., & Pavlenko, A. (2008). Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. Routledge.Du Bois, C.A. (1960). The people of Alor; a social-psychological study of an East Indian island. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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