Kedang language

Kédang (Kdang, Dang, Kedangese) is a language spoken in the Kedang region on the north coast of Lembata Island, east of Flores, in Indonesia. The language belongs to the Austronesian family and its sub-family, Malayo-Polynesian.^[2] More specifically, the language is within the Flores-Lembata sub-group.^[2] There are approximately 30,000 speakers of the language.

Background

The name of the language is also the name of the region where the language is spoken, Kedang.^[3] The region ranges to about 266 square kilometres including two administrative areas – Omesuri and Buyasuri.^[3] As of today, there are approximately about 30,000 speakers of the language.^[2] The majority of the speakers is engaged in agricultural productions which are mainly farming and fishing.^[3]

Phonology

Vowels

Kédang has a total of twelve vowels in its language, separated into two sets evenly with six vowels per set.^[4] One set is composed of modal vowels or also known as normal vowels while the other set is breathy vowels.^[4] The vowels can be distinct by two different methods: by the word initial position and by the pitch. Modal vowels (normal vowels) occur in the middle and the final position while breathy vowels do not.^[4] While the breathy vowels are pronounced at a lower pitch.^[4]

Consonants

There are twenty consonants in the Kédang alphabet.^[5] The consonants display different manners of articulation including plosives, nasals, lateral, flap, trill, fricatives and continuant.^[5]

Word classes

Kédang developed its word classes to include nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, numerals, prepositions, interjections, conjunctions and classifiers.^[6]

Nouns

Nouns are formed when affixes are added to the verbs. Kédang's affixes are the nominalizing prefix N-, the nominalizing infix -an-, the suffix -n and the free form wala.^[7]

• The nominalizing prefix N- replaces the initial consonant.^[7] For example:
  • t → n tadaq 'to advise' → nadaq 'advice'^[7]
  • k → n kariq 'to speak' → nariq 'language'^[7]
• The nominalizing infix -an- is added after the initial consonant.^[8] For example:
  • kawang 'to flow' → kanawang 'current'^[8]
  • tangul 'to cover a pot with a lid' → tanangul 'lid'^[8]
• The suffix -n is added to verbs and adjectives at the end of the words.^[9] For example:
  • dei 'to follow' → dein 'offspring'^[9]
  • mate 'dead' → maten 'corpse'^[9]
• The free form wala follows after a verb to indicate the person who is acting out the verb.^[9] For examples:
  • durung 'to sell' → durung wala 'seller'^[9]
  • huang 'to play' → huang wala 'player'^[9]

Pronouns

Kédang's pronouns follow the three-way system of singular-dual-plural. They are divided into seven categories: personal, emphatic, possessive, emphatic-possessive, adessive, agent focus and action focus.^[10]

Adjectives

Kédang adjectives are divided into two functions: predicative and attributive.^[11] In order to distinguish these two functions, a suffix -n is added after the end vowel of a predicative adjective for it to become attributive.^[11] If the adjective ends with a consonant, there will be no change.^[11]

Verbs

There is only one verb tense in Kédang that is fully developed – future tense.^[12] The other tenses usually require an adverb that indicates time (past, present or future) to support the content along with the verb used.^[12]

Notes

References

• Samely, Ursula (1991). Kedang (Eastern Indonesia): some aspects of its grammar. Hamburg: Buske. ISBN 3875480163.
• Samely, Ursula; Barnes, Robert H. (2013). A Dictionary of the Kedang Language: Kedang-Indonesian-English. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-9004256361.