Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates
-
Umberto Ansaldo
Abstract
Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka. It is a restructured variety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varieties. The grammar shows a typological shift from the Austronesian to the Lankan type, a shift that can be explained by the typological pressure that the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil – which are highly congruent – exercise in the trilingual environment. This paper discusses the prevalent grammatical patterns of Sri Lanka Malay in terms of frequency, typological congruence and trilingual admixture. I show that, for a complete understanding of Sri Lanka Malay grammar, we must approach it by taking into full consideration the typological matrix in which it has developed, which includes a Malay-based lexifier and two adstrates, namely Sinhala and Tamil. This argues against a view of Sri Lanka Malay as the product of a bilingual admixture.
Abstract
Sri Lanka Malay is the vernacular language of the descendants of the Malay-Javanese diaspora of Sri Lanka. It is a restructured variety of Malay, which emerged from the prolonged contact between speakers of Malay varieties and speakers of Sinhala and Tamil varieties. The grammar shows a typological shift from the Austronesian to the Lankan type, a shift that can be explained by the typological pressure that the adstrates Sinhala and Tamil – which are highly congruent – exercise in the trilingual environment. This paper discusses the prevalent grammatical patterns of Sri Lanka Malay in terms of frequency, typological congruence and trilingual admixture. I show that, for a complete understanding of Sri Lanka Malay grammar, we must approach it by taking into full consideration the typological matrix in which it has developed, which includes a Malay-based lexifier and two adstrates, namely Sinhala and Tamil. This argues against a view of Sri Lanka Malay as the product of a bilingual admixture.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
-
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface ix
-
Introduction
- The problem of the typological classification of creoles 3
-
Creoles spoken in Africa and in the Caribbean
- Èdó influence on Santome 37
- A Wolof trace in the verbal system of the Portuguese Creole of Santiago Island (Cape Verde) 61
- Substrate influences in Kriyol 81
- One substrate, two creoles 105
- Substrate features in the properties of verbs in three Atlantic creoles 127
- Assessing the nature and role of substrate influence in the formation and development of the creoles of Suriname 155
- African substratal influence on the counterfactual in Belizean Creole 181
- Substrate features in Nicaraguan, Providence and San Andrés Creole Englishes 201
- Palenque(ro) 225
-
Creoles spoken in Asia
- Convergence-to-substratum and the passives in Singapore English 253
- Tone in Singlish 271
- The Cantonese substrate in China Coast Pidgin 289
- Substrate influences in Mindanao Chabacano 303
- Negation in Ternate Chabacano 325
- Aspect and directionality in Kupang Malay serial verb constructions 337
- Sri Lanka Malay and its Lankan adstrates 367
- Dravidian features in the Sri Lankan Malay verb 383
-
Creoles spoken in the Pacific
- Papuan Malay of New Guinea 413
- The influence of Arandic languages on Central Australian Aboriginal English 437
- Roper River Aboriginal language features in Australian Kriol 461
- Substrate influences on New South Wales Pidgin 489
- Limits of the substrate 513
- Substrate reinforcement and the retention of Pan-Pacific Pidgin features in modern contact varieties 531
- The copula in Hawai‘i Creole English and substrate reinforcement 557
- “On traduit la langue en français” 575
-
Conclusion
- Creoles and language typology 599
- Index of authors 613
- Index of languages and language families 619
- Index of subjects 623
