Tobelo language
Encyclopedia
Tobelo is a West Papuan language spoken on the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera
and on parts of several neighboring islands. The Tobelo-speaking heartland is in the district (Indonesian kecematan) of Tobelo, located on the western shore of Kao Bay. The district capital, also known as Tobelo
, serves as a regional commercial and administrative center and is the largest settlement on Halmahera.
The Tugutil or "Forest Tobelo" may constitute an additional dialectal variant, but this has not been satisfactorily documented.
In addition, based on cognition percentages in a basic vocabulary list, Voorhoeve 1988 identifies five other North Halmaheran language varieties as dialects of the putative Northeast Halmaheran language. Together with Tobelo, these varieties are Galela
, Loloda, Modole, Pagu and Tabaru. Most speakers consider these to be distinct languages from Tobelo, although they do acknowledge a certain degree of mutual intelligibility.
At the least the up/down distinction seems to be an areal feature.
But this brings up the chicken and the egg phenomenon.
Is this directional system of AN or NAN origin? Or is it a mixture?
Perhaps it is not a coincidene that the Tobelo are the most widespread ethnic group in Maluku,
with sizable emigrant population throughout the province.
We can a least be sure that the Malay directionals are the "egg",
because Malay as spoken in Western Indonesia does not use these directionals.
Whereas Moluccan Malay uses direct calques of the Tobelo terms:
bawah, atas, darat, laut.
Tobelo directionals are described in Taylor (1984).
Tobelo directional adverbs occur:
Thus, interpretation of directional adverbs is entirely context-dependent. For example
If I meet you landwards of the house, this means that I'm headed inland from my house.
If I meet you seawards of the house, then it means I'm headed inland to the house.
Halmahera
Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia.Halmahera has a land area of 17,780 km² and a population in 1995 of 162,728...
and on parts of several neighboring islands. The Tobelo-speaking heartland is in the district (Indonesian kecematan) of Tobelo, located on the western shore of Kao Bay. The district capital, also known as Tobelo
Tobelo
Tobelo is a town and also a district on the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera. It is the capital of the regency of North Halmahera, part of the province of North Maluku. The city was formalised as the capital of North Halmahera in the district elections held in 2004...
, serves as a regional commercial and administrative center and is the largest settlement on Halmahera.
Dialects
Six principal dialects are generally recognized (Voorhoeve 1988):- Heleworuru
- Boeng
- Dodinga
- Lake Paca
- Kukumutuk
- Popon
The Tugutil or "Forest Tobelo" may constitute an additional dialectal variant, but this has not been satisfactorily documented.
In addition, based on cognition percentages in a basic vocabulary list, Voorhoeve 1988 identifies five other North Halmaheran language varieties as dialects of the putative Northeast Halmaheran language. Together with Tobelo, these varieties are Galela
Galela language
Galela is the most populous Papuan language spoken west of New Guinea, with some 80,000 speakers, or 95,000 if Loloda is counted as a dialect...
, Loloda, Modole, Pagu and Tabaru. Most speakers consider these to be distinct languages from Tobelo, although they do acknowledge a certain degree of mutual intelligibility.
Directionals
Most all of the 50 languages of Maluku have some sort of directional system.At the least the up/down distinction seems to be an areal feature.
But this brings up the chicken and the egg phenomenon.
Is this directional system of AN or NAN origin? Or is it a mixture?
Perhaps it is not a coincidene that the Tobelo are the most widespread ethnic group in Maluku,
with sizable emigrant population throughout the province.
We can a least be sure that the Malay directionals are the "egg",
because Malay as spoken in Western Indonesia does not use these directionals.
Whereas Moluccan Malay uses direct calques of the Tobelo terms:
bawah, atas, darat, laut.
Tobelo directionals are described in Taylor (1984).
Tobelo directional adverbs occur:
- on motion verbs to specify direction of motion
- on nouns to specify motion away from or toward an object
Thus, interpretation of directional adverbs is entirely context-dependent. For example
o tau t-oiki
NM house 1AGT-go
'I'm going to the house'
If I meet you landwards of the house, this means that I'm headed inland from my house.
If I meet you seawards of the house, then it means I'm headed inland to the house.
| Deictic | Adverb | |
|---|---|---|
| land | dina | -iha |
| sea | dai | -oko |
| up | daku | -ilye |
| down | dau | -uku |
| over | doka | -ika |