Enggano
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Enggano Island, offSumatra
Ethnicity	Enggano
Native speakers	700 (2011)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands? Enggano
Language codes
ISO 639-3	eno
Glottolog	engg1245
ELP	Enggano
Enggano Island, in red
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TheEnggano language, orEngganese, is anAustronesian language spoken onEnggano Island off the southwestern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Enggano is notable among the Austronesian languages of westernInsular Southeast Asia because of many unusual sound changes, and a low number of words shared with other Austronesian languages. There is however general consensus among Austronesianists that Enggano belongs to the Austronesian language family.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Failure to fully identify the inherited Austronesian elements in the basic lexicon and bound morphology of Enggano resulted in occasional proposals that Enggano might be alanguage isolate which had adopted Austronesian loanwords.^[7][8]

When first contacted by Europeans, theEnggano people had more cultural commonalities with indigenous peoples of theNicobar Islands than with those of Austronesian Sumatra. For instance, beehive houses were typical of both Enggano Island and the Nicobar Islands. However, there are no apparent linguistic connections withNicobarese or otherAustroasiatic languages.

The classification of Enggano was controversial,^[9] ranging from proposals that negate its inclusion in the Austronesian family all the way to classifications that place Enggano in theNorthwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup together with otherAustronesian languages of the area (e.g.Nias).

Based on the low number of apparent Austronesian cognates, Capell (1982) proposed that Enggano is alanguage isolate rather than Austronesian as previously assumed.^[7] A similar view was echoed by Blench (2014) based on an inspection of Enggano's lexicon.^[8]

Edwards (2015) demonstrates that pronouns, numerals and many affixes in Enggano can be directly derived fromProto-Malayo-Polynesian.^[10] Based on this evidence, together with regular sound changes from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian to Enggano, Edwards shows that Enggano clearly belongs to theMalayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, thus putting Capell's and Blench's proposals that Enggano is a non-Austronesian language to rest. Within Malayo-Polynesian, he considers Enggano to be a primary branch.^[11] While a large portion of its lexicon obviously cannot be derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, it remains unclear whether this represents a non-Austronesiansubstratum from an unknown source language, or the result of internally-driven lexical replacement.^[12] He notes that Enggano possesses many aberrant phonological features (such as a small phonological inventory) and a low lexical retention rate, which is more typical of Austronesian languages spoken in eastern Indonesia and Melanesia than rather than those of western Indonesia. Enggano's lexical retention rate (i.e., percentage of lexical items that are cognate with reconstructedProto-Austronesian forms) is only 21% (46 out of 217 words), while the lexical retention rate forMalay is 59% (132.5 out of 223 words).^[13] Some non-Austronesian languages in Southeast Asia, such asNancowry,Semelai, andAbui also have low lexical retention rates.^[13]

Enggano has historically undergone several sound changes which are more far-reaching than changes observed in other Malayo-Polynesian languages of the area.^[14] These include for example (PMP =Proto-Malayo-Polynesian):

• PMP *ŋ >h   (*taliŋa >e-kadiha)
• PMP *m >b   (*Rumaq >e-uba)
• PMP *n >d   (*anak >e-ada)
• PMP *s >k   (*si-ia >kia)
• PMP *t >k   (*mata >e-baka)

As for the last shift, Enggano is the only western Austronesian language in which it is found, while the same change occurred independently several times inOceanic after *k shifted toglottal stop.^[15]

An unusual feature isnasal harmony in its identifiable Austronesian vocabulary, where allstop consonants and vowels in a word became nasal after a nasal vowel, and oral after an oral vowel, so that there is no longer a phonemic distinction between them. For example,*eũ’ada’a becameeũ’ãnã’ã, while nasal consonants are no longer found ine-uba 'house' orʔa-riba 'five' (< PMP*Rumaq,*ka-lima, cf. Malayrumah,lima).^[16]

The only major linguistic treatment of Enggano was conducted by Hans Kähler in 1937. He published a grammar (1940), a text collection (1955, 1957, 1958, 1960a, 1960b, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1975) and a dictionary (1987). However, the discussion of phonology is limited to a simple inventory and a short paragraph of basic features. The grammar and dictionary disagree with each other, and the dictionary is not consistentː some words are not legible, and doubts have been raised about the accuracy of the transcriptions. Nothofer (1992) discusses loanwords and also lists phonemes.^[17] Yoder (2011) is a thesis on Enggano vowels, with some comments on consonants; it will be followed here.^[18]

Note that contemporary Enggano, as discussed in Yoder (2011) and Nothofer (1992), has undergone several changes from Old Enggano, as documented by Kähler, including the fact that final vowels are regularly lost (e.g.e-papa 'cheek' becomespap) and the split of the phoneme /o/.^[19][20] These have an effect on the phonology.

Yoder and Nothofer report seven oral and seven nasal vowels:^[21]

Diphthongs are/ai,aɨ,au,ei,ɘi,oi/.

Vowels do not occur word-initially in Enggano apart from what Yoder analyzes as/iu/ before another vowel; these are then pronounced as semivowels[jw]. (Nothofer counts these as consonants/j,w/ restricted to initial position, which avoids the problem of not uncommon[ji] being analyzed as/ii/, when sequences of the same vowel are otherwise quite rare.) The vowels/iɨueo/ are all pronounced as semivowels in vowel sequences after medial glottal consonants/ʔh/, as in/kõʔĩã/[kõʔjã] (a sp. tree) and/bohoe/[boho̯e] 'wild'; otherwise, apart from diphthongs, vowel sequences are disyllabic, as in/ʔa-piah/[ʔapi.ah] 'to graze'./i/ optionally triggers a glide after a following glottal consonant, as in/ki-ʔu/[kiʔu~kiʔju] 'to say'. Diphthongs lower to[aɪ,aʊ] etc. before a coda stop, as in/kipaʔãũp/[kĩpãʔãʊ̃p] 'ten', and undergo metathesis when that stop is glottal, as in/kahaiʔkak/[kahaʔɪkak] 'twenty'. Anintrusive vowel[ə̆] appears between glottal stop and another consonant (though not semivowels), as in/kaʔhɨɘ/[kaʔ.ə̆.hɨ.ɘ] 'female leader'; this does not affect the pattern of stress.

The offglide of diphthongs lowers before glottal consonants, and aglottal stop may intrude when another word follows, as in/kahaiʔmɘh/[kahaʔɪmɘ̃h] 'another'.

Yoder notes that the voiced stops[b~m,d~n] are incomplementary distribution, depending on whether the word has nasal vowels (similar toGuarani), but lists them separately. Voiced oral consonants,[bdlr], do not occur in words with nasal consonants or vowels. Nasal consonants nasalize all vowels in a word, and there is therefore no contrast between[mn] and[bd] apart from the contrast between nasal and oral vowels. For example, with the oral stemtax 'bag', the possessive forms aretahi’ 'my bag' andtahib 'your bag', but with the nasal stem 'age', the forms are’umunu’ 'my age' and’umunum 'your age'.

/l/ occurs in only a few native words./s~x/ are infrequent and apparently a single phoneme; they only occur word finally, where they contrast with/h/:[x] occurs after the non-front vowels/ɨəu/,[ç] after the front vowels/iaã/, and[s] after vowel sequences ending in/i/ (including/ii,ui/). The resulting[açãç] may actually be/aixãĩx/, as most such words are attested with alternation like[kaç~kais] 'box'. When a suffix is added, so that this consonant is no longer word-final, it becomes/h/, as intahi’ 'my bag' above.

Nothofer is similar, but does not list the uncommon consonants/l/ and/s~x/ and counts[jw] as consonants rather than allophones of vowels. Kähler's dictionary adds/ɲ/, as well as/ftʃdʒ/ as marginal phonemes, and claims that/tr/ are only found in southern villages. However, Yoder states that at the time of his research in 2010 there were no differences among the six villages on Enggano Island, and that initial/tr/ and final/td/ are rare in native words. Medial/d/ and/r/ are in free variation in a few words, with older people preferring/d/ and younger speakers/r/.

Stress was once reported to be penultimate but now appears to occur on the final syllable. Alternating syllables preceding it have secondary stress.

The main reference on the syntax and morphology of the Enggano language is the grammar produced by Hans Kähler.^[22] There are also some references to syntax and morphology in more recent work, such as Yoder (2011) and Edwards (2015). This section compares some of the findings in Kähler (1940) with those of Yoder (2011), where the language appears to have undergone some changes.

The pronouns listed in Kähler (1940) are as follows:^[23]

Kähler notes that the form'ika'a is not often used and that'ika can have both dual (speaker + addressee) and plural (speaker + multiple addressees) reference.^[24] Enclitic pronouns, which typically expresspossessors, are subject nasal harmony, depending on whether the root that they attach to contains nasal or oral vowels. There is also a phonological process whereby a vowel is inserted between theglottal stop and the u in the 1sg enclitic-'u. This is the final vowel of the stem to which the suffix attaches, e.g.euba 'house' >euba'au 'my house',ebohe 'spear' >ebohe'eu 'my spear'.^[25] Possession can also be indicated using the proclitic pronouns above.

The pronouns listed in Yoder (2011) are as follows:

Most of these appear to be Austronesian: Compare Malay 1sgaku ~ ku, 1.EXkami, 1.INkita, 2plkalian, 3sg/pldia, and suffixes 1sg-ku, 2sg-mu, 3sg-nya, with *k, *t (d), *l, *m, *n having shifted to’, k, r, b, d in Enggano, and with final consonants and (where possible) vowels being lost. The possessive suffixes appear on nouns, and they are often preceded by a vowel. Few forms are attested, but this vowel isi orai after[ç] (as with 'bag' in the phonology section), anecho vowel after several other consonants, and with several words not predictable on current evidence:’eam–’ami’ '(my) fishing rod'.

According to Kähler, nouns in Enggano can be subcategorised into three different classes: humans, proper nouns and common nouns. They take different articles to indicate singular and plural reference:^[26]

Blench notes thate- may be adeterminer^[8] and Edwards argues that the articles not only marknoun class but alsocase.^[27] Nouns marked withe- and the other articles above can express both subjects and objects. The prefixe- can also be used to derivegerunds from verbal stems.^[22] Plural number can also be indicated throughreduplication.^[28] In this case, the meaning is exhaustive, e.g. all of the nouns.

Nouns with an oblique function, e.g. those expressing nominal possessors, subjects of gerunds and any noun that follows theoblique markeri'ioo, take the articleu- in place ofe-. Finally,locative nouns take the locative prefixi-.^[22]

Nouns in Enggano can be modified by demonstratives and relative clauses. As in other Austronesian languages, these typically follow the nominal head. There are three demonstratives in Enggano:^[29]

Relative clauses are introduced by a relativisermõ'õ. Kähler suggests that older speakers of Enggano would use different relativisers depending on whether the head noun was singular (hemõ’õ) or plural (hõmõ’õ). However, in 1937 when he was conducting research, this practice was already uncommon in everyday language.^[30] An example of a relative clause in Enggano is given below. This shows that demonstratives also follow relative clauses:^[30]

Kähler describes some processes ofnominal derivation in Enggano. Specifically, he notes that instrumental nouns can be formed via the addition of a vowel orpaV- to a verbal root, e.g.poko 'to chisel' >e-opoko 'a chisel' orkui 'to sew' >e-paukui 'needle'. Locative nouns are formed with an-a suffix, e.g.parudu 'gather' >e-parudu-a 'gathering place'.^[31]

Adjectives commonly have prefixeska-, ka’-, ki-; the first two are attested in derivation, and the last is assumed as it is very common and many such adjectives otherwise appear to be reduplicated, as inkinanap 'smooth' (Yoder 2011).

Verbs may have one or two prefixes and sometimes a suffix. According to Kähler, verbs are typically marked with the prefixki- orbu- (allomorphs b-, mu-, m-, -ub-, -um-) or occur in bare form.^[22] Verbs modified withbu- occur in main clauses and take a set of agreement markers (§16).^[22] Kähler treats these as shortened pronouns. Verbs in bare form take a different set of agreement markers and occur following thenegatorkeaba'a (§ 15). Kähler calls these 'modified forms'.^[22]

In addition toki-, bu- and bare forms, Enggano verbs can take furtherderivational morphology:^[32]

• -i and -a'aapplicative suffixes (see section 36 and 37 of the grammar)
• di-passive (see section 38 of the grammar)
• pa-causative (see section 39 and 40 of the grammar)
• aH- which Kähler describes as intensive but functions similarly to anantipassive (see section 42 of the grammar)
• a'a- which Kähler describes asstative but may act as a verbalizer of nominal roots (see section 45 of the grammar)
• aba- which Kähler describes asprogressive but may reflect associated motion (see section 47 of the grammar).
• -a future tense orvolitional marker (see section 51).

Attested prefixes in Yoder (2011) areba-, ba’-, ia-, iah-, ka-, ka’-, kah-, ki-, kir-, ko-, pa-, pah-, ’a-. The functions of these are unknown.Ki- andpa- may occur together, as inpe,pape,kipe,kipape, all glossed as 'give'. The three attested verbal suffixes are-i, -ar, -a’ (Yoder 2011).

Future tense is marked through an -a suffix. Past tense/perfective aspect is marked through the auxiliary verbhooː^[32]

The counting system is, or at least once was,vigesimal: Kähler recordedkahai'i ekaka 'one man' = 20,ariba ekaka 'five man' = 100,kahai'i edudodoka 'one our-body' = 400. (The last may be based on two people counting together: each time I count all twenty of my digits, you count one of yours, so that when you have counted all of your digits, the number is 20×20 = 400.) However, most people now use Malay numerals when speaking Enggano, especially for higher numbers. Yoder (2011) recorded the following:^[33]

1–5 are Austronesian, assumingka- is a prefix on 'one' and’a- is a prefix on 2–5. Compare the remaining-hai’, -ru, -kər, -up, -rib withLampungəsay, rua, təlu, əpat, lima; *s, *t, *l, *m have shifted toh, k, r, b in Enggano, and final consonants and (simple) vowels have been lost.’aki’akin, 'six', may be reduplication of’akər, 'three'.’arib he ’aru, 'seven', is 'five and two'. The two forms for eight mean 'hugging', from the verbpã’ĩõp 'to hug', and nine appears to be 'eight, one coming'; it may be shortened tokaba kahai’ (no-i) in enumeration. Yoder believes 10 may also be a verb, based on an unelicited root’ãũp, aski- andpa- are verbal prefixes (as inki-pa-pe 'to give'); indeed, the apparent prefixes on 1–5 are identical to verbal prefixes as well.

Numbers above 10 and 20 are formed withhe ~ hi 'and':kĩpã’ãũp he ’aru 'ten and two' for 12,kahai’ kak he kĩpã’ãũp 'twenty and ten' for 30.kak is 'person', so twenty is 'one person'. Multiples of twenty are formed fromkak, as in’akər kak he kĩpã’ãũp '70',’arib kak '100' (alsokahai’ ratuh from Malayratus).

• Language materials on Enggano
• Enggano at Ethnologue
• Enggano recordings

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