Tambora is the poorly attested non-

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

( Papuan) language of the

Tambora culture Tambora is a lost village and culture on Sumbawa, Sumbawa Island buried by volcanic ash and pyroclastic flows from the massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. The village had about 10,000 residents. Scientists une ...

of central Sumbawa, in what is now Indonesia, that was wiped out by the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora. It was the westernmost known Papuan language and was relatively unusual among Papuan languages in being the language of a maritime trading state, though contemporary Papuan trading states were also found off

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. Hal ...

in Ternate and Tidore.

Vocabulary

One word list was collected prior to the eruption, published as Raffles (1817, 1830). It is clear from this that the language is not

; indeed, there are only a few Austronesian loans. In the list below, it is presumed that transcribes and . Hyphen is possibly a glottal stop . Two words, ''búlu'' and ''mákan'', are clearly

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

loans. Zollinger (1850) identified several possible loans from other Austronesian languages; Tambora was a regional trading power, so a number of loans might be expected. The connection of ''taintu'' with the Papuan

Timor–Alor–Pantar languages The Timor–Alor–Pantar (TAP) languages are a family of Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages spoken in Timor, Kisar, and the Alor archipelago in Southern Indonesia. Holton and Klamer (2018) classify Timor–Alor–Pantar as an independent la ...

, if not coincidence, would presumably be genetic, not a loan. However, Harald Hammarström considers it to be a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

Analysis

Donohue notes that word lists of this size from other Indonesian languages with relatively small consonant inventories typically succeed in recording all consonants, so the same might be expected here, apart from consonants which could not be transcribed with

orthographic conventions, such as the implosives found in the region. ''P'' only occurs after ''m'', and may be a reflex of ''h'', as in other languages of the area. Overall, the phonemic profile is consistent with many languages of eastern Indonesia: that is, to the east but not to the west of Tambora. ''Hok-hok'' 'sit' suggests verbal reduplication, but the only other verb, ''makan'', is an obvious Malay loan. ''Saing'óre'' 'eye', ''saing kóme'' 'nose', ''sóntong'' 'teeth', ''sumóre'' 'belly' all begin similarly, suggesting a prefix, possibly a

possessive prefix In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives. Possessive affixes are found in many language ...

, with a nasal ''-ng' ''that assimilates to a following consonant, and with ''sumóre'' 'belly' presumably from *more or *pore. Several of the numbers begin with ''sV-'', a common pattern in Austronesian languages where 'one' is reduced to a prefix. Indeed, ''seena'' 'one' is a possible Austronesian loan. Donohue suggests that ''sarone'' 'ten' ~ ''sisarone'' 'twenty' may reflect an earlier

vigesimal vigesimal () or base-20 (base-score) numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the decimal numeral system is based on ten). '' Vigesimal'' is derived from the Latin adjective '' vicesimus'', meaning 'twentieth'. Places In ...

system, possibly from ''sa-'' 'one' ''doh'' 'person' ''-ne'' (suffix), a common way of counting 'twenty' in the region. 'Twenty' might then have shifted to meaning 'ten' under the influence of decimal trading partners. The word ''moríhoh'' 'God' reflects a common term in the area, of uncertain but perhaps Sanskrit derivation. In Tambora, however, it also resembles ''homóri'' 'father', suggesting that neither word can be assumed to be native. Donohue notes one word, ''taintu'' 'hand', which is plausibly connected to other Papuan languages, those of Timor and Alor to the east: Abui ''taŋ'', Oirata ''tana'', Kui ''tan''. This leaves the ''-tu'' as a possible suffix, and the similar shape of ''maimpo'' 'foot' suggests to Donohue that these may derive from ''tayn'' and ''maym'' plus a suffix ''-ho'' or ''-hu'' which assimilates to the preceding consonant. A number of words end in ''-(k)ong'' and ''-ore'', and the former are semantically similar (''ingkong'' 'sun', ''kóngkong'' 'day', ''mang'ong'' 'moon', ''kingkong'' 'star'), suggesting possible suffixes, though they might simply be coincidence.

Vocabulary

Analysis

See also

References

Further reading