| West Damar | |
|---|---|
| North Damar | |
| Damar Batumerah | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Maluku Islands |
Native speakers | (800 cited 1987)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | drn |
| Glottolog | west2548 |
West Damar, orNorth Damar, is anAustronesian language ofDamar Island, one of theMaluku Islands of Indonesia. In spite of rather low cognacy rates with its neighboring languages,[2] it can be classified as part of theBabar languages based on qualitative evidence.[3]
It is spoken in two villages (Batumerah, Kuai) located in the north-western part of Damar.[4]
The consonant inventory of West Damar is as follows:[5]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/Affricate | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | |
| voiced | (b) | d | (ɡ) | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Fricative | s | x | h | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
The vowel inventory of West Damar is simply/aeiou/.
A few aspects of West Damar morphology are noted as follows.[5]
Verbs in West Damar are conjugated according toperson andnumber.
| Person/number | Prefix | Verb-oni "to eat" | Other attested verbs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st sg. | w- | woni | |
| 2nd sg. | m- | moni | |
| 3rd sg. | n-[* 1] | yoni | n-poko "explodes",n-woludlo "hunts",n-hakro "boils",n-dekro "is dry",ng-kerso "is thin", |
| 1st pl. inclusive | k-,t- | toni | k-la "we go",k-wadano "we hear",k-hoto "we talk",k-mattuni "we sleep",k-nehi "we run" |
| 1st pl. exclusive | m- | moni | |
| 2nd pl. | m- -y-,[* 2]ms- | msoni | mlyo "you go",mnyedi "you fall" |
| 3rd pl. | r- | roni |
West Damar has a series of possessive suffixes that are attached to nouns. There is no possessive verb. The possessive suffixes are as follows:
| Person/number | Suffix |
|---|---|
| 1st sg. | -cheni |
| 2nd sg. | -mcheni |
| 3rd sg. | -eni |
| 1st pl. inclusive | -toni |
| 1st pl. exclusive | -moni |
| 2nd pl. | -mseni |
| 3rd pl. | -roni |
The possessive suffixes are built from a base suffix-ni that also appears as a lexical derivational suffix:
The word for "no" in West Damar iskewe. When split into acircumfix,ke- -we serves as a simple negator forcontent words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The-we part of the negator comes immediately after the stem it attaches to, but before other clitics. A few examples of negation provided by Chlenova are as follows:
Piter
Peter
Piter ke-tucha-we-mo odo-i
Peter NEG-old-NEG-? 1SG-DET
"Peter (is) not as old as I (am)"
Another negative predicative wordkrawui "unavailable" is also recorded.
Vocabulary list:[4]
| West Damar | Indonesian | English |
|---|---|---|
| odo | saya | I |
| ede | engkau | you (sing.) |
| idi | dia | he, she |
| itito | kita | we (incl.) |
| odomo | kami | we (exc.) |
| edmi | kamu | you (pl.) |
| idiro | mereka | they |
| mehno | satu | one |
| wyeru | dua | two |
| wyetteli | tiga | three |
| wyoto | empat | four |
| wilimo | lima | five |
| wyenamo | enam | six |
| witi | tujuh | seven |
| way | delapan | eight |
| wisi | sembilan | nine |
| uswuti | sepuluh | ten |
| ulkona | kepala | head |
| lima | tangan | hand |
| eya | kaki | foot |
Ede mpondai? - Are you ill?
E’e, odo ulkonacheni nchepondo. - Yes, I have a headache.
Wohleyo Binayani idihe hulchupondeheti wohleyo Ahehendini - The mountainBinaya is the highest at the Seram island.