LING345

Y. Otsuka

Classification

II. Austronesian family

Polynesian is a small subgroup of the language family called Austronesian (originally called Malayo-Polynesian). Austronesian family is the largest language family in the world, consisting of more than 900 languages. The Austronesian-speaking area includes the islands of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines, and Taiwan, as well as continental enclaves in Indochina and the Malay Peninsula.

1. Subgrouping

Subgrouping of the Austronesian family is a matter of continuing debate. As far as the Polynesian family is concerned, the following subgrouping is generally accepted. (Only the subgrouping that directly involves Polynesian is shown.)

Proto-Austronesian (PAn)

[Indonesia Proto-Oceanic

Philippines

Taiwan

Madagascar [New Guinea Proto-Central Pacific

Southeast Asia] Bismarck Archipelago

Solomon Islands

Southern New Hebrides

Loyalty Islands

New Caledonia

North and Central New Hebrides Fijian Proto-Polynesian

Rotuma

(From Clark 1979:255)

1.1 Oceanic

The Oceanic subgroup includes almost all the Austronesian languages of the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian islands, except for some languages at the far western end of New Guinea, and Palauan and Chamorro in Micronesia. Its closest relatives are located around Cenderawasih Bay at the western New Guinea and in South Halmahera (Blust 1978). Its next closest relatives appear to be in other parts of eastern Indonesia (Blust 1984, 1993). The most economical interpretation of the subgrouping of Austronesian is that the common ancestor of Oceanic probably entered Melanesia from East Indonesia via the north coast of New Guinea.

The best-known innovation shared by the Oceanic languages is a series of simplifications of the Proto-Austronesian sound system. For example,

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Oceanic

*p, *b *p

*s, *z, *c, *j *s

*k, *g *k

PAn / POc
baqbaq / papaq / ‘mouth’
nipen / nipon / ‘tooth’
zalan / salan / ‘path/road’
susu / susu / ‘breast’
katkat / kakat / ‘bite’
gemgem / kokom / ‘ hold in hand’

There are also some changes in the lexicon (data thanks to Robert Blust).

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian / Proto-Oceanic
*hulaR / *mwata / ‘snake’
*dilaq / *maya / ‘tongue’
*tuqelan / *suRi / ‘bone’
*ma-kunij / *aŋo / ‘yellow’

1.2 Central Pacific

The term Central Pacific covers Fijian, Rotuman and Polynesian (Geraghty 1983, Pawley 1996). The Central Pacific subgroup is only weakly defined. Probable innovations of Proto-Central Pacific are:

·  The development of the ‘focus particle’ *ko

·  The development of the prefix *fia- (‘want to’)

·  A change from subject initial to verb initial word order

·  The numeral four is *faa unlike other Eastern Oceanic languages, which use *fati.

2. Proto-Polynesian

The Polynesian family is very strongly defined. This means that the Proto-Polynesian speech community underwent a long period of isolated development after its separation from Proto-Fijian. (cf. Clark 1979).

2.1 Phonology

Regular sound changes

a.  Prenasalized stops become plain voiceless stops.

Fijian / mbeka / ndalo / ŋgele
Proto-Polynesian / *peka / *talo / *kele
Meaning / “bat” / “taro” / “earth”

b.  Other regular changes

PCP / PPn
*t, *d, *j / *t
*ŋg, *k, *ŋgw, *kw / *k
*n, *ñ / *n
*ŋ, *ŋw / *ŋ
*l, *r, *dr / *l, *r
*y / Ø
*v / *f
*c / *h
*k / *‘, *k

Sporadic sound changes

·  Loss of *m before *u: PCP malumu > PPn maluu ‘soft’

·  Loss of *n in the following lexical items: PCP *kani ‘eat’ > PPn *kai, PCP *‘anitu ‘spirit’ > PPn *’aitu.

·  Irregular loss of second syllable –ŋwa: PCP *taŋwa‘ane ‘male’ > PPn *ta‘ane

·  PCP *boŋi > PPn *poo

2.2 Morphology

·  Common noun article na disappears and is replaced by contrasting definite (*te) and indefinite (*sa) articles.

Fijian / Maori / Meaning
na ulu-na (inalienable) / t-oo-na uru (subordinate) / his head
na ke-na kumala (edible) / t-aa-na kuumara (dominant) / his sweet potato
na me-na wai (drinkable) / t-oo-na wai (subordinate) / his water
na no-na kato (neutral) / t-aa-na kete (dominant) / his basket

·  System of four categories of possession (inalienable, edible, drinkable, and neutral) is reduced to two categories (dominant and subordinate).

2.3 Vocabulary

Proto-Oceanic Proto-Polynesian

*karu *raku ‘scratch’

*tama ‘father’ *tama ‘child’

Other items restricted to Polynesian:

*la’aa ‘sun’, *kata ‘laugh’, *moana ‘sea’, *ma’unŋa ‘mountain’, *kulii ‘dog’, *moa ‘fowl’

References:

Blust, R. 1978. Eastern Malayo-Polynesian: A subgrouping argument. In S.A. Wurm and L. Carrington (eds.), 2nd ICAL Proceedings. Pacific Linguistics C-61: 181-234. Canberra: ANU.

Blust, R. 1984. More on the position of the languages in Eastern Indonesia. OL 22-23: 1-28.

Blust, R. 1993. Central and Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. OL 32: 241-93.

Geraghty, P. 1983. The history of the Fijian languages. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Pawley, A. (1996) On the Polynesian subgroup s a problem for Irwin’s continuous settlement hypothesis. In Janet Davidson, Geoffrey Irwin, Ross Leach, Andrew Pawley and Dorothy Brown (eds.) Oceanic culture history: Essays in honour of Roger Green, pp. 387-410. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology Special Publication.

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