Main location of use of the Larantuka Malay in Flores, especially inEast Flores (red).
Larantuka Malay (bahasa Nagi,Melayu Larantuka), also known asNagi,[3] is aMalay-based creole language spoken in the eastern part ofFlores in Indonesia, especially inLarantuka. It is a derivative ofMalay which is thought to originate fromMalacca.[1] It is a language with unspecified linguistic affiliation. According to 2007 data, this language is spoken by 20,000 speakers, mainly the people of East Flores.[2] Larantuka Malay is themother tongue of the Nagi people.[3] Then it also functions as asecond language for several nearby communities.[4]
Apart from the Larantuka, speakers also live in Konga which are also on Flores and Wure (Wureh) onAdonara, where the two dialects are different.[5] In literature it is also calledEnde Malay.[6] However, this name is not quite correct and it is not known where it came from, because it was never used at all inEnde.[1] Contrary to the geographical proximity of the two Malay varieties mentioned earlier, they are not at all related toKupang Malay.[7] Historically, this language has high prestige, where it is a language with a higher status in the eastern part of the island, However, its role was reduced due to pressure from thenational language, namelyIndonesian. Among its users, it is even starting to be considered a variety of Indonesian.[8]
In terms of grammaticaltypology, Larantuka Malay can be considered as anisolating language, "with little productive morphology of any kind, apart of reduplication."[9]
The name "Nagi" refers to the origins of their language and ethnicity, originating from the Malay wordnegeri, which means 'place of birth'.[3] The origins and classification of this language are still unclear. It appears to display characteristics of theWestern Malay variety, as well as the Malay variants found in eastern Indonesia, especially in the branch of Eastern Indonesia Malay.[10] According to the directory byEthnologue (22nd edition) this is a Malay-based creole language.[2] However, when compared with other varieties of Easteen Indonesia Malay, this language has its ownlexical and phonological characteristics.[7] Unlike the languages in these branches, this language never became alingua franca or developed to the detriment of local languages.[11] Larantuka Malay clearly shows lexical influence fromLamaholot.[12] There are also many words borrowed fromPortuguese.[7] Its unusual feature is the mixed possessive construction, the highly productiveserial verb construction, using different verb pairs, as well as partialreduplication or with a change of subject.[13]
Structural and phonological characteristics indicate that Larantuka Malay formed independently from the geographically closest Malay variety,[14] although in its development it takes over some of its properties (including a certain order of possessive structures — possessor-possessum with the connector 'puN').[15] This language is thought to have migrated directly from theMalay Peninsula together with its speakers.[16] It is possible that this was the result of mixing varieties from the Malay Peninsula with historic commercial varieties, however, the course of this process is never known.[17] Their separate origins are also indicated by most of the vocabulary.[18]
Larantuka Malay has been documented to some extent, including unpublished grammatical and dictionary data,[19] which isKamus Dwibahasa..., 1975;[20]Morfologi dan Sintaksis Bahasa Melayu Larantuka, 1985;[21]Struktur Kata dan Struktur Frasa Bahasa Melayu Larantuka, 1993.[22] H. Steinhauer (1991) discusses the phonology and development of Larantuka Malay.1991 This language is written inLatin script, although on a minimal scale.[2] Literature is underdeveloped and limited to certain groups of texts.[23] Larantuka Malay is considered an endangered language.[2] Especially because the national language, Indonesian, is used in the education activity, mass media, and religious activity.[8]
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017).Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^abcCollins, Mufwene & Escobar 2022, 6. Malay in Other Settings. Cite: In addition to a very large number of Portuguese loanwords, the phonology is divergent from other Malay variants in the region (Collins 1994b).
^Monteiro, Frans (1975).Kamus Dwibahasa Dialek Melayu Larantuka (Flores) – Bahasa Indonesia (in Indonesian).
^F. Monteiro; F. Sanga; Y. Hayon; S. Fernandez (1985).Morfologi dan Sintaksis Bahasa Melayu Larantuka: Laporan Hasil Penelitian (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Proyek Penelitian Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah.
^Theresia Yosephine, Kumanireng (1993).Struktur Kata dan Struktur Frasa Bahasa Melayu Larantuka (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Program Pendidikan Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Indonesia.OCLC47862941.
^Theresia Yosephine, Kumanireng (1993).Struktur Kata dan Struktur Frasa Bahasa Melayu Larantuka (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Program Pendidikan Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Indonesia.OCLC47862941.
^Monteiro, Frans (1975).Kamus Dwibahasa Dialek Melayu Larantuka (Flores) – Bahasa Indonesia (in Indonesian).
^F. Monteiro; F. Sanga; Y. Hayon; S. Fernandez (1985).Morfologi dan Sintaksis Bahasa Melayu Larantuka: Laporan Hasil Penelitian (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Proyek Penelitian Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah.
^Collins, Mufwene & Escobar 2022, 6. Malay in Other Settings. Cite: Larantuka Malay [...] shows no special relationship to Ambonese or Kupang Malay, although the distance between Kupang and Larantuka (Flores Island) is only 215km.
^Collins, Mufwene & Escobar 2022, 6. Malay in Other Settings. Cite: In addition to a very large number of Portuguese loanwords, the phonology is divergent from other Malay variants in the region (Collins 1994b).
Adelaar, K. Alexander; Prentice, David J.; Grijns, Cornells D.; Steinhauer, Hein; van Engelenhoven, Aone (1996). "Malay: its history, role and spread". In Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tryon, Darrell T. (eds.).Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Vol I: Maps. Vol II: Texts. Trends in Linguistics. Documentation 13. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 673–693.doi:10.1515/9783110819724.2.673.ISBN9783110819724.OCLC1013949454.
Bos, Paula R. (2005). "Nagi music and community: belonging and displacement in Larantuka, eastern Indonesia". In Hae-kyung Um (ed.).Diasporas and Interculturalism in Asian Performing Arts: Translating Traditions. Abingdon–New York: RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 144–158.doi:10.4324/9780203641903.ISBN0-203-64190-6.OCLC53215736.ISBN0-700-71586-X.
Collins, James T.; Mufwene, Salikoko S.; Escobar, Anna María; et al. (Language Spread) (2022). "The Geographic and Demographic Expansion of Malay".The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact. Population Movement and Language Change. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 327–357.doi:10.1017/9781316796146.016.ISBN978-1-009-09864-9.OCLC1330434857.
Wurm, Stephen A.; Mühlhäusler, Peter; Tryon, Darrell T.; Alexander, Adelaar K.; Prentice, David J.; Grijns, Cornells D.; Steinhauer, Hein; van Engelenhoven, Aone (1996)."Malay: its history, role and spread".Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Vol I: Maps. Vol II: Texts. Trends in Linguistics. Documentation 13. Berlin–New York: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 673–693.doi:10.1515/9783110819724.2.673.ISBN978-3-11-081972-4.OCLC1013949454. Retrieved2023-01-14.
Steinhauer, Hein (1991). "Malay in east Indonesia: the case of Larantuka (Flores)".Papers in Austronesian Linguistics(PDF). Pacific Linguistics A-81. Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. 177–195.doi:10.15144/PL-A81.177.ISBN0858834022.OCLC646958819. Retrieved2023-01-14.
