Taba: Description of a
South Halmahera Austronesian language
Bowden, John
PL 521
Taba is an Austronesian language
spoken on the Halmahera region of eastern Indonesia. This
book is the only comprehensive modern grammar of any language
from the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup that is
a sister to the much better documented Oceanic branch. Taba
is a mixed split-S and accusative language with a rich variety
of phonemic consonant clusters, a complex system of directionals,
and many other features of interest to both Austronesianists
and general typologists. The analysis of ditransitive clauses
is a major innovation: the author contends that ditransitives
exhibit a mixed primary object and 'split-P' pattern of argument
alignment. The grammar also contains a wealth of information
on the sometimes radical changes occurring in contemporary
Taba under the impact of Malay.
001 ISBN 0 85883 517 7
xxvi + 451 pp.
Prices: Australia AUD$69.85
(incl. GST) Overseas AUD$63.50
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