| Alor Malay | |
|---|---|
| Melayu Alor | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Alor Archipelago |
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | alor1252 |
Alor Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Alor archipelagoofIndonesia. Speakers perceive Alor Malay to be a different register of standard Indonesian, but both of these are prestige varieties of the archipelago. Many people are able to understand standard Indonesian, but cannot speak it fluently and choose to use Alor Malay on a daily basis.[1]
Alor Malay is based on Kupang Malay; however, Alor Malay differs significantly from Kupang Malay, especially in its pronouns.[2] Before Alor Malay became lingua franca, Alorese language served as a lingua franca in the Alor-Pantar archipelago before Malay began to be widely used.[3]
Alor Malay is an isolating language. Verbs are not morphologically marked for tense or aspect. The only productive nominal morphology is full reduplication. Nominal reduplication indicates plurality, collectivity, and diversity. Full reduplication of the verb can express intensity, iterativity, and casualness, among other concepts.[4]
Nominal Reduplication
ana~ana
child~child
dong[5]
PL
ana~ana dong[5]
child~child PL
'children'
daun~daun[5]
leaf~leaf
daun~daun[5]
leaf~leaf
'all sorts of leaves'
Verbal Reduplication
Wa
EXCL
ada
PROG
bergerak~bergerak
move~move
la![6]
EMPH
Wa ada bergerak~bergerak la![6]
EXCL PROG move~move EMPH
'Wa...he keeps on moving!'
Dia
3SG
ada
PROG
sengaja
deliberately
foto~foto
take.photo~take.photo
orang
person
tu.[6]
DEM
Dia ada sengaja foto~foto orang tu.[6]
3SG PROG deliberately take.photo~take.photo person DEM
'He is deliberately taking many photos of them over and over again.'
The typical word order in Alor Malay is Agent Verb Patient. Alor Malay uses serial verb constructions such as bawa datang ‘bring (lit. bring come)’ and kasi jatu ‘drop (lit. give fall)’. There are also temporal and aspectual adverbs. The verbal negation marker precedes the verb, as in dia tida omong ‘he does not speak’. Possessed items are preceded by their possessors. Demonstratives typically precede their nouns.[4]
Possession
George
George
pung
POSS
bahu[5]
shoulder
George pung bahu[5]
George POSS shoulder
'George's shoulder'
dia
3.AGT
pung
POSS
tangan[5]
hand
dia pung tangan[5]
3.AGT POSS hand
'her hands'
Negation
Saya
1SG
tida
NEG
punya
have
apa~apa
what~what
untuk
for
kamu.[7]
2PL
Saya tida punya apa~apa untuk kamu.[7]
1SG NEG have what~what for 2PL
'I don’t have anything for you (pl.).'
Laki-laki
man
satu
one
jalan
walk
datang
come
ni-yang
DEM-REL
dia
3SG
tidak
NEG
lihat
visually.perceive
pisang.[8]
banana
Laki-laki satu jalan datang ni-yang dia tidak lihat pisang.[8]
man one walk come DEM-REL 3SG NEG visually.perceive banana
'As a man passes along, he does not see the banana.'
Serial Verb Construction
Simon
Simon
kasi
give
bangun
get.up
Ata
Ata
ko
LK
duduk.[9]
sit
Simon kasi bangun Ata ko duduk.[9]
Simon give get.up Ata LK sit
'Simon lifts Ata up and then sits.'
