Leti: Language of Southwest Maluku"Leti is spoken on the island with the same name near the Indonesian-East Timorese border. This small Austronesian language became known among linguists for the complex patterns of metathesis permeating its entire grammar." "Besides little discussed topics, like its intricate deictic system and lexical parallelism, this book provides information on intriguing features of the Leti language that remained undescribed, such as singing, naming, storytelling and the semantics of the indexer clitic." "A complete version of the Sailfish myth that underlies the structures of all Southwest Malukan island communities has been added. The entire text is provided with interlinear glosses. All lexical items in the text and in the description have been inserted in a wordlist together with all lexical parallels." "Being the first exhaustive study of a Southwest Malukan language, this description is a valuable contribution to the topological study of East Indonesia and East Timor and to Austronesian linguistics. The abundance of examples makes it of interest also for linguists with a theoretical orientation in phonology, syntax and semantics. The 'insider's perspective' approach provides essential information for students of ethnolinguistics and oral traditions in the region."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Common terms and phrases
1plinc 3sg-say-DEX 3sg-with A-and-M aanne adverbs allomorph atelic atelic reduplication attested attitudinal deictics bivalent clan ruler clan-ruler clitic complement consonant constituents construction core dative object depicted scene DIR3 direction verbs directive marker dynamic verbs ea=de emmèka encoded endophoric Engelenhoven entity event evidential mood example exemplified existential clauses feature function go^SEQ high vowel human plurality indexer inflection intransitive Island kapaati Kisar kòkkòi la^po lapo lèra Leti Leti Island lexical pair lexical parallel Luang maanu Malay marked marna metathesis mid vowels monovalent morpheme müani n-òra n-vava n-vena-e naani nïaulu nominal nòra Nòramme noun nvene oblique marker oblique object parataxis participant person deictic phonotactic phrase possessive suffix postcore precore predicate pronominal object pronominal prefix pronouns reduplication referent Roma Island sail Sailfish signals slot SML-DEX speech spou SQ1=DEX subcode subject clitic subject marker syllable Timor Tomra topic tòtpo transitive Tutukei Upasrui verbal head