Malayic languages

Malayic
Geographic
distribution
Maritime Southeast Asia
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Proto-languageProto-Malayic
Subdivisions
  • (disputed)
Glottologmala1538
Historical distribution of the Malayic languages in Maritime Southeast Asia (including Malay-based creoles):
 The Ibanic and Western Malayic Dayak (Kanayatn/Kendayan-Salako) subgroups, also known collectively as "Malayic Dayak".
 Other Malayic varieties; genetic relationships between them are still unclear.

The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian language family. The most prominent member is Malay, which is the national language of Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia, and is the basis for Indonesian, the national language of Indonesia. The Malayic branch also includes the local languages spoken by ethnic Malays (e.g. Jambi Malay, Kedah Malay), further several languages spoken by various other ethnic groups of Sumatra, Indonesia (e.g. Minangkabau) and Borneo (e.g. Banjarese, Iban). The most probable candidate for the urheimat of the Malayic languages is western Borneo.

History

The term "Malayic" was first coined by Dyen (1965) in his lexicostatistical classification of the Austronesian languages. Dyen's "Malayic hesion" had a wider scope than the Malayic subgroup in its currently accepted form, and also included Acehnese, Lampung and Madurese. Nothofer (1988) narrowed down the range of Malayic, but included the non-Malayic languages Rejang and Embaloh:

The present scope of the Malayic subgroup, which is now universally accepted by experts in the field, was first proposed by K.A. Adelaar (1992, 1993), based on phonological, morphological and lexical evidence.

Languages

Malayic languages are spoken on Borneo, Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, Java and on several islands located in the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

Borneo
Malay Peninsula
Sumatra
Java
South China Sea/Strait of Malacca
Maluku

Subgrouping

Internal classification

While there is general consensus about which languages can be classified as Malayic, the internal subgrouping of the Malayic languages is still disputed.

Adelaar (1993)

Adelaar (1993) classifies the Malayic languages as follows.

Ross (2004)

Based on grammatical evidence, Ross (2004) divides the Malayic languages into two primary branches:

  • Malayic
    • Western Malayic Dayak (Kendayan, Salako)
    • Nuclear Malayic (all other lects)

This classification is mirrored in the Glottolog (Version 3.4).

Anderbeck (2012)

Following Tadmor (2002), Anderbeck (2012) makes a distinction between Malay and Malayic in his discussion about the dialects of the Sea Tribes in Riau Archipelago. He tentatively classifies all Malayic languages as belonging to a "Malay" subgroup, except Ibanic, Kendayan/Selako, Keninjal, Malayic Dayak (or "Dayak Malayic") and the "fairly divergent varieties" of Urak Lawoi' and Duano.

  • Malayic
    • Ibanic
    • Kendayan/Selako
    • Keninjal
    • Malayic Dayak
    • Urak Lawoi'
    • Duano
    • Malay (including all other Malayic varieties)

Anderbeck's classification has been adopted in the 17th edition of the Ethnologue, with the sole exception of Duano, which is listed in the Ethnologue among the "Malay" languages.

Smith (2017)

In his dissertation on the languages of Borneo, Smith (2017) provides evidence for a subgroup comprising Malayic isolects in western Borneo and southern Sumatra, which he labels "West Bornean Malayic". However, he leaves other isolects unclassified.

Position within Austronesian

The inclusion of the Malayic languages within the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup is undisputed, and there is general consensus that the Chamic languages are closely related to Malayic. The wider affiliations of the Malayic languages are however controversial. There are two major proposals: Adelaar (2005) places Malayic within the Malayo-Sumbawan subgroup, which comprises the following languages:

Blust (2010) and Smith (2017) assign Malayic to the Greater North Borneo subgroup:

The Malayo-Sumbawan hypothesis is mainly based on phonological evidence with a few shared lexical innovations, while the Greater North Borneo hypothesis is based on a large corpus of lexical evidence.

Proto-Malayic

Proto-Malayic
Reconstruction ofMalayic languages
Reconstructed
ancestors

Phonology

Proto-Malayic has a total of 19 consonants and 4 vowels.

Proto-Malayic Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive Voiceless *p *t *c *k
Voiced *b *d
Nasal *m *n
Fricative *s *h
Liquid *l *r
Approximant *w *j
Proto-Malayic Vowels
Height Front Central Back
Close *i *u
Mid
Open *a

There are 2 diphthongs:

  • *-ay
  • *-aw

Word structure

Proto-Malayic lexemes are mostly disyllabic, though some have one, three, or four syllables. Lexemes have the following syllable structure:

* [C V (N)] [C V (N)] [C V (N)] C V C 

Note: C = consonant, V = vowel, N = nasal

Phonological changes

Here are the phonological changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian to Proto-Malayic.

  • *-əy, *-iw, *-uy > *-i; *-əw > *-u.
  • *z > *j, *-D-, *-j- > *-d-.
  • Final-obstruent devoicing of *-b, *-d, and *-g to *-p, *-t, *-k, except in the case of *-D > *-r.
  • *-ə- before *-h > *-a-, e.g. *tanəq > *tanəh > *tanah "land". Before other consonants, Proto-Malayic preserved PMP *ə in final closed syllables (e.g. *daləm "inside"). This schwa is retained in Betawi, Bangka Malay and Palembang Malay, but was merged with *-a- elsewhere.
  • *w- > *∅-.
  • *q > *h, *h > *∅.
  • *R > *r.
  • C¹C² (with the first consonant is non-nasal) becomes in reduplications (affixes escaped this sound change).
  • C¹C² (with the first consonant is heterorganic nasal) is changed to homorganic, e.g. *DəmDəm to *dəndəm.

This page was last updated at 2024-02-19 04:19 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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