1st Edition

The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar

Edited By Alexander Adelaar, Nikolaus Himmelmann Copyright 2005
    864 Pages
    by Routledge

    864 Pages
    by Routledge

    Some 800 Austronesian languages are spoken in the area extending from Madagascar to eastern Indonesia and to the north to Taiwan and the Philippines. They vary greatly in almost every possible respect, including the size and social make-up of the speech communities and their typological profiles. This book is designed to serve as a reference work and in-depth introduction to these languages, providing a source of basic information for linguists and other professionals concerned with this area. It highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of this group of languages while at the same time keeping track of their common heritage.

    Five introductory articles on linguistic history, language politics, language endangerment, ritual speech and special registers, and major typological features have the entire area in their scope and provide a balanced and up-to-date discussion of the major issues. The core of the volume consists of grammatical sketches of twenty languages plus three chapters dealing with different aspects of Malay (Old Malay, Malayic varieties and Colloquial Indonesian), representing a good cross-section of the linguistic diversity found in the area.

    1. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: A historical perspective - K. Alexander Adelaar

    2. Language shift and endangerment - Margaret Florey

    3. Colonial history and language policy in Insular Southeast Asia and Madagascar - Hein Steinhauer

    4. Ritual languages, special registers and speech decorum in Austronesian languages - James J. Fox

    5. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: Typological characteristics - Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

    6. Old Malay - Waruno Mahdi

    7. Structural Diversity in the Malayic subgroup - K. Alexander Adelaar

    8. Colloquial Indonesian - Michael C. Ewing

    9. Tsou - Elizabeth Zeitoun

    10. Seediq - Naomi Tsukida

    11. IIoko - Carl Rubino

    12. Tagalog - Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

    13. Sama (Bajau) - Jun Akamine

    14. Kimaragang - Paul Kroeger

    15. Belait - Adrian Clynes

    16. Malagasy - Janie Rasoloson & Carl Rubino

    17. Phan Rang Cham - Graham Thurgood

    18. Moken and Moklen - Michael D. Larish

    19. Karo Batak - Geoff Woollams

    20. Nias - Lea Brown

    21. Javanese - Alexander K. Ogloblin

    22. Buol - Erik Zobel

    23. Makassar - Anthony Jukes

    24. Mori Bawah - David Mead

    25. Kambera - Marian Klamer

    26. Tetun and Leti - Aone van Engelenhoven & Catharina Williams-van Klinken

    27. Taba - John Bowden

    28. Biak - Hein Steinhauer

    Biography

    Alexander Adelaar is Associate Professor and Reader in Indonesian at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His main publications are on Austronesian historical and descriptive linguistics, especially Malay varieties, Malagasy, languages of West Borneo and Siraya (Taiwan). Nikolaus P. Himmelmann was previously Professor and Chair at the Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat, Germany. He has done fieldwork in the Philippines (Tagalog), Sulawesi (Tomini-Tolitoli languages) and East Timor (Waima'a) and published widely on a number of core issues in Austronesian grammar, including the nature of lexical and syntactic categories and voice.