Biak language – Wikipedia

Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia

Biak (wós Vyak or ‘Biak language’; wós kovedi or ‘our language’; Indonesian: bahasa Biak), also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup of the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.

According to Ethnologue, it is spoken by about 70,000 people in Biak and Numfor and numerous small islands in the Schouten Islands, located in Papua province of Western New Guinea, northeastern Indonesia.

Dialects[edit]

There are a number of different dialects of Biak spoken on various different islands, the most well-known being Biak-Numfoor, spoken on the island of Numfoor. These dialect differences are minor and mostly limited to slight regular sound changes. The vast majority of Biak speakers are also fluent in the local variety of Malay, but not all of them are proficient in standard Indonesian.

Geographical distributions of Biak dialects within Raja Ampat Regency (Ronsumbre 2020):^[3]

Betew dialect

• Waigeo Selatan District: Saonek, Saporkren, Yenbeser, Yenwaupur, Sawinggrai, Kapisawar, and Arborek villages.
• Waigeo Barat District: Mutus, Biantsyi, Waisilip, Manyaifun, Meos Manggara, and Pam villages.
• Kofiau District: Deer, Balal, and Tolobi villages.
• Misool District: Pulau Tikus, Solol, Meos Kapal, and Umkabu villages.
• Samate District: Jefman village. Teluk Manyalibit District: Mumes village.

Kafdaron dialect

• Samate District: Yensawai, Amdui, Yenanas, and Aresi villages

Karon dialect

• Sausapor District (in Sausapor village) and Biak Karo District, Tambrauw Regency

Usba dialect

• Waigeo Utara District: Rauki village. Ayau District: Dorekar and Meosbekwan villages.

Wardo dialect

• Waigeo Timur District: Yensner, Urbinasopen, Yembekaki, and Puper villages.
• Waigeo Utara District: Menir, Warwanai, Boni, Asukweri, and Kabare villages.
• Ayau District: Rutung, Reni, and Yenkawir villages.

Sociolinguistic situation[edit]

Despite the comparatively high number of speakers compared to some other Austronesian languages, Biak is still in danger of extinction. Within the main towns, the generation of speakers aged between 20 and 50 have only passive knowledge of the language and rarely use the language actively, instead preferring to use Malay. Younger generations do not even generally have passive knowledge of the language. Biak is only actively used as a spoken language by members of the community over 50 years of age or so and even they regularly code switch into Malay. However, within the villages further from town there are still children who are fluent in Biak. Songs in Biak are also very popular throughout the islands.

There is a strong initiative to promote the use of the Biak language, with translations of various books and teaching manuals as well as a radio station and a number of church services throughout the year being conducted solely in Biak. Since 2002, there has also been an initiative to introduce Biak being taught formerly in schools on the islands.

Phonology[edit]

Biak has a phoneme inventory consisting of 13 consonants and 5 vowels, in which vowel length is phonemic. In the orthography long vowels are written with an acute accent. The phoneme /t/ is very infrequent in its use and some older speakers still realise it as [s] in loanwords.

The vowel /u/ is the only rounded vowel in Biak; the other four are unrounded.

Morphology[edit]

Pronouns and person markers[edit]

In Biak pronouns and articles are morphologically related, with both situating a given participant by indicating their relative discourse or spatial (e.g. directional or motional) status. This is not uncommon for Austronesian Languages. Pronouns in Biak are marked for number and clusivity.

Free Pronouns

		Singular	Dual	Paucal	Plural
1st person	exclusive	aya	nu		inko
	inclusive		ku		ko
2nd person		aw	mu		mko
3rd person		i	su	sko	si (alienable) na (inalienable)

Free personal pronouns in Biak share their main distributional properties with nouns; however, they are somewhat more restricted. They can be used as a complement of a predicate or preposition but they cannot be used as subjects. In the example below, the use of the first-person personal pronoun aya can be seen to complement a verb, while the second example shows how a free personal pronoun, in this clause third-person i, cannot be used as a subject:

Pronominal affixes[edit]

In Biak, pronominal affixes can combine with verbs in three possible inflection patterns (given in the table below), which are partly phonologically conditioned.

	Set 1	Set 2	Set 3
1SG	ya-	y-	ya-
2SG	wa-	w-	⟨w⟩
3SG	i-	d-	⟨y⟩
1DU.I	ku-	ku-	ku-
1DU.E	nu-	nu-	nu-
2DU	mu-	mu-	mu-
3DU	su-	su-	su-
3PC	sko-	sk-	sko-
1PL.I	ko-	k-	ko-
1PL.E	(i)nko-	(i)nk-	(i)nko-
2PL	mko-	mk-	mko-
3PL.AN	si-	s-	s-
3PL.INAN	na-	n-	n-

Due to the person marking nature of these affixes, the need for the presence of a core noun phrase in the same clause is negated. Thus the following sentence is still grammatical without NP Rusa nanine, as the verb has a pronominal affix that gives the same information.

These pronominal markers are person markers and are found in the final position of the noun phrase they determine. They attach to verbs along with a specifier that attaches after the pronominal affix; due to their distribution properties these markers should be considered clitics.
There are two specificity markers, -ya and –i, where –ya can be used in all positions and -i is restricted to positions before pauses. In the example below the article attaches to the verb vebaya, rather than the verb ifrúr because it is the final verb in the noun phrase headed by for.

Nonspecificity, which refers to entities that do not yet exist in this world, or is used to question or deny the existence of an entity, is marked with the articles –o for singular and –no for plural noun phrases. This is shown in the examples below:

Non-specific

Specific

Demonstratives[edit]

Biak has identical forms in adnominal and pronominal demonstratives, which is common in Austronesian languages. In Biak, demonstratives can be used as part of complex articles containing demonstrative roots and also motion markers and directionals. Complex articles, however, do not have both a directional and a motion marker.

3SG complex articles

		giv	person- SPC	dir	motion marker	dm	meaning
bare demonstrative article	close S:ne		i		(ma/fa/ra)	ne	‘this’
	close A:ya~yi		i		(ma/fa/ra)	ya ~yi	‘that’
	not S/A:wa~wu		i		(ma/fa/ra)	wa ~wu	‘that over there’
demonstrative article, given	close S:ne	an	i		(ma/fa/ra)	ne	‘this’
	close A:ya~yi	an	i		(ma/fa/ra)	ya	‘that’
	not S/A:wa~wu	an	i		(ma/fa/ra)	wa	‘that over there’
(given) demonstrative- directional article	close S:ne	(an)	i	pur	?	ne	‘this at the back’
	close A:ya~yi	(an)	i	pur	?	ya	‘that at the back’
	not S/A:wa~wu	(an)	i	pur	?	wa	‘that at the back over there’

The table above restricts person-SPC to 3SG marker for an explanation, but i- 3SG marker can be replaced sui- (DU), skoi- (TR), and si- (PL.AN) or na- (PL.INAN). Also, it is important to note that the corpus contains no example of complex articles containing both a directional and a motion marker. Furthermore, yi and wu are used as allomorphs of ya and wa, respectively, but attested in article-final position only.

In Biak, the relationship between the third-person pronouns and demonstratives are unrelated to demonstratives, which is uncommon in Austronesian languages. However, Biak follows the worldwide trend in terms of the relationship.

Moreover, depending on the speaker’s relative distance, Biak has three-way distance contrasts of adnominal demonstratives, which is common in Austronesian languages. The comparison is restricted to only adnominal use because some languages do not express the same distance contrasts in adnominal and pronominal demonstratives.

If a complex article contains a demonstrative, the demonstrative is preceded by person-SPC, as illustrated by i-ne ‘3SG.SPC-this’ and i-wa ‘3SG.SPC-over.there,’ respectively. Also, in the below examples, situational use of demonstratives is shown.

The paradigm for complex articles sets the basis for deictic nouns, predicative pronouns, and locative-existentials.

Deictic nouns[edit]

Deictic nouns are formed by applying the formative di ‘place’ at the position preceding demonstratives, as illustrated by di-pur-wu ‘place-back-over.there’ and di-ne ‘place-here.’

The situational use of demonstratives is seen in (9). On the other hand, (10) shows -ne ‘this’ as the situational use of demonstratives and -ne ‘here’ as the anaphoric use of demonstratives.

Predicative pronouns[edit]

Predicative pronouns are formed by using the inflected predicative is ‘PRED’ at the position otherwise occupied by the marker of givenness an. This is illustrated by is-i-ne ‘3SG.PRED-SPC-this’ in both (11) and (12).

In (11), it depends on the context whether situational or anaphoric use of the demonstrative is. Situational use of the demonstrative is given in (12).

Locative-existentials[edit]

Locative-existentials is different from predicative pronouns because they do not possess a specificity marker, which is illustrated by i-is-wa ‘3SG.PRED-over.there’.

In (13), the use of the demonstrative depends on the context.

Semantics[edit]

Demonstratives[edit]

Use of demonstratives, where Viewpoint (V)= speaker(S), R= Relatum, A=addressee

form	gloss	used to refer to entities conceived as:	Levinson’s terminology
ne	this	close to S, but not closer to A than to S	close to V (usually S) =R
ya~yi	that	relatively close to S (and A), but not closer to S than to A	Relatively close to V (usually S) =R1, not closer to V than to R2 (usually A).
wa~wu	that over there	away from shared area of both S and A	Away from R1 (usually S) and R2 (usually A)

For the semantic characterization of demonstratives, a part of Levinson’s terminology should be known to grasp the difference between the Figure and the Ground or the Relatum. The Figure refers to an entity positioned somewhere in Space, while the Ground or the Relatum designate the entity in terms of where the entity is.  

As additional information, there are three essential points about Levinson’s terminology. First, the ‘frame of reference’ can be classified as an intrinsic frame of reference, a relative frame of reference, and an absolute frame of reference. Second, it is crucial to grasp the origo of the coordinate system. The deictic centre called origo is approximately equal to the speaker’s position. Third, it is vital to comprehend deixis. For spatial deixis, the interpretation of spatial linguistics elements is defined by the location of extra-linguistic entities.

Regarding the demonstratives usage, it may be followed by pointing, such as lip-pointing, head pointing, or finger pointing.

Demonstratives[edit]

From a perspective of syntax, Deictic nouns typically set the complement of a preposition. This is clear from the form di-ne ‘place-here,’ di-wa ‘place-over.there’ in (14) and (15), respectively. However, the demonstrative locational nouns are used on their own, without a preceding preposition. This is illustrated by di-ne ‘place-here’ in (16).

In (14), (15), and (16), these contain the situational use of demonstratives.

Possession[edit]

Similar to other Austronesian languages, Biak makes a grammatical distinction between alienable and inalienable for possession.

Alienable possession[edit]

In alienable possession, a possessive pronominal is formed with the possessive marker ve to signify the person, number and gender of the possessor, and is followed by a pronominal article marking the gender and number of the possessed. The pronominal article contains the specificity markers -i and -ya, with -i being used only in pre-pausal positions. The following table illustrates the possessive pronominal construction.

Possessed-> Possessor:	SG	DU	TR	PL.AN	PL.INAN
1SG	(a)ye=d-i/=d-ya	(a)ye=su-ya/-i	(a)ye=sko-ya/-i	(a)ye=s-ya/-i	(a)ye=na
2SG	be=d-i/=d-ya	be-=su-ya/-i	be=sko-ya/-i	be=s-ya/-i	be=na
3SG	ve=d-i/=d-ya	ve=su-ya/-i	ve =sko-ya/-i	ve =s-ya/-i	ve =na
1DU.INCL	Ku-ve=d-i/=d-ya	ku-ve=su-ya/-i	ku-ve=sko-ya/-i	ku-ve=s-ya/-i	ku-ve=na
1DU.EXC	nu-ve=d-i/=d-ya	nu-ve=su-ya/-i	nu-ve=sko-ya/-i	nu-ve=s-ya/-i	nu-ve=na
2DU	mu-ve=d-i/=d-ya	mu-ve=su-ya/-i	mu-ve=sko-ya/-i	mu-ve=s-ya/-i	mu-ve=na
3DU	su-ve=d-i/=d-ya	su-ve=su-ya/-i	su-ve=sko-ya/-i	su-ve=s-ya/-i	su-ve=na
3PC	sko-ve=d-i/=d-ya	sko-ve=su-ya/-i	sko-ve=sko-ya/-i	sko-ve=s-ya/-i	sko-ve=na
1PL.INCL	ko-ve=d-i/=d-ya	ko-ve=su-ya/-i	ko-ve=sko-ya/-i	ko-ve=s-ya/-i	i ko-ve=na
1PL.EXC	(i)nko-ve=d-i/=d-ya	(i)nko-ve=su-ya/-i	(i)nko-ve=sko-ya/-i	(i)nko-ve=s-ya/-i	(i)nko-ve=na
2PL	mko-ve=d-i/=d-ya	mko-ve=su-ya/-i	mko-ve=sko-ya/-i	mko-ve=s-ya/-i	mko-ve=na
3PL.AN	se=d-i/=d-ya	se=su-ya/-i	se=sko-ya/-i	se=s-ya/-i	se=na
3PL.INAN	nbe=d-i/d-ya	nbe=su-ya/-i	nbe=sko-ya/-i	nbe=s-ya/-i	nbe=na

Typically, Biak follows a possessor-possessum structure for alienable possessive construction, with the possessive pronominal in the adnominal position:

However, alienable possession can also be formed in the order of possessum-possessor, though this is much less frequent:

Inalienable possession[edit]

Inalienable possessive construction differs from alienable in that there is no system of pronominal possessives, only a set of affixes located on the possessum. In contrast to alienable possession, inalienable possession can only take the order of possessor-possessum. Biak contains three subsets of inalienability: body parts, Kinship, and locational.

Body parts[edit]

Not all body parts are considered inalienable. Those that are form the stem words from which to derive other body parts through the method of compounding. For example, the alienable ‘knee’ is formed through the inalienable stem we (‘leg’) and the compounding pur (‘back’) to form wepur. Possessive construction for alienable body parts follows the same pattern as other alienable terms. The inflectional system for inalienable body parts is as follows:

Vru ‘head’

	SG	DU	TR	PL
1SG	Vru-ri	–	–	–
2SG	Vru-m-ri	–	–	–
3SG	Vru-ri	–	–	–
1DU.INCL	–	ku-vru-s-na
1DU.EXC	–	nu-vru-s-na
2DU	–	mu-vru-m-s-na
3DU	–	su-vru-s-na
3TR	–	sko-vru-s-na
1PL.INCL	–	ko-vru-s-na
1PL.EXC	–	nko-vru-s-na
2PL	–	mko-vru-m-s-na
3PL.AN	–	si-vru-s-na

Unusual for Austronesian languages of the area, Biak contains a partial prefix system for inflecting inalienable body parts. For the plural forms, suffix -s reflects plurality and animateness of possessor and suffix na expresses plurality and inaninameteness of the possessum. As stated above, inalienable possession is formed via a possessor-possessum structure:

Kinship terms[edit]

Similarly to body parts, not all kinship terms are inalienable. The alienable kinship terms are formed through the same compounding method as alienable body parts, and follow the same possessive construction rules as other alienable terms. This table illustrates the inflectional system for inalienable kinship words:

Me ‘cross-uncle’

	SG	DU	TR	PL
1SG	imem(=i)	imem(=su)	imem(=sko)	–
2SG	me-m(=i)	me-m(=su)	me-m(=sko)	–
3SG	me-r(=i)	me-r(=su)	me-r(=sko)	–
1DU	–	–	–	–
2DU	–	–	–	–
3DU	–	–	–	–
3TR	–	–	–	–
1PL	–	–	–	–
2PL	–	–	–	–
3PL	–	–	–	–

All nouns that follow the table’s procedure have an
idiosyncratic form for the first person, using a shorter term for the second and third person. (REF pg. 244) Here is an example of the usage of inalienable kinship inflection:

Locational nouns[edit]

Locational nouns are the last distinction of inalienability found in Biak. Locational nouns refer to locations that are ‘inherently connected to an entity’. For example, a tree in Biak is referred to as having an ‘upper part’ and a ‘lower part’, and a canoe a ‘front’, a ‘middle’ and a ‘back’. The following table exhibits the inflectional system for inalienable locational nouns:

bo ‘upper part/ area above’

	SG	DU	TR	PL.ANIM	Pl.INAN
1	–	–	–	–	–
2	bo-m-ri	–	–	–	–
3	bo-ri	bo-n-su	bo-n-sko	bo-n-si	bo-n-na

The suffix -n expresses the plurality and inanimateness of
the possessum (REF pg. 250). The locational noun possessive structure is illustrated in this example:

Negation[edit]

Biak distinguishes between factual and imperative negation (prohibitive). The marker for factual negation is va. For prohibitive it is awer.

Factual negation: va[edit]

The negator va occurs clause-finally in intransitive and transitive clauses.

Intransitive

Transitive

In clauses with non-core arguments, va follows directly the argument it negates.

Va is also used to negate nominal clauses.

Factual negation in complex clauses[edit]

In complex clauses with fa, a conjunction expressing result, it seems that the negator va always occurs last in the sentence. In the corpus of spontaneous speech collected by van den Heuvel, there are no examples with va appearing at the end of the first clause.

In other complex clauses the negator may follow the first or final clause.

With bukan[edit]

Bukan is a loan from Malay/Indonesian. In Indonesian, the use of bukan, outside its function of negating noun phrases, expresses emphasis. The use of bukan in Biak also appears to express emphasis – in the examples given by van den Heuvel, it use occurs when a contrast is given. Bukan is used in combination with va. Bukan precedes the first verb and va is in its usual place at the end of the clause.

Imperative negation: awer[edit]

The prohibitive marker awer is used to negate arguments in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person.

1st person

2nd person

3rd person

Other negators[edit]

To express ‘not yet’, Biak uses the marker vanim/vaim. For ‘not any more’ wer va is used.

Typological perspectives[edit]

In Austronesian languages, the negator commonly precedes the predicate. Thus Biak, with clause final negation, is atypical in this feature. Clause final negation, however, is a common feature in the region of the Eastern Bird’s Head Peninsula, in both Austronesian and Papuan languages. It appears to be of Papuan origin.

Numerals[edit]

Biak numerals

	Biak
1	eser/oser
2	suru
3	kyor
4	fyak
5	rim
6	wonem
7	fik
8	war
9	siw
10	samfur
11	samfur sesr oser
20	samfur di suru
100	utin
1000	syáran

Glossary[edit]

ANIM	animate
GIV	given
INAN	inanimate
INCL	inclusive
INDEF	indefinite
LOC	locative
NEG	negator
NSG	non-singular
NSP	nonspecific
PL	plural
POS	possessive marker
PRED	predicate
REL	relativiser
SG	singular
SIM	simultaneous
SPC	specific
U	‘filler’
VBZ	verbaliser

References[edit]

• Berry, K.; C. Berry; K. Berry; C. Berry (1987). “A survey of some West Papuan phylum languages”. Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures. 4: 25–80.
• Heuvel, Wilco van den (2006). Biak: Description of an Austronesian language of Papua (Ph.D. thesis). Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. hdl:1871/10282.
• Reesink, Ger P. (2002). “The eastern Bird’s Head languages compared”. In Reesin, Ger P. (ed.). Languages of the eastern Bird’s Head. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 1–44. doi:10.15144/PL-524.1. hdl:1885/146144. ISBN 9780858834941.
• Sneddon, J. N. (2010). Indonesian reference grammar (2nd ed.).
• Steinhauer, Hein (2005). “Biak”. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar.

External links[edit]