Teiwa
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Pantar Island
Native speakers	4,000 (2010)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea ? West Bomberai ? Timor–Alor–Pantar Alor–Pantar Teiwa
Dialects	Teiwa Sar
Language codes
ISO 639-3	twe
Glottolog	teiw1236
ELP	Teiwa
Teiwa Show map of Lesser Sunda Islands Teiwa Show map of Indonesia Teiwa Show map of Southeast Asia
Coordinates:8°23′S124°10′E / 8.38°S 124.17°E /-8.38; 124.17

Teiwa (also referred to asTewa)^[2] is aPapuan language spoken on thePantar island in easternIndonesia. The island is the second largest in theAlor archipelago, lying just west of the largest islandAlor.

Teiwa is a morphosyntactically simple language with little inflection and is as such described as anisolating language, also known as an analytic language. It is pronounced by a complex pronoun system.

Teiwa is also known asBahasa Teiwa (the Teiwa language) in Indonesia. Teiwa itself is anominal compound and can be translated astei wa, meaning "tree leaf". The term "Teiwa" derives from the name of the main clan that speaks it. Generally, when Teiwa speakers refer to their own language, especially to differentiate it from the national language Indonesian, they call it "pitarau" (our language).

Teiwa is often classified as part of theTrans-New Guinea language family, but this is disputed. One reason is little lexical proof as well as the large geographical distance from the main island of New Guinea. An alternative classification is as part of theTimor-Alor-Pantar language family, which is approximately 3000 years old. Within this language family, Teiwa is further categorized within the sub-family of the Alor-Pantar languages, which are 20 in number. This classification bases on the high number ofcognates as well as very similar pronoun systems.

Teiwa is spoken on the island ofPantar, which is part of theAlor Archipelago, located betweenAustralia andIndonesia. The island is located approximately 1000 km from the main island ofNew Guinea. It stretches 50 km from north to south, and between 11 and 29 km from east to west. The island is split into two distinct geographic regions: the dry and less populated lowlands in the west, and the highlands in the east, which are mountainous, volcanic and densely populated.

There were 4000 documented native speakers of Teiwa in 2010. The speakers live primarily in thedesas (administrative villages in Indonesia) Lebang, Boweli, Kalib, Nule, Kadir, and Madar, a village of 460 inhabitants (as of 2007). Lebang is the main village, where Teiwa was still spoken by most people, young and old. Nevertheless, the national language ofIndonesian as well as the Chinese-influencedAlor Malay tend to be spoken by the younger generations and used for teaching in schools. As a result of this dwindling number of native speakers, Teiwa is listed as anendangered language.

TheGrammar of Teiwa byMarian Klamer is the only linguistic documentation besides a short word list from Stokhof (1975).Klamer gathered most of her data in the village of Madar.

The following is a phonological description of Teiwa:^[2]

Teiwa has an inventory of 20 consonants, a high amount relative to other Papuan languages. In the table below, the orthographic representation of the sound is given in brackets to the right. The contrast between thepharyngeal andglottalfricative shows itself as exceptional within the languages of Eastern Indonesia, as is the existence of both liquids /l/ and /r/.

Theallophones of /ɸ/ are[ɸ] and[p]. The allophones of /v/ are[v] and[f].

Teiwa has an inventory of 5cardinal vowels. The twohigh vowels occur as short (/i/, /u/) and long (/uː/, /iː/). As in the consonant table, the orthographic representations are given in the brackets to the right.

The allophones of /a/ are the short[a] and the long[aː].

The grammar of Teiwa is as follows:^[2]

Grammatical relations are the relations betweenargument andpredicate. InTeiwa, these are formally expressed through pronouns from the object and subject paradigms, as well as a strictconstituent order.

Thesubject relation is the agent argument of a transitive verb, from hereon denoted withA, or the single argument of an intransitive predicate, from hereon denoted withS. Both are encoded similarly.

Theobject relation is the non-agent argument of a transitive verb, from hereon denoted withP.

Teiwa is syntacticallyhead-final, with Object-Verb constituent order: preverbal subject and object, sentence final verbs, negations, and conjunctions.

With intransitive verbs, there isSV-order. With transitive verbs, there isAPV-order.

TheA of the second (transitive) verbtu'uk coreferences with (shares the same reference as) theS of the first (intransitive) verbyaa in the example above.

In this example, the Subject (A) is the pronominal, and the object (P) is the lexical NP (noun phrase).

There are three pronoun paradigms in Teiwa:subject,object, andpossessive. The 'theme vowel' for singular pronouns is⟨a⟩, and for plural pronouns it is⟨i⟩. The second syllable of the long pronoun is a copy of the theme vowel with the addition of an-n.^[2]

There is a contrast ofinclusive-exclusive first person plural, one of the most prominent features to diffuse from theAustronesian languages into the Papuan languages.

Subject pronouns appear before the object and verb.

Thelong subject pronoun is used to setcontrastive focus (me, not you), which can further be marked withla as the focus NP. They look nearly identical to thefree object pronouns, save for the 3s and 3p.elsewhere pronouns.

Theshort subject pronoun is a "reduced pronoun" which can stand alone in place of nominal constituents, and is separable from the verb. Its paradigm is nearly identical to that of theobject prefixes, except for the 3s, 3p, and 3p.elsewhere pronouns.

Both the short and long object pronouns can expressS andA.

The underlined pronouns are a reminder of the differences to the long subject pronoun andshort subject pronoun paradigms, respectively.

Theobject prefix has aconsonantal andsyllabic (in parentheses) form: the consonantal form appears before a verb beginning with a vowel, and the syllabic form appears before a verb beginning with a consonant.

Theobject pronoun is for both animate and inanimatereferents, whereas theobject prefix is exclusively for animate referents.

With the 3p (third person plural) object prefix, the differentiation of number is lost. In this case, number is specified through use of the additional pronounga'an (singular),iman (plural), or the plural wordnon in the object NP.

The 3s (third person singular) object pronoun maintains a further purpose as ademonstrative pronoun to introduce new participants into the discourse.

The final two pronouns,elsewhere anddistributive, are unique. The 3p.elsewhere pronoun is used in a situation where the speaker cannot see the referent, because the referent is somewhere else.

Contrast this with the standard, unmarked form (3p):

Thedistributive possessive pronoun (ta'an, ta, orta-) refers to a (non-collective) plural number of human referents, often in reciprocal contexts.

One more special possessive pronoun isli'in, which marks plurality of the possessor NP, and only as an adnominal modifier.[2]

Compare:

In Teiwa, the noun typically appears as head of theNP. The noun, with a few exceptions, cannot be reduplicated, unlike verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. (SeeReduplication below.)

There is no marking for number, gender, or case on nouns. Instead,person andnumber is marked via apossessor prefix on the noun.

Inpossessed NP's, the possessor (the noun which possesses) precedes the possessee (the noun which is possessed), as in the examples below.

Innon-possessed NP's, the noun comes first, followed by the modifying element, such as an adjective.

The Teiwa nouns can be divided into two main classes:Proper nouns andcommon nouns.

Proper nouns are not modifiable. Examples are listed below.^[2]

Male names:Edi, Goli, Lius, Mase, Nabas, Ribu

Female names:Bruang, Leti, Malai, Mani, Sam

Family names:Biri, Blegar, Bui, Lau, Qoli, Ribu, Unu

Clan names:Barawasi, Burilak, Loxoq, Perang Tubi, Qailipi

Thecommon nouns can be further divided into subclasses:

In this subclass thepossessor prefix is optional.Focus can be placed with use of a long pronoun. Examples include:yaf 'house',kon 'shirt',qavif 'goat'.

Here thepossessor prefix is obligatory, to the point that native speakers will not recognize the word without the prefix. Nouns with inalienable possession include body parts, and kinship terms (except foremaq 'wife' where the prefix is optional as with alienable possession).

This last subclass of nouns denote location. Examples include:wanan 'side',fan 'front',siban 'behind',ragan 'outside',tag 'up(stairs); above speaker (relatively close)'.

There is no dedicated morphology for nominalization in Teiwa. Instead the third person (3p) possessor prefix-ga has a secondary function of attaching to the root form of adjectives, locational nouns, adverbs, and question words.^[2]

Teiwa verbs carry no marking forcase orgender. There is only one verbalsuffix;

-(a)n for the marking ofrealis status. Only verbs take an objectprefix. Inflected prefixes index person and number traits of animate objects on the verb. Subjects and inanimate objects arenot indexed on the verb.

Teiwa hasintransitive andtransitive verbs. The transitive verbs are monotransitive, meaning they have a single grammatical object.

The transitive verbs in Teiwa can be divided into numerous sub classes, based on how they encodeanimate and inanimate objects differently. In this case, animate or inanimate refers explicitly to a third person referent, since first and second person referents are inherently animate.

Class (i)

Verbs with an objectprefix, with an animate object ("sb-somebody")

This class expresses the object with an object-marking prefix on the verb. Theprefix marks for person and number. The lexical NP is optional and may be used to clarify or disambiguate the referent.

Examples of verbs are:an ‘give sb’,‘an ‘sell to sb’,ayas ‘throw at sb’,bun ‘answer sb’,fin ‘catch sb’,liin ‘invite sb’,regan ‘ask sb’,sas ‘feed sb’,walas ‘tell sb’,wei ‘bathe sb’

Examples of such verbs in sentence constructions:

The prefixga- on the verb-uyan marks for third person singular object, that is forqavif, 'goat'. Goat is ananimate object.

Here similarly, the prefixga- on the verb-walas marks for third person singular object, that is foryivar, 'dog'. Dog is ananimate object.

Class (ii)

Verbs without an object prefix, with inanimate object ("sth-something")

Here the verb encodes the object as a separate nominal constituent. In this class the encoding with a prefix is disallowed.

Examples of such verbs are:bali ‘see sth’,ol ‘buy sth’,paai ‘cut sth in many small pieces’,put ‘cut off (grass)’An example in a sentence construction:

The verbs in this sentence have no object prefix, and the object 'fish' is inanimate (because it is no longer living).

Class (iii)

Transitive verbs that take either animate or inanimate objects

iiia. Transitive verbs withprefixed animate object OR free (unfixed) inanimate object

With free inanimate object (object prefix not bound to verb).

With prefixed animate object

Notice the important difference in meaning with the use a prefixed pronoun versus a free pronoun!

iiib. Verbs with an animate OR inanimate object,both as a prefix

Third person object prefixes marking animate or inanimate:

The contrasts are illustrated in the below translations:

A glottal stop is used for animate objects. The canonical form is used for inanimate objects.

An interesting class of verbs constituting verbs for sounds made by animals or objects.^[2]

These are predicates formed with the bodypart noun-om 'inside'^[2]

Reduplication is a morphological process to express greater intensity or the repeated/ongoing nature of an event. InTeiwa, the entire root is copied; there exists no productive process for syllable reduplication.^[2]

of verbs

of verbs with the realis suffix

Reduplication of the entire stem including the realis suffix takes place. Only verbs can be inflected forrealis mood.

of adverbials

of adjectives

*The adjectival base is first turned into a verb through reduplication, in order to allow the realis suffix to be reduplicated (only verbs can be reduplicated with a realis suffix).

of numerals

of nouns

Reduplication of nouns is rarer, and does not serve to express plurality of distributivity.

The Teiwa live inexogamous,patrilineal clans: the children belong to the clan of the father. The term "Teiwa" refers to a group of (sub) clans with the same ancestors. TheTeiwa branch into twomoieties (halves), which are separate genealogical supergroups, each of which includes multiple clans.

Children are named with 1) clan name, 2) given name 3) father's family name, for exampleTeiwa Jance Wa'ng.

The kinship system of the Teiwa is based oncross-cousins. This means that the children of same-sex siblings are considered to be siblings (brother, sister), and therefore not fit for marriage with one another. Children of non-same sex siblings of the parents are seen as cross-cousins and are the perfect candidates for marriage with each other. These children are also in a different clan than the children of the same-sex siblings of the parents.

The main kinship terms are listed here:

From the point of view of female ego:

The "classificatory siblings" refer to the actual siblings, as well as the children of themother's sister and thefather's brother. As it is considered rude to call family members by their given name, these siblings are addressed asmatu' when older andbif when younger, andka'au when the same sex as the speaker.

The "classificatory parents" are thefather's brother (n-oma 'my father'), as well as themother's sister (na-xala 'my mother'). Each person therefore has two sets of parents.

• Klamer, Marian (2010).A Grammar of Teiwa. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Klamer, Marian (2017) [first published 2014]."The Alor-Pantar languages: Linguistic context, history and typology". In Klamer, Marian (ed.).The Alor-Pantar languages: History and Typology. Studies in Diversity Linguistics (second ed.). Berlin: Language Science Press.doi:10.5281/zenodo.437098.ISBN 978-3-944675-94-7.

For a list of words relating to Teiwa language, see theTeiwa language category of words inWiktionary, the free dictionary.

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