[An-lang] query: which Batak language is this?

[David Gil]

Dear all,

Thanks for your quick and helpful responses; "horas" to Robert 
Attenborough, Robert Blust, Abby Cohn, Geoff Kushnick, Wilson Manik, Luh 
Anik Mayani, Esra Siagian, and Alan Steven.  The verdict was unanimous, 
it is Toba, not Simalungun Batak.

BTW, a couple of correspondents pointed out that some of the sentences 
didn't seem to make much sense.  Yes I know; I was using them as stimuli 
in a truth-functional experiment designed to check exactly what, if 
anything, these sentences mean!  (Surprisingly, most of the 30 subjects 
seemed quite willing to accept sentences that according to "standard" 
descriptions of Toba Batak should be ungrammatical or semantically 
unfelicitous.  But that's another story ...)

Best wishes,

David


On 19/04/2015 17:22, David Gil wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am looking for someone who can help me with a problem of language 
> identification.  Last month I did some field work in the city of 
> Pematangsiantar, in North Sumatra, on the local variety of Batak.  
> Going by the Ethnologue map, I naively assumed that I was eliciting 
> data in Simalungun Batak, but I later found out that most people in 
> the town actually speak Toba Batak.  I have reproduced below the 
> sentences that I elicited: could someone please tell me whether these 
> are Toba or Simalungun, or perhaps some mixture of the two.
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
>
>
> Here are the sentences:
>
> 1Mangan pidong i
>
> 2Mabiar harimo i
>
> 3Manggambar biang i
>
> 4Manjait takkuluk i
>
> 5Manortor meja i
>
> 6Maluppat kursi i
>
> 7Mekkel kopi i
>
> 8Sonang hepeng i
>
> 9Manakkup huting bagudung i
>
> 10Mangharat ulok bagudung i
>
> 11Manorong anak boru motor i
>
> 12Mamereng harimo gaja i
>
> 13Mangan sunge badut i
>
> 14Manobang kapak tantara i
>
> 15Manginum surat badut i
>
> 16Manuhor las roha badut i
>
> 17Mangan manuk i
>
> 18Mabiar biang i
>
> 19Manggambar pohon i
>
> 20Manjait salawar i
>
> 21Manortor solu i
>
> 22Maluppat pagar i
>
> 23Mekkel salawar i
>
> 24Sonang bunga i
>
> 25Manakkup herek jolma i
>
> 26Mangharat ulok huting i
>
> 27Manorong garobak anak boru i
>
> 28Mamereng dakdanak pisang i
>
> 29Mangan pohon jolma i
>
> 30Manobang piso jolma i
>
> 31Manginum koran jolma i
>
> 32Manuhor las roha jolma i
>
> 33Marikkati pisang i
>
> 34Mangan motor anak boru i
>
> 35Mangharat huting biang i
>
> 36Mabiar tu herek jolma i
>
> 37Manakkup biang huting i
>
> 38Manghutti tas halak i
>
> 39Marikkati huting i
>
> 40Marburu jolma i
>
> 101Mangan pisang jolma i
>
> 102Marbadai tu anak boru bawa i
>
> 103Marbadai tu bawa anak boru i
>
> 104Mangan jolma i
>
>
> -- 
> David Gil
>
> Department of Linguistics
> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
> Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
>
> Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550333
> Email:gil at eva.mpg.de
> Webpage:http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> An-lang mailing list
> An-lang at anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang

-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550333
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage:  http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/

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