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In:Austronesian Undressed: How and why languages become isolating
Edited by David Gil and Antoinette Schapper
[Typological Studies in Language 129] 2020
► pp. 391–446

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Chapter 9
The origins of isolating word structure in eastern Timor

 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam / Lacito-CNRS
Published online: 21 October 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.129.09sch
Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of isolating word structure and its origins in the Austronesian and Papuan languages of eastern Timor. McWhorter (2007) claims that both groups of languages evidence extensive loss of grammatical complexity as a result of “interrupted transmission” due to significant non-native acquisition. I refute McWhorter’s assertion that the eastern Timor languages are not “normal” through a detailed exposition of their morphological complexities. Whilst recognising that they are isolating leaning, I argue that there is nothing “unnatural” about the grammars of these languages and that phonological changes within the Timorese Sprachbund provide sufficient explanation of their morphological profiles.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.McWhorter’s complexity
  • 3.McWhorter’s explanation of isolating word structure in Timor languages
  • 4.Austronesian languages in Timor
    • 4.1Verbal agreement prefixes
    • 4.2Derivational prefixes and associated complexification
    • 4.3Possessive morphology and possessive classes
    • 4.4Synchronic metathesis
    • 4.5Numeral agreement
  • 5.Papuan languages of Timor
    • 5.1Person agreement prefixes
    • 5.2Animacy and agreement
    • 5.3Locative and applicative prefixes
    • 5.4Initial verb root mutations
    • 5.5Derivational suffixal morphology
    • 5.6Morphological and suppletive number marking
  • 6.The comparative picture of complexity in the languages of Timor and surrounds
  • 7.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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