Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Historical Linguistics
Vol. 9:2 (2019) ► pp.177–207

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The radically isolating languages of Flores

A challenge to diachronic theory

 | Columbia University
Published online: 29 October 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.16021.mcw
Abstract
The languages of central Flores are all but devoid of affixation, despite that this is hardly typical of the Austronesian languages of their family, including closely related languages elsewhere on the island and nearby ones. A traditional approach to these central Flores languages’ typology is to ascribe their analyticity to grammar-internal drift, under which the disappearance of this affixal battery was due merely to fortuitous matters of stress, analogy, reanalysis, etc. Here I argue that a great deal of evidence suggests that these languages actually underwent heavy second-language acquisition by adults at some point in the relatively recent past, most likely by male invaders from a different island. The evidence includes phenomena familiar from recent developments in creolization theory, as well as a cross-linguistic approach to analyticity and its causes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: The problem
    • 1.1Austronesian is affixal
    • 1.2Anomaly in Flores
  • 2.Proposal
  • 3.The insufficiency of a “drift” account
    • 3.1“Drift” into affixal impoverishment is not a cross-linguistic or areal tendency
    • 3.2Syntheticity as a norm
    • 3.3Radically isolating versus moderately so
    • 3.4“Contact” alone?
  • 4.Indication One: Elimination of contextual rather than inherent morphology
  • 5.Indication Two: Drift leaves footprints
  • 6.Indication Three: Phonotactics
  • 7.Indication Four: Clinality
    • 7.1The data
    • 7.2Implications
  • 8.Summary of argumentation
  • 9.Who were the adults?
    • 9.1Invaders from Sulawesi
    • 9.2 Homo floresiensis
  • 10.Final question: If isolating typology is unnatural, why have the languages remained isolating?
  • 11.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (85)
References
Arka, I Wayan. 2006. Personal Communication.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Creole Genesis and Extreme Analyticity in Flores Languages. Paper presented at the East Nusantara conference, August 6–8, 2007, Kupang Indonesia.
. 2011. A Rongga-English Dictionary with English-Rongga Wordlist. Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Atma Jaya.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Bahasa Rongga: Deskripsi, Tipologi, dan Teori. Jakarta: Penerbit Universitas Atma Jaya.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Arndt, Paul. 1933. Grammatik der Ngad’a Sprache. Bandoeng: A. C. Nix. (=Verhandelingen: Koninklijk Bataviaasche Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen dl. 72 stuk 3)Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baird, Louise. 2002. A Grammar of Kéo: A Language of East Nusantara. Australian National University PhD dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauer, Winifred. 1993. Maori. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bellwood, Peter. 1995. Austronesian Prehistory in Southeast Asia: Homeland, Expansion and Transformation. In Bellwood, Peter, James L. Fox & Darrell Tryon, eds., 96–111.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blust, Robert. 2008. Is there a Bima-Sumba subgroup? Oceanic Linguistics 47.1:45–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 1993. Against Split Morphology. Yearbook of Morphology 1993 ed. by Geert Booij & Jaap van Marle, 27–49. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1992. Before Complexity. The Evolution of Human Languages: Proceedings of the Workshop on the Evolution of Human Languages, Held August, 1989 in Santa Fe, New Mexico ed. by John A. Hawkins & Murray Gell-Mann, 193–211 (=Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of Complexity 11). Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Crowley, Terry. 2000. Simplicity, Complexity, Emblematicity and Grammatical Change. Processes of Language Contact: Studies from Australia and the South Pacific ed. by Jeff Siegel, 175–193. Quebec: AGMV Marquis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Dardel, Robert & Jakob Wüest. 1993. Les systèmes casuels du protoroman: Les deux cycles de simplification. Vox Romanica 521.25–65.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donohue, Mark. 1999. A Grammar of Tukang Besi. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Flores Languages. Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World ed. by Keith Brown & Sarah Ogilvie, 420–421. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donohue, Mark & Tim Denham. To appear. Becoming Austronesian: Mechanisms of Language Dispersal across Southern Island Southeast Asia. Austronesian Undressed: How and Why Languages Become Isolating ed. by David Gil & Antoinette Schapper. Berlin: DeGruyter.
Erb, Maribeth. 1999. The Manggarais. Singapore: Times Editions.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forth, Gregory. 1998. Beneath the Volcano. Leiden: KITLV.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Images of the Wildman in Southeast Asia. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, James J. & Charles E. Grimes. 1995. Roti. In Darrell T. Tryon, ed., 611–622.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fricke, Hanna. 2013. Topics in the Grammar of Hewa. Leiden University Master’s thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gasser, Emily. 2014. Subgrouping in Nusa Tenggara: The Case of Bima-Sumba. Measured Language: Quantitative Studies of Acquisition, Assessment, and Variation ed. by Jeffrey Connor-Linton & Luke Wander Amoroso, 63–78. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Good, Jeff. 2012. How to Become a “Kwa” noun. Morphology 221.293–335. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goyette, Stéphane. 2000. From Latin to Early Romance: A Case of Partial Creolization? Language Change and Language Contact in Pidgins and Creoles ed. by John H. McWhorter, 103–131. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grijns, Cornelis D. 1991. Jakarta Malay: A Multidimensional Approach to Spatial Variation. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hakulinen, Lauri. 1961. The Structure and Development of the Finnish Language. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hansson, Inga-Lill. 2003. Akha. In Randy LaPolla & Graham Thurgood, eds., 236–251.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. & Lyle Campbell. 1995. Historical Syntax in Cross-linguistic Perspective. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin, Matthew Dryer, David Gil & Bernard Comrie, eds. 2005. World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1979. Some Linguistic Characteristics of African-based Pidgins. Readings in Creole Studies ed. by Ian F. Hancock, 89–99. Ghent: E. Story-Scientia. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2005. The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar: Typological Characteristics. The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar ed. by Alexander Adelaar & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, 110–181. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hodge, Carleton. 1970. The Linguistic Cycle. Language Sciences 131.1–7. [Reprinted in Afroasiatic Linguistics, Semitics, and Egyptology: Selected Writings of Carleton T. Hodge ed. by Scott Noegel & Alan S. Kaye, 1–17. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2004.]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hull, Geoffrey. 1998. The Basic Lexical Affinities of Timor’s Austronesian Languages: A Preliminary Investigation. Studies in the Languages and Cultures of East Timor 11.97–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Standard Tetum-English Dictionary. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. A morphological overview of the Timoric Sprachbund. Studies in Languages and Cultures of East Timor 41.98–205.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kautzsch, Alexander & Edgar W. Schneider. 2000. Differential Creolization: Some Evidence from Earlier African American Vernacular English in South Carolina. Degrees of Restructuring in Creole Languages ed. by Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh & Edgar W. Schneider, 247–274. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Keesing, Roger M. 1985. Kwaio Grammar. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kihm, Alain. 2003. Inflectional Categories in Creole Languages. Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languages ed. by Ingo Plag, 333–363. Tübingen: Niemeyer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klamer, Marian. 1998. A Grammar of Kambera. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Typical Features of Austronesian Languages in Central/Eastern Indonesia. Oceanic Linguistics 411.363–383. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Papuan-Austronesian Language Contact: Alorese from an Areal Perspective. Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century ed. by Nicholas Evans and Marian Klamer, 72–108. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kusters, Wouter. 2003. Linguistic Complexity: The Influence of Social Change on Verbal Inflection. Utrecht: Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lansing, J. S., M. P. Cox, S. S. Downey et al., 2007. Coevolution of Languages and Genes on the Island of Sumba, Eastern Indonesia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 1051.11645–11650. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
LaPolla, Randy & Graham Thurgood, eds. 2003. The Sino-Tibetan Languages. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lewis, E. D. & Charles E. Grimes. 1995. Sika. In Darrell T. Tryon, ed., 601–609.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luís, Ana R. 2009. The Loss and Survival of Inflectional Morphology: Contextual vs. Inherent Inflection in Creoles. Romance Linguistics 2009, ed. by Sonia Colina, Antxon Olarrea & Ana Carvalho, 323–336. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 2003. Lahu. In Randy LaPolla & Graham Thurgood, eds., 208–235.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matras, Yaron. 2009. Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonnell, Bradley J. 2006. Possessive Structures in Ende: A Language of Eastern Indonesia. Paper presented at Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics, January 2006. Puerto Princesa City, Philippines.
McWhorter, John H. 2002. What happened to English? Diachronica 191.217–272. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2007. Language Interrupted: Signs of Non-native Acquisition in Standard Language Grammars. New York: Oxford. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011b. Affixless in Austronesian. Linguistic Simplicity and Complexity: Why do Languages Undress? ed. by John H. McWhorter, 223–260. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2012. Case Closed? Testing the Feature Pool Hypothesis. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 271.171–182. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2013. It Isn’t Over: Why it Matters Whether there is a Such Thing as a Creole. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 281.409–223. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mona, Stefano, et al. 2009. Genetic Admixture History of Eastern Indonesia as Revealed by Y-chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA analysis. Molecular Biology and Evolution 261.1865–1877. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1997. Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (expanded and revised edition). London: University of Westminster.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mukarovsky, Hans Günter. 1977. A Study of Western Nigritic (Vol. I). Vienna: Institut für Ägyptologie und Afrikanistik der Universität Wien.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, Johanna. 1992. “Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time”. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nishiyama, Kunio & Herman Kelen. 2007. “A Grammar of Lamaholot, Eastern Indonesia: The Morphology and Syntax of the Lewoingu Dialect”. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Plag, Ingo. 2008. Creoles as Interlanguages: Inflectional Morphology. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 231.114–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poppe, Nicholas. 1965. Introduction to Altaic Linguistics. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Prentice, D. J. 1987. Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian). In Bernard Comrie, ed., 913–935.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reid, Nicholas. 2003. Phrasal Verb to Synthetic Verb: Recorded Morphosyntactic Change in Ngan’gityemerri. Studies in Comparative Non-Pama Nyungan ed. by Nicholas Evans, 95–123. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reintjes, Chris H. & Alain Kihm. 2013. L’égyptien ancien: 6000 ans d’histoire. Dossier pour la science 801: 90–96.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Roberts, Sarah J. & Joan Bresnan. 2008. Retained Inflectional Morphology in Pidgins: A Typological Study. Linguistic Typology 121.269–302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosen, Joan M. 1983. Rembong and Wangka: A Brief Comparison of Two Dialects. Miscellaneous Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia, Part VII ed. by John W. M. Verhaar, 50–68. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri NUSA & Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, Paul. 1987. Tagalog. In Bernard Comrie, ed., 936–958.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steinhauer, Hein. 1993. Notes on Verbs in Dawanese (Timor). Topics in Descriptive Austronesian Linguistics ed. by Ger P. Reesink, 130–158. Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azië en Oceanië.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tchekhoff, C. 1979. From Ergative to Accusative in Tongan: An Example of Synchronic Dynamics. Ergativity: Towards a Theory of Grammatical Relations ed. by Frans Plank, ed., 407–480. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey & Terence Kaufman. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomaz, Luis Felípe. 2002. Babel Loro Sa’e: O problema linguístico de Timor-Leste. Lisboa: Instituto Camões.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thurgood, Graham. 1999. From Ancient Cham to Modern Dialects: 2000 Years of Language Contact and Change. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thurston, William R. 1987. Processes of Change in the Languages of Northwestern New Britain. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 2011. Sociolinguistic Typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tryon, Darrell T., ed. 1995. Comparative Austronesian Dictionary, Part I, Fascicle I. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Bekkum, W. 1944. Warloka-Todo-Pongkor: Een Brok Geschiedenis van Manggarai (West-Flores). Cultureel Indië 61.144–152.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van den Berg, René. 1989. A Grammar of the Muna Language. Foris: Dordrecht-Holland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Engelenhoven, Aone. 2003. Language Endangerment in Indonesia. Language Death and Language Maintenance: Theoretical, Practical and Descriptive Approaches ed. by Mark Janse & Sijmen Tol, 49–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2004. Leti: a Language of Southwest Maluku. Leiden: KITLV Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Verheijen, J. A. J. & Charles E. Grimes. 1995. Manggarai. In Darrell T. Tryon, ed., 585–592.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wouk, Fay. 2000. Voice in the Languages of Nusa Tenggara Barat. The History and Typology of Western Austronesian Voice Systems ed. by Fay Wouk & Malcolm Ross, 285–309. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wray, Alison & George W. Grace. 2007. The Consequences of Talking to Strangers: Evolutionary Corollaries of Socio-cultural Influences on Linguistics Form. Lingua 1171.543–578. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Elias, Alexander
2020. Are the Central Flores languages really typologically unusual?. In Austronesian Undressed [Typological Studies in Language, 129], ► pp. 287 ff. DOI logo
McWhorter, John
2020. Concluding reflections. In Austronesian Undressed [Typological Studies in Language, 129], ► pp. 483 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue