Hamap language
| Adang | |
|---|---|
| Hamap | |
| Region | Alor Island |
|
Native speakers
|
8,000 (1995–2000) |
|
Trans–New Guinea
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: adn – Adang hmu – Hamap klz – Kabola |
| Glottolog | adan1252 |
The Adang language is spoken on the island of Alor in Indonesia. The language is agglutinative. The Hamap dialect is sometimes treated as a separate language; on the other hand, Kabola, which is sociolinguistically distinct, is sometimes included. Adang, Hamap and Kabola are considered a dialect chain. Adang is endangered as fewer speakers raise their children in Adang, instead opting for Indonesian.
Notes:
Diphthongs are /ai/, /oi/, /eu/, /au/ and /ou/. Vowel sequences that begin with a lax mid vowel (i.e. /ɔ/ or /ɛ/) cannot be diphthongs and are always disyllabic.
Adang syllable structure is (C)V(C). V can either be a monophthong or a diphthong. C can be almost any consonant. Exceptions are /f/, which never occurs in syllable final position, and /d͡ʒ/, which only ever occurs in final position. /s/ and /g/ only occur syllable-finally in specific categories of words (i.e. loanwords and onomatopoeic words, resp.).
Clauses in Adang are predicate-final: intransitive verbal predicates have Subject-Verb order and transitive predicates follow Agent-Patient-Verb order. In ditransitive constructions the theme precedes the recipient. Adang has accusative alignment. Some sentence examples:
A nominal predicate also follows the subject (note that Adang does not use a copula):
A clause is negated by placing negator nanɛ or nɛnɛ after the predicate. Besides nanɛ there are two negative particles: ʔɛ and haʔai. ʔɛ is used to limit the scope of negator nanɛ by placing ʔɛ in front of the negated element. In this case nanɛ must still succeed the predicate:
Nanɛ may also be used on its own for rules or general prohibitions. Alternatively, ʔɛ at the end of a clause expresses a negative imperative (without nanɛ). Compare:
To make a negative imperative more polite add haʔai to the beginning of the sentence. Lastly, the verb aʔai negates existence or possession.
Adang question words are anɔ ‘who’, naba ‘what’, tarɔ ‘where’, tarɔni ‘how/why’ and den ‘how many/when’. They remain in situ. Depending on whether they replace a subject or an object they can be followed by the subject focus marker so or the object focus marker fe.
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