Pacific Linguistics: recent publications

[Malcolm Ross]

PACIFIC LINGUISTICS is happy to announce the publication of:

A grammar of Jahai
Niclas Burenhult

The many faces of Austronesian voice systems: Some new empirical studies
I Wayan Arka and Malcolm Ross, editors

The phonology – morphology interface in Malay:  An optimality  
theoretic account
Ahmad, Zaharani

A grammar of Gayo: A language of Aceh, Sumatra
Domenyk Eades

Prices are in Australian dollars (one Australian dollar is currently
equivalent to about US$ 0.75).
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A grammar of Jahai
Niclas Burenhult
PL 566
This book is a linguistic study of Jahai, a language belonging to the  
Northern Aslian subgroup of the Aslian branch of the Mon-Khmer  
language family. The language is spoken by groups of foragers in the  
mountain rainforests of northern Peninsular Malaysia and southernmost  
Thailand, its total number of speakers estimated at around 1,000.  
This study describes the grammar of Jahai, including its phonology,  
processes of word formation, word classes, and syntax. It also  
includes a word-list. While primarily aimed at linguistic  
description, the study makes use of suitable theoretical models for  
the analysis of linguistic features. In particular, models of  
Prosodic and Template Morphology are employed to describe the  
language’s intricate processes of affixation. Typological comparisons  
are made at times, especially with other Aslian languages.
The study is intended to expand our knowledge of the understudied  
Aslian languages. It is also intended to contribute to Mon-Khmer and  
Southeast Asian language studies in general, and, hopefully, also to  
a wider linguistic context. Furthermore, it may serve as a practical  
source of linguistic information for researchers and others working  
among the Northern Aslian speech communities.
2005                  ISBN 0 85883 554 1                  xiv + 245 pp.
Prices:                   Australia AUD$64.90  (incl. GST)
Overseas AUD$59.00
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The many faces of Austronesian voice systems: Some new empirical studies
I Wayan Arka and Malcolm Ross, editors
PL 571

The Ninth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics and  
the Fifth  International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics were both  
held at The Australian National University in Canberra during January  
2002.  Rather than publish a single very diverse collection of  
conference papers, the organisers favoured a series of smaller  
compilations on specific topics.  One such volume, on Austronesian  
historical phonology, has already been published by Pacific  
Linguistics as Issues in Austronesian historical phonology  by John  
Lynch.

The present volume represents another such compilation.  It contains  
an introduction by the editors and ten papers on voice in  
Austronesian languages which provide both fresh data and some new  
perspectives on old problems. The papers touch on the many faces of  
Austronesian voice systems, ranging geographically from Teng on  
Puyuma in Taiwan to Otsuka on Tongan, typologically from voice in  
agglutinative languages in Taiwan and the Philippines to voice in  
isolating languages (Arka and Kosmas on Manggarai and Donohue on  
Palu’e), and in approach from Clayre’s areal/historical survey of  
Kelabitic languages in Borneo to single-language studies of voice  
like Davies on Madurese, Quick on Pendau, and the Andersens on  
Moronene. Katagiri and Kaufman each take a fresh look at an aspect of  
Tagalog voice.

2005  ISBN 0 85883 556 8 v + 278 pp
Prices: Australia AUD$69.30 (incl. GST), Overseas AUD$63.00
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The phonology – morphology interface in Malay:  An optimality  
theoretic account
Ahmad, Zaharani
PL 568

This book gives an exhaustive description on the phonology and the  
interface between phonology and morphology of the Malay language. The  
description primarily focuses on the segmental alternations that are  
derived due the morphological processes of prefixation, suffixation  
and reduplication. It is observed that the phonology of prefixation,  
suffixation and reduplication in the language are quite distinct both  
in character and degree of generality. Processes that are visibly  
active in prefixation are generally not active in the suffixation or  
reduplication, and vice versa. This asymmetry has not been  
satisfactorily accounted for in previous works.

The phonological analysis proposed in this book is couched in the  
theoretical framework of Correspondence Theory, set within the  
constraint-based approach of Optimality Theory. The asymmetry between  
prefixation, suffixation and reduplication is satisfactorily  
accounted for as a consequence of the output candidate best  
satisfying the language’s constraint hierarchy.

2005    ISBN 0 85883 555 X   x + 193 pp.
Prices: Australia AUD$59.40  (incl. GST), Overseas AUD$54.00
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A grammar of Gayo: A language of Aceh, Sumatra
Domenyk Eades
PL 567

Gayo is a regional language of Indonesia spoken by some 260,000  
people in the central highlands of Aceh province, at the north- 
western tip of Sumatra. The Gayo people have historically had close  
ties to the majority Acehnese of the coast, while maintaining their  
distinct cultural and linguistic heritage. Gayo remains the first  
language of most ethnic Gayo to this day, and it is the vehicle for a  
rich oral literary tradition. The language belongs to the Malayo- 
Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family of languages. It is  
typologically unlike Acehnese, but shares certain features such as  
voice with the Batak languages of the neighbouring province of North  
Sumatra. Gayo features a voice system of the type that has been  
referred to as symmetrical, whereby neither actor nor undergoer voice  
can be considered the basic or unmarked alignment. The language also  
features valence-increasing affixes, and a range of verbal affixes  
that mark intransitive verbs to indicate information about various  
different semantic types of events. This grammar is the first  
detailed descriptive account of the phonology, morphology and syntax  
of Gayo. The analysis draws upon data that reflect the cultural  
context in which the language is spoken, and in the appendices two  
Gayo texts with their translations are included.

2005 ISBN 0 85883 553 3 2005 xii + 350 pp.
Prices: Australia AUD$83.60  (incl. GST), Overseas AUD$76.00

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Pacific Linguistics
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia

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mailto://pacling@anu.edu.au

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