Final long vowels in Saluan and Batui

d r from earlier r, d became h in initial and medial position, and was lost in final position. This change, which did not occur in Bobongko or Andio, is shared only by Saluan and Batui. PMP Saluan Batui Bobongko Andio deŋeR ‘hear’ mohongoː mohongo morongo morongo dahun ‘leaf’ hoon hoon ron roon rebuŋ ‘bamboo shoot’ sumpok hobung robung — budiŋ ‘charcoal’ buhing buhing buring — bidiŋ ‘side’ ‘ear’ bihing bihing biring biring kuden ‘cook pot’ kuhon kuhon — kuron tiked ‘heel’ ‘foot’ tengke tengke tengker tengker In a fifth change, final diphthongs with y from earlier R, j and y were monophthongized. In Saluan the monophthongized vowel retained contrastive length, but in Andio and Bobongko the lengthened quality of the vowel was lost. Batui shows a mixed pattern: some lexemes exhibit length in the final vowel, but in other cases length was lost. We devote a separate section to this change below §3.1. Finally, in §3.2 we discuss a sixth change which has heretofore not been considered, namely the merger of final l and n as n. This change is attested in only a portion of the Saluan language area. This change is important not only for considering where to draw dialect boundaries, but also for understanding migrations of the Saluan peoples.

3.1 Final long vowels in Saluan and Batui

Saluan is one of the few languages of Sulawesi to contrast long and regular vowels in final position. The only other indigenous languages of Sulawesi known to us to exhibit such a contrast—and here again only in word-final position—are the four Seko languages of northern South Sulawesi. In Seko languages long vowels reflect Proto-Malayo-Polynesian PMP q. For example data from Laskowske 2007: PMP Pre-Proto-Seko Proto-Seko ‘ten’ puluq puloq puloː ‘split’ bikaq bikaq bikaː ‘feces’ taqi taiq taiː ‘descend’ naquR nauq nauː By contrast, long vowels in Saluan did not develop from q but rather developed from monophthongization of final diphthongs, and reflect PMP R, j and y. To take a simple example of how this contrast developed, compare the reflexes of the PMP words for ‘elbow’ and ‘tail’ in Saluan. PMP Saluan ‘elbow’ siku siku siku ‘tail’ ikuR ikuy ikuː Whilst the historical origin of long vowels in Saluan was first discussed in Mead 2003, at that time their synchrony was little understood, being known only from written wordlists and information— sometimes contradictory—provided by others. Their phonetic character had yet to be analyzed, and it was unknown whether there was dialectal variation in regard to long vowels in the Saluan area. To make up for this lack, we paid particular attention to final vowel length during wordlist elicitation sessions, and in fact in seven locations including Batui specifically made electronic recordings for preliminary acoustic phonetic analysis. For example, figure 3 shows the waveforms and spectrograms of a person from Huhak village pronouncing the words ‘elbow’ and ‘tail.’ From this it can be seen that the final vowel of ikuː is roughly twice as long 0.3038 seconds as the final vowel of siku 0.1509 seconds. Figure 4 shows the waveforms and spectrograms of a person from Tolando village Batui. These figures were prepared using SIL’s Speech Analyzer program version 3.0.1. Because of constraints on our time during the course of the survey, we recorded only one speaker in each of the seven locations. We realize therefore that our results lack statistical validity. Nonetheless the vowel length measurements summarized in table 3 provisionally suggest that a contrast between long versus regular vowels is a feature of all Saluan dialects as well as Batui—a result which was further confirmed ‘to our ears’ during the process of eliciting wordlist items in all twelve primary research sites. The two columns under each word indicate that we recorded each respondent saying that word twice because of a technical glitch, our Simpang respondent was recorded saying each word only once. Figure 3. Waveforms and spectrograms of siku ‘elbow’ and iku ː ‘tail’ as recorded in Huhak village. 0.1509 sec 0.3038 sec Figure 4. Waveforms and spectrograms of siku ‘elbow’ and iku ː ‘tail’ as recorded in Tolando village. 0.1835 sec 0.3033 sec Table 3. Length in seconds of final vowels of siku ‘elbow’ and iku ː ‘tail’ each word recorded twice siku ‘elbow’ ikuː ‘tail’ Simpang — 0.2359 — 0.3452 Honbola 0.1509 0.1267 0.3506 0.2989 Bahingin 0.1551 0.1771 0.2502 0.2470 Sampaka 0.1386 0.2469 0.3630 0.3419 Kintom 0.1754 0.1771 0.3781 0.2827 Huhak 0.1509 0.1763 0.3038 0.3305 Batui 0.1390 0.1700 0.3102 0.3033 Table 3 indicates that the final vowel of one lexical item, ikuː ‘tail,’ is articulated long in both Saluan and Batui. When we consider other lexical items with final long vowels, however, we find that the Saluan and Batui data do not always agree. That is to say, in some items such as the response for ‘tail’, a final long vowel in Saluan corresponds to a long vowel in Batui. In other items, however, a long vowel in Saluan corresponds to a regular unlengthened vowel in Batui. Items which fall into these two patterns are summarized in tables 4 and 5, respectively. Table 4 presents those items for which we transcribed a final long vowel in at least one Saluan wordlist, and where the Batui response also had a long vowel. Table 5 presents those items for which we transcribed a final long vowel in at least one Saluan wordlist, but where the Batui response had a regular unlengthened vowel. 19 The ‘item number’ given in the first column corresponds to the wordlist numbering scheme used in appendix B. 19 PMP and PWMP Proto–Western Malayo-Polynesian reconstructions given in the last column of the tables and in this footnote have been drawn from various sources, including especially Blust and Trussel 2010 and Wurm and Wilson 1975. Proto-Celebic reconstructions are our own and have not yet been published with their supporting evidence. Because they are not germane to our discussion, we have left out a number of words which have a long vowel in one or more Saluan wordlists, but for which a cognate form is unknown in Batui. These include: 096 ‘friend’ saŋaluː Batui beːle; 125 ‘luminous millipede’ antata ː Batui ondat, cf. PWMP hantatadu; 131 ‘snake’ ulo ː Batui bintanaʔ , PMP ulej ‘worm, maggot’; 154 ‘coconut’ niu ː Batui potil, PMP ñiuR ‘coconut’; 156 ‘coconut shell’ baŋaː Batui tobong, cf. Proto-Kaili-Pamona baŋa Michael Martens p.c. and Proto-Seko baŋaː ‘coconut shell’ Laskowske 2007:150 which together suggest baŋaq; 172 ‘pandanus’ tonda ː Batui bahoi; 182 ‘moon’ koloa ː three wordlists; others, including Batui bituʔon; 184 ‘sky’ laŋaː two wordlists, others including Batui laŋit; 224 ‘space underneath house’ patu ː Batui suːkan; 233 ‘bamboo water container’ pongasu ː Batui balo, cf. Proto-Bungku-Tolaki ahuR ‘bamboo water container’ Mead 1998:425; 256 ‘big’ bosa ː one wordlist, others including Batui dakaʔ , PMP besaR Dempwolff 1925, but Dempwolff 1938 gives besar; 260 ‘wet’ mohome ː Batui memes; 341 ‘left’ kowi ː Batui boboʔ , PMP ka-wiRi; 381 ‘laugh’ kumojo ː Batui molomi; 405 ‘burn field’ mompapu ː, PMP pa + hapuy; 458 ‘flow’ mo ʔiliː Batui moʔihis, PWMP qiliR ‘flow downstream.’ On the whole, there are two possible explanations for the pattern observed in tables 4 and 5. a Just as in Bobongko and Andio, Batui lost all final long vowels via merger with regular vowels. However, in Batui a contrast was reintroduced through influence from Saluan. This explanation assumes a certain degree of contact with and bilingualism in Saluan. Table 4. Wordlist items ending in long vowel in both Saluan and Batui Item no. Meaning Saluan Batui Historical source 025 ‘shoulder’ oaː oaː PMP qabaRa 028 ‘palm, sole’ palaː palaː PMP palaj 107 ‘tail’ ikuː ikuː PMP ikuR 122 ‘fly’ n. laloː laloː PMP lalej 201 ‘water’ ueː ueː PMP waiR 217 ‘floor’ saloː saloː PMP saleR 262 ‘wide’ bolaː bolaː PMP belaj ‘spread out’ 352 ‘inside’ i unoː i unoː PMP qunej 469 ‘awaken someone’ molikoː molikoː Proto-Celebic likoy ‘awake, alert’ 532 ‘embers’ obaː obaː PMP baRah 534 ‘ripe’ mahaː mahaː source unknown a 534 ‘level’ hataː hataː PMP dataR a Cf. PMP ma-iRaq ‘red,’ but this is an unlikely source since R h in Saluan and Batui would be irregular. Bobongko has mara ‘ripe.’ Table 5. Words ending in long vowel in Saluan but in a regular vowel in Batui Item no. Meaning Saluan Batui Historical source 018 ‘lips’ biwiː biwi PMP bibiR 112 ‘egg’ ontoluː ‘testicle’ ontolu PMP qateluR 137 ‘turtle’ heʔaː heʔa source unknown 142 ‘pig’ bauː bau PMP babuy 209 ‘fire’ apuː apu PMP hapuy 260 ‘dry’ montuʔuː motuʔu PMP tuquR 271 ‘thick’ butoluː butolu source unknown 293 ‘satiated’ mobosuː mobosu PMP besuR 311 ‘yellow’ mokiniː mokini PMP kunij 354 ‘sun, day’ sinaː sina PMP sinaR 355 ‘night’ pihiː pihi source unknown 382 ‘hear’ mohoŋoː mohoŋo PMP deŋeR 426 ‘swim’ molaŋuː lumaŋu PMP laŋuy 428 ‘climb mountain’ mindakoː mindako cf. Malay mendaki 455 ‘delouse’ mompiaː mompipia source unknown 494 ‘navel’ pusoː puso pusej 551 ‘go’ mambaː mamba source unknown b A second possibility is that the merger of final long vowels with their regular counterparts is either still on ongoing process or else was arrested in Batui. The differences in these tables thus reflect lexical diffusion: Table 5 lists lexical items to which this change merger of final long vowels with their regular vowel counterparts has diffused, while table 4 lists lexical items—presumably high frequency lexemes—to which this change did not diffuse, or has not yet diffused, in Batui. This explanation need not assume any contact between Batui and Saluan speakers. Which of these two explanations is to be preferred requires further investigation, but for our purposes the matter need not be settled. The important thing to note is that there are significant differences between Saluan and Batui with respect to which lexemes have final long vowels and which do not. 20 A further question may arise: do we find any significant differences in regard to long vowels when comparing between Saluan dialects? We are aware of one case, the word for ‘pig,’ which we recorded as [bau ʔ] in Loinang but as [bauː] elsewhere. Other cases may exist, but the situation is complicated because long vowels were not consistently represented in our outside sources; see the discussion in regard to this point in the introduction to appendix B.

3.2 Merger of final l and n