North Moluccan Malay (also known asTernate Malay) is aMalay-based creole language spoken onTernate,Tidore,Morotai,Halmahera, andSula Islands inNorth Maluku for intergroup communications. The local name of the language isbahasa Pasar (literally 'market language'), and the name Ternate Malay is also used, after the main ethnic group speaking the language. It is commonly written usingIndonesian orthography. One of its varieties is Sula Malay, which was formed with the influence ofAmbonese Malay.^[2]

A large percentage of this language's lexicon has been borrowed fromTernatean, such as,ngana 'you (sg.)',ngoni 'you (pl.)',bifi 'ant', andfuma 'stupid', and its syntax and semantics have received heavy influence from the surroundingWest Papuan languages.^[3] Other vernacular forms of Malay spoken in eastern Indonesia, such asManado Malay andPapuan Malay, are said to be derived from an earlier form of North Moluccan Malay.^[4]

The vowel system of North Moluccan Malay consists of five vowel phonemes and five diphthongs.^[5]: 15

The five diphthongs are/ai/,/ae/,/ao/,/oi/ and/ei/.^[5]: 15

North Moluccan Malay has eighteen consonants and two semivowels.^[5]: 19

In Ternate Malay, words do not align its forms with its grammatical roles; therefore, the functions of words are often determined by linguistic context and non-linguistic situation. In this case,possessions are often used as a tool to determine the borders ofconstituents for the sake of successful interpretation of word meanings and functions.^[5]: 41

Generally, words in Ternate Malay are often constructed inhead-initial structure, except from the two possessive constructions– Y pe X constructions andYX constructions, where words are constructed inhead-final structure.^[5]: 59

In theY pe X construction, the Y element refers to themodifier (possessor) while the X element refers to thehead (possessum). Thepossessor andpossessum are connected bype, in which thepossessum expressesde facto anominal meaning. In English, the Ype X constructions gives the meaning of ‘Y’s X’ and ‘the X of Y’.^[5]: 59

According to Litamahuputty,^[5]: 92Y pe X construction can express different meanings ranging frompossession in animate subjects and inanimate subjects to non-possessive meanings. The examples below are extracted from Litamahuputty^{[5]: 92–98} to illustrate situations whenY pe X construction is used to expresspossessions.

In example (1),tong pe kaki is a possessive construction where thepossessortong ‘the first person plural – our’ is connected to thepossessumkaki ‘leg’ usingpe. Together, the construction gives the meaning of‘our leg’, in which the leg is a part of ‘our’ body, demonstrating the relationship of ‘X is part of Y’

In example (2),ular pe bisa is a possessive construction where thepossessorular ‘snake’ is connected to thepossessumbisa ‘venom’ usingpe. Together, the construction means‘the snake’s venom’, in which the venom is produced by the snake, demonstrating the relationship of ‘X is a product of Y’.

In example (3),motor pe warna is a possessive construction where thepossessormotor ‘motorcycle’ is connected to thepossessumwarna ‘colour’ usingpe. Together, the construction gives the meaning of‘the colour of the motorcycle’, in which the colour is one of the features (such as shape, model, engine…etc.) of the motorcycle, demonstrating the relationship of ‘X is a feature of Y’.

In example (4),bank pe bini is a possessive construction where thepossessorbank ‘bank employee’ is connected to thepossessumbini‘wife’ usingpe. Together, the construction brings the meaning of‘the bank employees’ wives’, which expresses the social relationship between the humane animates.

In example (5),Fadin pe kaka is a possessive construction where thepossessorFadin (aproper noun) is connected to thepossessumkaka ‘older sibling’. Together, the construction gives the meaning of‘Fadin’s older brother’, which expresses the kinship relationship between the two humane animates.

Example (6) is about a story of how the speaker accidentally spilled hot oil on himself.

In the possessive constructionde pe beso, thepossessorde ‘third person singular’ refers to the day of incident, where thepossessumbeso‘tomorrow’ refers to the day after the incident. Future time relationship is shown between the day of incident and the day after the incident.

Example (7) is about the journey of the speaker and his friends in an island where he heard a strange voice.

In the possessive constructionde pe kalamareng malang, thepossessorde ‘third person singular’ refers to the moment when the speaker was talking, where thepossessumkalamareng malang ‘yesterday night’ refers to the night before that moment, demonstrating past time relationship between the time when the speaker heard strange voice and the time he talked.

In Example (8),de pe bae is a possessive expression where the possessorde ‘third person singular – his’ is connected to the possesumbae ‘kindness’ withpe. The expression has the meaning of‘his kindness’, demonstrating a quality of the humane subject.

This relationship is similar toX is a feature of Y which was demonstrated earlier, where example (8) refers to an animate and example (3) refers to an inanimate.

From the above examples, it can be seen that wide ranges ofpossessions, includingpossessions in human, animals, objects or even abstract items like time, can be demonstrated from theY pe X constructions.

As mentioned earlier, word functions in Ternate Malay are often determined from contexts rather than word forms. Therefore, not allY pe X constructions show possessive meanings. The examples below demonstrate situations whereY pe X construction is used to express meanings other thanpossession, for example, to express evaluative meanings or additional information:^{[5]: 99–102}

When the possessum (X) denotes a quality with exclamative markers, it has an evaluative meaning rather than a possessive meaning.

In example (9), the Y element in theY pe X construction ‘ngana pe capat’ isngana, which refers to‘second person singular’; and the X element iscapa’, which refers to‘fast’.

Since the sentence is expressed in exclamative intonations, which can be shown from theexclamation mark used at the end of the sentence and the use ofih (the exclamative expression), the construction has the evaluative meaning of‘how fast you are!’ rather than a possessive meaning of referring the ‘quality of fastness’ to the subject.

When the possessum (X) denotes an action or activity, it supplies additional information to the action or activity rather than showing possessions.

In example (10), the Y element in theY pe X construction ‘paitua pe cuci balanga’ ispaitua, which refers to‘old man’; and the X element iscuci balanga, which refers to‘to wash a wok’.

The example provided extra information on what surprised the speaker rather than showingpossession between the old man and his way of washing a wok.

In theYX construction, the Y element refers to themodifier (possessor), which is often a personal pronoun or a kinship term; and the X element refers to thehead (possessum), which is often a thing word. The construction also has a meaning of ‘Y’s X’ and ‘the X of Y’ in English.^[5]: 102 The examples below are extracted from Litamahuputty,^{[5]: 103–104} which demonstrated the use of element Y as apersonal pronoun and kinship term inYX constructions:

Example (11) has demonstrated the use ofYX construction with element Y as apersonal pronoun, where thepossessordong refers to ‘third person plural’ and thepossessumparau refers to‘boat’. Together, it has the meaning of‘their boat’ .

Example (12) has demonstrated the use ofYX construction with element Y as a kinship term, where thepossessortete refers to grandfather and thepossessumpapa refers to father. Together, the expression has the meaning of‘the grandfather’s father’, demonstrating the kinship relationship.

Personal pronouns in North Moluccan Malay only distinguish betweenperson (first, second and third person) andnumber (singular and plural). Some pronouns can also be used to show respect to other speakers.^[5]: 142

The use of the first person singular pronounskita andsaya is dependent on the speech situation.Kita is used when talking to others of the same or lower age, rank or status. On the other hand,saya is used in more formal situations or when conversing with someone with a higher rank or status, to show respect to the other person.^[5]: 143

The second person singular and plural pronouns,ngana andngoni also share a similar distinction.Ngana is used to refer to an addressee if they of the same or lower age, rank or status. Otherwise speakers may use personal names or kinship terms to refer to the addressee.^[5]: 144 Alternatively, the plural second person pronounngoni can occasionally be used to refer to a single addressee respectfully, although it is typically reserved for addressing a group of people.^[5]: 147

These distinctions are demonstrated in example (1) where the speaker telling his friends of a situation where he explains to a woman that he does not want to accept money for helping to carry her shopping onto the bus. Since he is talking to his friends he refers to himself askita, but because he is not familiar with the woman he uses the more respectfulsaya to refer to himself andngoni to address her.

For pronouns with a full and shortened form, the two forms may be used interchangeably in most contexts. However, following the conjunctiondeng or prepositions (such asdi,ka,dari orpa) only the full form may be used.^[5]: 142 This is seen in example (2) where the short formde is used except following the prepositionpa, where the full formsdia andtorang appear instead:

In addition, the shortened forms do not appear post-verbally (i.e. after predicates).^{[5]: 144–147} Hence in the following exampletong cannot appear after the verbbunu "kill", only the full formtorang is allowed:

The full form of the first person plural pronountorang is actually a shortening ofkitorang which is sometimes used by older speakers however younger speakers rarely use this form.^[5]: 145

The only exceptions to the two restrictions mentioned above is when the pronoun is part of a Ype Xpossessive construction in which case the shortened form may be used as the possessor Y.^[5]: 142 Example (4) shows a possessive Ype X construction containing the first person plural short form pronoundong occurring after a prepositionpa:

Similarly, example (5) shows the third person singular short form pronounde occurring after the verbiko "follow" also as part of a Ype X possessive construction. This contrasts with the use of the full formdia after the second instance ofiko, where the pronoun is no longer part of a possessive construction:

North Moluccan Malay uses predicate operators to express negation (negators). Predicate operators are used to express certain meaning aspects, they also act as a grammatical function by showing that the construction in which they take part in is best to be interpreted as predicate.tara 'not (present)' andbukang 'not' are two negators that are frequently used to negate predicates in this language.^[5]: 222

tara implies absolute absence 'not present'; however, while used in negating thing constructions contexts,tara could mean 'not possess'. On the other hand,bukang implies a contradiction 'not A, (but B)'. In negating thing constructions,bukang negates the identity of the thing and implies an alternative.^[5]: 222

Examples of the usage of negatortara 'not (present)' can be seen in the following sentences.^{[5]: 222–223}

Example (1) shows negatortara preceding predicatetidor 'sleep', this resultstara tidor 'not sleep'.

In example (2), the predicatesadiki 'a little' refers to a small amount. Preceded by negatortara,tara sadiki 'not a little' refers to the subject of the examplede pe sajara 'the history', which has a Ype X possession construction.tara sadiki 'not a little' in this case describes the amount of the subject as the entity.

Example (3) showstara negating predicatedua 'two' which refers to an amount. In this case,tara dua 'there are no two (of them)' works as an expression which means that something has no equal. The subjectkita pe mara ni 'my anger' expresses the entity that it has no (second) equivalent.

Example (4) displays tara with the meaning 'not possess'. The predicate consists of negator tara 'not' preceding cewe 'girl' resulting tara cewe 'no girl(friend)'. This predicate describes the state of subject kita 'first person singular' which make the meaning 'not possess' of tara relevant. This results tara cewe to have the meaning 'do not have a girl(friend)'.

Similar to example (4), example (5) shows the sense of 'not possess' oftara. The story of example (5) is that the speaker thought that he was offered tea when it was actually instant coffee. The explanation is that he was not familiar with instant coffee since he usually drank coffee that had coffee dregs in it. In this example, the predicate is constructed of negatortara andampas 'dregs', this resultstara ampas '(there are) no dregs' which in this situationampas is coffee dregs.

Negatortara also has variations, one of them is when it precedesada 'be present' then it can merge intotarada 'not present'. Generally,tara ada 'not be present' andtarada can be used interchangeably; however, some speaker might have clear distinction between the two.^[5]: 223

Example (6) shows that the predicate consists of negatortara andada resultingtara ada 'not present'. The predicate precede the subjectaer 'water', therefore it has a predicate-subject construction oftara ada aer 'there is no water'.

Example (7) hastarada as its predicate. The example consisted of two clauses, the first onesamua tikus kacili 'all mice are small' which describes the size of the mice. The second clause consists of predicatetarada andyang basar 'big ones' (with the information from the previous clause, this refers to the mice). This also constructs a predicate-subject construction as found in example (6), which resultstarada yang basar 'there are no big ones'.

tarada could also act as the negative response to questions, this function could be applied to example (8). In this example, the speaker gives two alternatives of the possible results of a soccer player kicking a ball. The first alternative is that there would be agol 'goal', while the second one there wouldn'ttarada 'not (present)'.tarada 'no' could be used give this question a negative answer.^[5]: 223

tar is another variation oftara, which is a shorten form of it.tar can immediately precede a predicate and no other lexical material can intervene. It seems thattar is in a progress of becoming a bound elementtar- to express negation.^[5]: 224

Example (9) shows the use oftar as the shortened form oftara in the predicate which is then followed bytau 'know'. This resultstar tau ' not know'.

Negatorbukang means 'not A, (but B)', it implies that the opposite or the alternative of the expressed is prominent. It is not obligatory to overtly express the opposite or alternative.^[5]: 224

Example (10) has a story of a man to be mistaken as a porter, therefore he explained that he was not. The example has negatorbukang precedingana-ana baangka 'porter', this resultsbukang ana-ana baangka 'not a porter'. In this example,ana-ana baangka is the negated scope.

Different from example (10) that doesn't imply explicitly the alternative or opposite, example (11) states clearly the alternative of the negated thing. Example (11) has a story of someone asking the speaker if there is actually a snake in his garden. The speaker then answer the question usingbukang which negatesdi atas,di atas refers to a location on the hill. The alternative or the opposite is stated asdi bawa barangka 'at the lower part, at the ditch'.^[5]: 225

Example (12) displays a case wherebukang negates a clause. The story of example (12) is about a boat that seem to be moving by itself, which then the real cause is explained.bukang precedesdong panggayung 'they paddle' in order to perform negation. The alternative, which in this case is the real reason of the situation, is stated asikang kase lari dong parao 'a fish takes away their boat'. The negation scope in this example is on the people who paddle the boat, because it was actually the fish that moved the boat instead of the people.^[5]: 225

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