2 Enggano is linguistically and geographically isolated from surrounding language groups.
Because of this and the small number of people who speak it, the language has received little attention in the literature. This thesis, a description of Enggano wordLlevel
phonology and phonetics, is the first research project dedicated to analyzing the phonology of Enggano.
The thesis is laid out as follows. The first three chapters are introductory in nature, giving background Chapter 1 and methodology Chapter 2, followed by an overview
of phonemes, allophonic processes, stress patterns, and syllable structure in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 is dedicated to a discussion of vocoid sequences, focusing on syllabification
processes. Chapter 5 presents an acoustic analysis of vowel quality of single vowels, while chapter 6 lays out an acoustic analysis of vowel quality transition in vocoid
sequences. Finally, conclusions are given in chapter 7.
1.1 Historical, geographical and sociopolitical context
Little is known about the island of Enggano or its people before the late nineteenth
century. The name Enggano is popularly thought to come from the Portuguese engano
‘deception, error’. A story, told by local Enggano people as well as outsiders, says that the Portuguese explorers of the sixteenth century came upon Enggano from the West
and mistakenly thought that they had found Sumatra. In their disappointment at finding that they had not arrived on Sumatra, they named the island Enggano. Any former
languageLinternal name for the Enggano people and language has been lost, as the exonym Enggano is the only name that is known.
The Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, The Netherlands, houses a collection of artifacts and drawings from early explorers’ visits to Enggano ter Keurs n.d.. Drawings
from Modigliani 1894 show Enggano people living a Stone AgeLtype existence with no evidence of influence from the Malay and Javanese civilizations a few hundred miles
3 away. They lived in beehiveLshaped houses similar to traditional houses of the
Andaman Islands of India 1,000 miles to the northwest in the Indian Ocean. The old Malay name for the island of Enggano, Pulau Telanjang or Naked Island, reflects the
fact that the Enggano had a lifestyle very different from that of the larger people groups of Sumatra and Java.
With the onset of contact with outsiders, the Enggano society went through major upheaval. At some point between 1866 and 1884 the population of the island was
decimated, going from over 6,000 people in 1866 to 900 people in 1884 Jaspan 1964, 110. Some authors believe that this was caused by cholera, venereal disease, and
induced abortion Helfrich 1888. Whatever the cause of the decimation of Enggano’s population, the effects were
devastating for the language. In his dictionary Kähler notes that when he conducted his 1937 field research on the island, only about 200 people still spoke Enggano as their
mother tongue, “which, however, in the case of the younger generation . . . was already strongly influenced by Malay” 1987, 81. Concerning Enggano culture, Keuning 1955
said that the traditional culture had almost completely disappeared by the middle of the twentieth century. The Enggano culture and language were put in further jeopardy in
the early 1960s when the Indonesian government began relocating convicts from Java and Sumatra to Enggano. By 1963 there were 2,600 offenders from other parts of
Indonesia on the island in addition to the 400 remaining Enggano people Jaspan 1964, 110.
Contrary to predictions during the early 1900s, the Enggano population has actually grown in the past fifty years, and the language is still in vigorous daily use.
Estimates of the number of Enggano speakers today range from 700 Wurm 2000 to 1,500 Lewis 2009. The total population of the island is around 2,000, with about half
4 of the population being native and the other half being people of outside descent,
mostly from Java and Sumatra. Enggano has recently been heavily influenced by the culture, politics and languages
of Java and Sumatra. The languages most influential on Enggano are the Malay and Indonesian language varieties spoken on Java and Sumatra. The nearest language is
Bengkulu Malay, spoken in and around the city of Bengkulu classified in the Ethnologue as a dialect of Central Malay [pse]. The only ferries connecting Enggano to
Sumatra go to Bengkulu, so there is much direct contact between that city and the island. Minangkabau [min] is a regional trade language along the west coast of
Sumatra, and as such it also has influence on Enggano. The third prominent language influencing Enggano is Standard Indonesian [ind], the official language of Indonesia
and the language of school, government, and all official business on Enggano. Figure 2 shows the Ethnologue language map of Sumatra. Enggano island is number 13 at the far
bottom, Central Malay is spoken in the area designated by number 10 in the southwest, and Minangkabau is spoken in the area designated by number 28 along the western
coast.
5 Figure 2. Ethnologue language map of Sumatra
Bengkulu Malay, Minangkabau, and Indonesian are all closely related to each other.
It is often difficult to tell which one has caused a particular effect in Enggano. Speakers of Bengkulu Malay, Minangkabau and Indonesian now live on Enggano
island, intermingled with the local Enggano population. Speakers of other languages, including Batak and Javanese, live there as well. Since few of the immigrants speak
Enggano, most interethnic communication takes place in Indonesian or Bengkulu Malay. Enggano speakers only use their language among themselves, although many
immigrants claim that they can understand some of the language. There are six villages on Enggano island, all of them strung along the island’s only
road on the northeast coast. Figure 3 shows the villages on the island. The lines mark the territorial boundaries of the villages, while the dots represent the residential area
for each village.
6 Figure 3. Villages on Enggano island
3
The three central villages of Malakoni, Apoho and Meok have greater percentages of native Enggano residents, while the outlying villages of Banjarsari, Kaana and
Kahayapu have larger immigrant populations. Ferries to Bengkulu depart from Kahayapu and Malakoni.
1.2 Previous research on Enggano
