Nias language

A video of spoken Nias

The Nias language is an Austronesian language spoken on Nias Island and the Batu Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is known as Li Niha by its native speakers. It belongs to the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup which also includes Mentawai and the Batak languages.^[1] It had about 770,000 speakers in 2000.^[1] There are three main dialects: northern, central and southern.^[2] It is an open-syllable language, which means there are no syllable-final consonants.

Dialects

Nias is typically considered to have three dialects.^[3]^[4]

Northern dialect: particularly the Gunungsitoli variety, Alasa and Lahewa area.^[3]
South dialect: South Nias, Gomo Area, Telukdalam Area and Batu Islands.^[3]
Central dialect: West Nias, particularly in Sirombu and Mandrehe areas.^[3]

Cognate percentage among the dialects of Nias is about 80%.^[5]

The northern variant is considered the prestige dialect. The only complete Bible translation is written in the northern dialect and is used by speakers of all dialects.^[6]

Phonology

Nias has the following phonemes (sounds only found in the northern dialect are given in green, southern-only sounds are in red):^[7]^[8]

Phonetic descriptions of the sounds traditionally written as ⟨mb⟩ and ⟨ndr⟩ greatly vary. Sundermann (1913) and Halawa et al. (1983) describe them as prenasalized stop [ᵐb] and prenasalized trilled stop [ⁿdʳ] for the northern dialect,^[9]^[10] while Brown (2005) records them as trill [ʙ] and trilled stop [dʳ] for the southern dialect.^[8] In an acoustic study of Nias dialects from three locations, Yoder (2010) shows a complex pattern of four phonetic realizations of ⟨mb⟩ and ⟨ndr⟩: plain stop, prenasalized stop, stop with trilled release, stop with fricated release.^[11]^[a]

The status of initial [ʔ] is not determined; there are no phonetic vowel-initial words in Nias.

The contrast between [v] and [ʋ] (both written ⟨w⟩ in common spelling) is only observed in the southern dialect. Here, the fricative [v] only occurs in initial position in the mutated form (see §Noun case marking (mutation)) of nouns beginning with f, e.g. fakhe ~ wakhe [vaxe]. The approximant [ʋ] can appear in initial and medial position, and is in free variation with [v] for many speakers of the southern dialect.^[12] For the northern dialect, only fricative approximant [ʋ] is reported, corresponding to both sounds of southern Nias.^[13] The semivowel [w] is a distinct phoneme and is written ⟨ŵ⟩ in common spelling.^[14]

Grammar

Nias has an ergative–absolutive alignment.^[15] It is the only known ergative–absolutive language in the world that has a "marked absolutive", which means that absolutive case is marked, whereas ergative case is unmarked.^[16]^[17]

There are no adjectives in Nias; words with that function are taken by verbs.^[18]

Pronouns

The following table lists the free and bound pronouns of Nias (green = only used in the northern dialect, red = only used in the southern dialect):^[19]^[20]^[21]

Independent pronouns are used:

as the predicate in nominal clauses

Ya'o

1SG.IND

zia'a

first.born:MUT

(southern dialect)^[22]

'I am the first-born.'

as the P argument^[b] of transitive verbs in dependent (including relative and nominalized) clauses

Andrehe'e

DIST

nasu

dog:MUT

si-usu

REL-bite

ya'o

1SG.IND

(southern dialect)^[23]

'That's the dog that bit me.'

following certain prepositions and ha 'only'
in fronted (topicalized) position

Absolutive pronouns are used:

as the S argument of independent intransitive and nominal clauses (in the southern dialect, only in realis mood)

Mofökhö

sick

ndra'o

1SG.ABS

(northern dialect)^[24]

'I am sick.'

as the P argument of transitive verbs in independent clauses

I-tegu

3SG.ERG-scold

ndra'o

1SG.ABS

ama-gu

father-1SG.GEN

(northern dialect)^[25]

'My father scolds me.'

as the stimulus with intransitive verbs expressing emotions or states of mind

Ata'u

afraid

nasu

dog:MUT

ndrao

1SG.ABS

(southern dialect)^[26]

'The dog is afraid of me.'

Genitive pronouns are used:

as possessor, e.g. ama-gu 'my father'
following certain prepositions, e.g. khö-gu 'to me'
as the S argument in nominalized intransitive clauses

Löna

not

ahono

calm

ve-mörö-nia

NR:MUT-sleep-3SG.GEN

(southern dialect)^[27]

'Her sleep was not restful.'

as the A argument in nominalized transitive clauses

La-faigi

3PL.ERG-see

vamaoso-ra

NR:MUT:IPF:raise-3PL.GEN

(southern dialect)^[28]

'They watched them raise [it].'

as the A argument in relative clauses with the P argument of a transitive verb as head

U-fake

1SG.ERG-use

zekhula

coconut:MUT

ni-rökhi-nia

PASS-grate-3SG.GEN

(southern dialect)^[29]

'I used the coconut which she grated.'

Ergative (realis) pronouns are used:

as the A argument in independent transitive clauses (in the southern dialect, only in realis mood)

I-tataba

3SG.ERG-cut

geu

wood:MUT

(southern dialect)^[30]

'He cut up the wood.'

Irrealis pronouns are used in the southern dialect:

as the S argument in independent intransitive clauses in irrealis mood

Gu-möi

1SG.IRR-go

LOC

fasa

market

mahemolu

tomorrow

(southern dialect)^[31]

'I want to go to the market tomorrow.'

as the A argument in independent transitive clauses in irrealis mood

Gu-moturagö

1SG.IRR-IRR:tell.about

ndraugö

2SG.ABS

khö-ra

DAT-3PL.GEN

(southern dialect)^[32]

'I'm going to tell them about you.'

In the northern dialect, the irrealis pronouns are restricted to third person, and are employed in what Sundermann (1913) calls "jussive" mood.

Ya-mu-'ohe

3SG.JUSS-JUSS-bring

(northern dialect)^[33]

'He shall bring it.'

Noun case marking (mutation)

Case marking of nouns is indicated in Nias by mutation of the initial consonant. Several consonants are subject to mutation as shown in the table below. Where a word begins in a vowel, either n or g is added before the vowel; the choice of n or g is lexically conditioned. (For example, öri ~ nöri is 'village federation', öri ~ göri is 'bracelet'.)^[34]

Other consonants do not change.

Unmutated case

The unmutated case form is used in citation. It further appears in all functions described above for independent pronouns:

as the predicate in nominal clauses
as the P argument of transitive verbs in dependent (including relative and nominalized) clauses
following certain prepositions and ha 'only'
in fronted (topicalized) position

Additionally, A arguments in independent transitive clauses appear in unmutated case, cross-referenced by the corresponding ergative or irrealis pronoun.

I-rino

3SG.ERG

vakhe

rice:MUT

ina-gu

mother-1SG.GEN

(southern dialect)^[35]

'My mother cooked rice.'

Mutated case

The mutated case form of the noun corresponds in function to both the absolutive and the genitive pronouns:

as the S argument of independent intransitive and nominal clauses

Mate

die

zibaya-nia

uncle:MUT-3SG.GEN

meneßi

yesterday

(southern dialect; unmutated: sibaya)^[36]

'His uncle died yesterday.'

as the P argument of transitive verbs in independent clauses

I-rino

3SG.ERG

vakhe

rice:MUT

ina-gu

mother-1SG.GEN

(southern dialect; unmutated: fakhe)^[35]

'My mother cooked rice.'

as the stimulus with intransitive verbs expressing emotions or states of mind
as possessor

omo

house

ga'a-gu

older.sibling:MUT-1SG.GEN

(southern dialect; unmutated: ka'a)^[37]

'my brother's house'

following certain prepositions
as the S argument in nominalized intransitive clauses
as the A argument in nominalized transitive clauses
as the A argument in relative clauses with the P argument of a transitive verb as head

Notes

^ "It seems that the variable character of the two phonemes is the only consistent feature that distinguishes them from the regular stops in the same places of articulation, and from the regular alveolar trill." (Yoder 2010, p. 1)
^ The terminology used here follows the conventions commonly used in linguistic typology: S for the subject of intransitive verbs; A for the subject of transitive verbs; P for the object of transitive verbs.

References

Citations

^ a b c Nias at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Brown 1997, p. 395.
^ a b c d Ethnologue
^ Brown 2001, p. 7.
^ Nothofer 1986, p. 95.
^ Brown 2001, p. 8.
^ Sundermann 1913, pp. 5–6.
^ a b Brown 2005, p. 564.
^ Sundermann 1913, p. 6.
^ Halawa, Harefa & Silitonga 1983, p. 19, 21.
^ Yoder 2010, p. 1.
^ Brown 2001, pp. 27, 36–39.
^ Halawa, Harefa & Silitonga 1983, p. 23.
^ Halawa, Harefa & Silitonga 1983, p. 39.
^ Brown 1997, pp. 398–399.
^ Comrie 2013.
^ Donohue 2008, p. 27.
^ Brown 2005, p. 566.
^ Brown 1997, p. 400.
^ Brown 2001, pp. 123–124.
^ Sundermann 1913, pp. 40–45, 65–66.
^ Brown 2001, p. 358.
^ Brown 2001, p. 413.
^ Sundermann 1913, p. 108.
^ Sundermann 1913, p. 97.
^ Brown 2001, p. 578.
^ Brown 2001, p. 315.
^ Brown 2001, p. 314.
^ Brown 2001, p. 420.
^ Brown 2001, p. 529.
^ Brown 2001, p. 153.
^ Brown 2001, p. 549.
^ Sundermann 1913, p. 81.
^ Brown 2005, p. 567.
^ a b Brown 2001, p. 537.
^ Brown 2001, p. 559.
^ Brown 2001, p. 348.

Bibliography

Brown, Lea (1997). "Nominal Mutation in Nias". In Odé, Cecilia; Wim Stokhof (eds.). Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 90-420-0253-0 – via books.google.com.
Brown, Lea (2001). Grammar of Nias Selatan (PhD Thesis). University of Sidney: Department of Linguistics. hdl:2123/12669.
Brown, Lea (2005). "Nias". In Adelaar, Alexander; Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. (eds.). The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-7007-1286-0 – via books.google.com.
Comrie, Bernard (2013), "Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases", in Dryer, Matthew S.; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, retrieved 6 Jun 2019
Donohue, Mark (2008). "Semantic alignment systems: what's what, and what's not". In Donohue, Mark; Søren Wichmann (eds.). The Typology of Semantic Alignment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Halawa, T.; Harefa, A.; Silitonga, M. (1983). Struktur Bahasa Nias [Nias Language Structure] (PDF) (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan. Retrieved 11 December 2021 – via repositori.kemdikbud.go.id.
Nothofer, Bernd (1986). "The Barrier island languages in the Austronesian language family". In Paul Geraghty; Lois Carrington; Stephen A. Wurm (eds.). FOCAL II: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 89–107. doi:10.15144/PL-C94.87.
Sundermann, Heinrich (1913). Niassische Sprachlehre [Nias Grammar] (in German). 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff – via books.google.com.
Yoder, Brendon (2010). "Prenasalization and trilled release of two consonants in Nias". Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session. 50. doi:10.31356/silwp.vol50.03.

External links

Nias edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nias wordlist, Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
Online dictionary of Nias
Kamus Nias-Indonesia (Nias-Indonesian Dictionary)
Articles on Nias Language (in Indonesian)