LINGUIST List 10.790

Thu May 20 1999

Books: Austronesian: Toratan (Rahatan)

Editor for this issue: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar <aristarlinguistlist.org>

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Message 1: Toratan (Ratahan)

Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 15:48:19 +0200
From: LINCOM EUROPA <LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de>
Subject: Toratan (Ratahan)

Toratan (Ratahan)

NIKOLAUS P. HIMMELMANN (Australian National University) & JOHN U. WOLFF (Cornell University)

Toratan is an endangered Austronesian language spoken in the district of Ratahan, province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is estimated that now only 500 good speakers of Toratan are left, mostly over 60 years of age, and a few thousand semi-speakers. Toratan is located in the midst of the Minahasa region but belongs to the Sangiric subgroup, spoken at some distance to the north of Toratan, of which to date only one language (Sangirese) has been documented in some detail. Typologically, Toratan resembles the languages of the Philippines, and the verbal morphology shows many of the same categories as, for example, the Tagalog verb. Much of the Toratan affixational morphology is clearly cognate with affixes in Philippine languages. With regard to noun phrase marking, pronominal clitics, and word order, however, there are strong differences from the Philippine languages. Furthermore, a system of markers for spatial deixis exists which is far more elaborate than that commonly found in Austronesian languages. The volume contains an outline of the phonology and the basic morphosyntax, a somewhat more elaborate discussion of the verbal morphology and of the system of spatial orientation marking, a sample text, and a map of the language area. The analysis is based on a few hours of recorded spontaneous speech.

ISBN 3 89586 147 2. Languages of the World/Materials 130. Ca. 120 pp. Ca. USD 40 / DM 66 / \163 25.

Info: LINCOM EUROPA, Paul-Preuss-Str. 25, D-80995 Muenchen, Germany; FAX : +49 89 3148909; LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de; http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA

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