| Nias | |
|---|---|
| Li Niha | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Nias andBatu Islands,North Sumatra |
| Ethnicity | Nias people |
Native speakers | (770,000 cited 2000 census)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | nia |
| ISO 639-3 | nia |
| Glottolog | nias1242 |
 Distribution of Nias language speakers in the Nias and Batu islands (nia) | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
TheNias language is anAustronesian language spoken onNias Island and theBatu Islands off the west coast ofSumatra inIndonesia. It is known as Li Niha by its native speakers. It belongs to theNorthwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup which also includesMentawai and theBatak languages.[1] It had about 770,000 speakers in 2000.[1] There are three maindialects: northern, central and southern.[2] It is anopen-syllable language, which means there are no syllable-final consonants.
Nias is typically considered to have three dialects.[3][4]
Cognate percentage among the dialects of Nias is about 80%.[5]
The northern variant is considered the prestige dialect. The only complete Bible translation is written in the northern dialect and is used by speakers of all dialects.[6]
Nias has the followingphonemes (sounds only found in the northern dialect are given ingreen, southern-only sounds are inred):[7][8]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ɤ⟨ö⟩ | o |
| Open | a |
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | t | tʃ ⟨c⟩ | k | ʔ ⟨'⟩ | ||
| voiced | b | d | dʒ ⟨z⟩ | ɡ | |||
| prenasalized / trilled | ᵐb /ʙ ⟨mb⟩ | ⁿdʳ /dʳ ⟨ndr⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | x ⟨kh⟩ | h | ||
| voiced | v ⟨w⟩ | z | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ /β ⟨w⟩ | l | j ⟨y⟩ | w ⟨ŵ⟩ | |||
| Trill | r | ||||||
Phonetic descriptions of the sounds traditionally written as⟨mb⟩ and⟨ndr⟩ greatly vary. Sundermann (1913) and Halawa et al. (1983) describe them as prenasalized stop[ᵐb] and prenasalized trilled stop[ⁿdʳ] for the northern dialect,[9][10] while Brown (2005) records them as trill[ʙ] and trilled stop[dʳ] for the southern dialect.[8] In an acoustic study of Nias dialects from three locations, Yoder (2010) shows a complex pattern of four phonetic realizations of⟨mb⟩ and⟨ndr⟩: plain stop, prenasalized stop, stop with trilled release, stop with fricated release.[11][a]
The status of initial[ʔ] is not determined; there are no phonetic vowel-initial words in Nias.
The contrast between[v] and[ʋ] (both written⟨w⟩ in common spelling) is only observed in the southern dialect. Here, the fricative[v] only occurs in initial position in the mutated form (see§Noun case marking (mutation)) of nouns beginning withf, e.g.fakhe ~wakhe[vaxe].The approximant[ʋ] can appear in initial and medial position, and is in free variation with[v] for many speakers of the southern dialect.[12] For the northern dialect, only fricative approximant[ʋ] is reported, corresponding to both sounds of southern Nias.[13] The semivowel[w] is a distinct phoneme and is written⟨ŵ⟩ in common spelling.[14]
Nias has anergative–absolutive alignment.[15] It is the only known ergative–absolutive language in the world that has a "marked absolutive", which means that absolutive case is marked, whereas ergative case is unmarked.[16][17]
There are noadjectives in Nias; words with that function are taken by verbs.[18]
The following table lists the free and bound pronouns of Nias (green = only used in the northern dialect,red = only used in the southern dialect):[19][20][21]
| independent | absolutive | genitive | ergative realis | S = A irrealis | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.sg. | ya'o / ya'odo / ya'oto | ndra'o(do) / ‑do / ndrao(to) | -gu | u- | gu- |
| 2.sg. | ya'ugö | ndra'ugö / ‑ö / ndraugö | -u / ‑mö | ö- | gö- |
| 3.sg. | ya'ia | ia / ya | -nia | i- | ya- |
| 1.pl.incl. | ya'ita | ita | -da | ta- | da- |
| 1.pl.excl. | ya'aga | ndra'aga / ‑ga | -ma | ma- | ga- |
| 2.pl. | ya'ami | ami / -mi | -mi | mi- | gi- |
| 3.pl. | ya'ira | ira | -ra | la- | ndra- |
Independent pronouns are used:
Andrehe'e
nasu
dog:MUT
si-usu
(southern dialect)[23]
Andrehe'e nasu si-usuya'o
DIST dog:MUT REL-bite 1SG.IND
'That's the dog that bit me.'
Absolutive pronouns are used:
(northern dialect)[25]
I-tegundra'o ama-gu
3SG.ERG-scold 1SG.ABS father-1SG.GEN
'My father scolds me.'
Ata'u
afraid
nasu
dog:MUT
(southern dialect)[26]
Ata'u nasundrao
afraid dog:MUT 1SG.ABS
'The dog is afraid of me.'
Genitive pronouns are used:
Löna
not
ahono
calm
ve-mörö-nia
(southern dialect)[27]
Löna ahono ve-mörö-nia
not calm NR:MUT-sleep-3SG.GEN
'Her sleep was not restful.'
vamaoso-ra
(southern dialect)[28]
La-faigi vamaoso-ra
3PL.ERG-see NR:MUT:IPF:raise-3PL.GEN
'They watched them raise [it].'
zekhula
coconut:MUT
ni-rökhi-nia
(southern dialect)[29]
U-fake zekhula ni-rökhi-nia
1SG.ERG-use coconut:MUT PASS-grate-3SG.GEN
'I used the coconut which she grated.'
Ergative (realis) pronouns are used:
Irrealis pronouns are used in the southern dialect:
ba
fasa
market
mahemolu
tomorrow
(southern dialect)[31]
Gu-möi ba fasa mahemolu
1SG.IRR-go LOC market tomorrow
'I want to go to the market tomorrow.'
Gu-moturagö
(southern dialect)[32]
Gu-moturagö ndraugö khö-ra
1SG.IRR-IRR:tell.about 2SG.ABS DAT-3PL.GEN
'I'm going to tell them about you.'
In the northern dialect, the irrealis pronouns are restricted to third person, and are employed in what Sundermann (1913) calls "jussive" mood.
Case marking ofnouns is indicated in Nias bymutation of the initial consonant. Several consonants are subject to mutation as shown in the table below. Where a word begins in a vowel, eithern org is added before the vowel; the choice ofn org is lexically conditioned. (For example,öri ~ nöri is 'village federation',öri ~ göri is 'bracelet'.)[34]
| Unmutated form | Mutated form |
|---|---|
| f | v |
| t | d |
| s | z |
| c | |
| k | g |
| b | mb |
| d | ndr |
| vowel | n + vowel g + vowel |
Other consonants do not change.
The unmutated case form is used in citation. It further appears in all functions described above for independent pronouns:
Additionally, A arguments in independent transitive clauses appear in unmutated case, cross-referenced by the corresponding ergative or irrealis pronoun.
vakhe
rice:MUT
(southern dialect)[35]
I-rino vakheina-gu
3SG.ERG rice:MUT mother-1SG.GEN
'My mother cooked rice.'
The mutated case form of the noun corresponds in function to both the absolutive and the genitive pronouns:
Mate
die
meneßi
yesterday
(southern dialect; unmutated:sibaya)[36]
Matezibaya-nia meneßi
die uncle:MUT-3SG.GEN yesterday
'His uncle died yesterday.'
vakhe
rice:MUT
(southern dialect; unmutated:fakhe)[35]
I-rinovakhe ina-gu
3SG.ERG rice:MUT mother-1SG.GEN
'My mother cooked rice.'
omo
house
(southern dialect; unmutated:ka'a)[37]
omoga'a-gu
house older.sibling:MUT-1SG.GEN
'my brother's house'
