The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar

by Alexander Adelaar (Editor), Nikolaus Himmelmann (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700712861
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/25/2004
Series:	Routledge Language Family Series , #7
Pages:	864
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

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