Project MUSE®: Oceanic Linguistics - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Oceanic Linguistics.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 38, no. 2 (1999) through current issueLatest Articles: Oceanic LinguisticsTWOProject MUSE®Oceanic Linguistics1527-94210029-8115Latest articles in Oceanic Linguistics. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Suprasegmental Adaptation of Japanese Loanwords in Isbukun Bunun
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986152
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This paper is the first attempt to examine the supra-segmental adaptation of Japanese loanwords in Isbukun Bunun, an Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan, which was colonized by Japan for fifty years (1895–1945) following the Sino-Japanese War.2 Japanese and Isbukun Bunun belong to different metrical systems; the former is a pitch accent language, while the latter is a stress language. As pitch accent languages and stress languages are metrically different, the former primarily rely on changes in pitch (F0) to mark accented syllables (Sugiyama 2011), while the latter rely on a combination of pitch, intensity, duration, and spectral tilt (Laver 1994; Chávez-Peón 2008). It is of interest to know how Japanese pitch
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallSuprasegmental Adaptation of Japanese Loanwords in Isbukun Bunun2026-03-26text/htmlen-USSuprasegmental Adaptation of Japanese Loanwords in Isbukun Bunun2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1708642026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Observations on Malagasy Presentatives
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986153
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In this paper, we provide a description of presentatives in Malagasy, a clause type that has received little attention in the literature. As illustrated in (1), the presentative word (indreto, indry) appears in initial position and can be followed by a DP or a verb and DP (as we will see, other word order variants are also possible).2(1) Our goal is to outline what we consider to be the key morphological and syntactic properties of Malagasy presentatives, which build on the rich array of demonstratives in the language. Beyond descriptions in Rajaona (1972:632–35, 687–90) and Dimisy et al. (2023), Malagasy presentatives have not been described in detail in the literature; this paper aims to fill this gap. We will
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallObservations on Malagasy Presentatives2026-03-26text/htmlen-USObservations on Malagasy Presentatives2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®611022026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Contact or Inheritance? New Evidence on the Proto-Philippines Hypothesis
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986154
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Although robust comparative evidence supports the view that all Austronesian languages spoken outside Taiwan descend from a single common ancestor (Dahl 1973; Mills 1975; Blust 1977, 1993; Ross 2002)—Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP)—the first-order division of this branch remains contested in recent literature. A focal question concerns the linguistic position of the languages spoken in the Philippines, the first major landing site of the Austronesian diaspora. Whether these languages descend from a single offshoot of PMP or they make up multiple primary branches remains a point of contention in the literature (Reid 1982, 2020; Blust 2005, 2019 et seq.; Zorc 1986, 2019; Ross 2005, 2020; Liao 2020, among others).This
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallContact or Inheritance? New Evidence on the Proto-Philippines Hypothesis2026-03-26text/htmlen-USContact or Inheritance? New Evidence on the Proto-Philippines Hypothesis2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1931902026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26The Languages of Atauro Island
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986155
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In this paper, we clarify the linguistic situation on the island of Atauro and introduce its languages, Rasua, Hresuk, Raklungu, and Dadu'a, to the linguistic community. At the time of writing (June 2024), Rasua had no entry in either Glottolog (Hammarström et al. 2024) or the Ethnologue (Eberhard, Simons, and Fennig 2024). Raklungu and Hresuk are listed as "dialects" of "Atauran" [adb] in the Ethnologue and are not present in Glottolog. Dadu'a is listed as a dialect of Ili'uun [ilu] in both the Ethnologue and Glottolog.We introduce the island and its languages based on original fieldwork conducted by the first author. We also describe two prevalent grammatical features of the languages: subject indexing and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallThe Languages of Atauro Island2026-03-26text/htmlen-USThe Languages of Atauro Island2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®2102062026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Gender Vocalism in the South Bird's Head Languages in Comparative Perspective
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986156
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Pawley and Hammarström (2018:95) wrote, "Gender systems are confined to a few TNG subgroups, including Ok-Oksapmin and Marindic, and the possible TNG South Bird's Head group."1 This relative absence of gender systems in the Trans New Guinea (TNG) grouping makes it even more striking that the systems of the three TNG families where it does occur are very similar in patterns and matter, also considering the roughly 1,200 kilometers that separate the South Bird's Head (SBH) family from the other two families. Anim languages are spoken in south New Guinea, Ok languages in central New Guinea, and the SBH languages along the south coast of the Bird's Head peninsula.Compare the gender vocalism in the Anim language Ipiko
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallGender Vocalism in the South Bird's Head Languages in Comparative Perspective2026-03-26text/htmlen-USGender Vocalism in the South Bird's Head Languages in Comparative Perspective2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®1160132026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Gender Marking in Gorontalo
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986157
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Grammatical gender marking is rare in Austronesian languages (Blust 2013:320). Nevertheless, gender distinctions have occasionally emerged in the family (Chen and Polinsky, forthcoming). In this squib, we report on an innovative sex-based gender distinction in Gorontalo case markers, a form of gender marking that is unique among Austronesian languages.Gorontalo is spoken in Gorontalo Province, northern Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is a member of the Gorontalo-Mongondow branch of the Greater Central Philippine subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian (Usup 1986; Blust 1991; Lobel 2011; King et al. 2024).Gorontalo may be described as a "Philippine-type" (or "symmetrical voice") language in that it exhibits multiple voice
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallGender Marking in Gorontalo2026-03-26text/htmlen-USGender Marking in Gorontalo2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®940352026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26Bernd Nothofer (1941–2025)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/986158
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Bernd Nothofer—preeminent scholar of comparative Austronesian linguistics and Indonesian dialectology—passed away on January 5, 2025, aged eighty-three. Losing his battle with cancer, he foresaw the ending of his journey and asked his successor on the chair of Southeast Asian Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, Arndt Graf, along with his assistant and librarian Holger Warnk, to visit him in the hospital just two weeks before his death to say goodbye. This was typical of him, as he preferred to choose the moment to bid farewell—as a professor, a mentor, a human being, and a friend.Nothofer was an extraordinary teacher who brought Austronesian linguistics and Southeast Asian Studies to life for his students. He
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/147/image/coversmallBernd Nothofer (1941–2025)2026-03-26text/htmlen-USBernd Nothofer (1941–2025)2026-03-262026TWOProject MUSE®758932026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-03-26