Bunak (language)

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Bunak

Spoken in

East Timor , Indonesia
speaker 100,000
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Other official status in East TimorEast Timor East Timor ( national language )
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

paa

ISO 639-3

bfn

Languages ​​of East Timor: Clockwise from top left: Portuguese , Bunak, Tetum , Fataluku

Bunak ( Bunaq , in the northeast of the settlement area Gaiq or Gaeq ) is a Papuan language in southern central Timor . About 100,000 members of the Bunak ethnolinguistic group use the language as their mother tongue.

Basics

The Bunak are one of the Timorese ethnic groups who speak a non- Austronesian language and are likely to belong to the Papuan speaking ethnic group . You are surrounded by Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples such as the Atoin Meto , Kemak , Mambai and the Tetum . Because of this isolation, Bunak is very different from the other Timorese Papuan languages Makasae and Fataluku , which are spoken in the far east of the island. In addition, Bunak is subject to a stronger influence from the Austronesian languages.

Bunak can be divided into five main dialects: Southwest , Lamaknen , Northeast , Ainaro and Manufahi . There are numerous other variations within these main groups. Sometimes there are differences from village to village. If necessary, you can also define the dialect around Lolotoe as the main group.

The Bunak language is one of the 15 national languages ​​of East Timor recognized in the constitution .

Language area

The centers of the Bunak language in East Timor are the places Bobonaro and Lolotoe in the municipality of Bobonaro , Tilomar and Zumalai in the municipality of Cova Lima , Cassa in the municipality of Ainaro and Betano and Same in the municipality of Manufahi . A total of 64,686 East Timorese call Bunak their mother tongue.

In West Timor, Bunak is mainly spoken in the ( Kecamatan ) Lamaknen district . Along with other languages ​​also in the districts of Raihat , Rai Manuk , Kobalima and Kobalima Timur .

  • The largest language groups in the sucos of East Timors.

  • Number of speakers of the different languages ​​in the individual municipalities (as of 2015).

  • Proportion of Bunak native speakers in the sucos of East Timors

  • Outline map of the languages ​​of East Timor

vocabulary

The strong influence of Austronesian languages ​​is evident in the vocabulary. Over 30% comes from the neighboring languages Kemak , Tokodede , Uab Meto and Mambai . So kaqa (older brother), nana (older sister) and tata (ancestor) are derived from the Kemak words kapa-q, nana-r and tata-r . Ama (father) can be found in Tetum , Mambai and Kemak. Baba (maternal uncle) is derived from the Uab meto -word baba . Noticeably, most of the words used to describe women, such as eme (mother) or pana (woman), are not of Austronesian origin. There is therefore suspicion that the Austronesian words were brought by married men of the neighboring ethnic groups.

The words in bunak are often badly eroded, and many only consist of one syllable. The word for dog is “iparu” in Fataluku and “defa” in Makasae, but only “zap” in Bunak. The vocabulary also contains words that appear to come from the pre-Papuan period in Timor, as well as words from Portuguese and Malay .

In the northeast, the Bunak even use the words Gaiq or Gaeq as a self-name for themselves and their language , which is derived from Mgai , the foreign name used by the Kemak. According to the oral tradition of the local Bunak, they formerly belonged to the kingdom of Likusaen ( Likosaen ), which with today's Liquiçá had its center in the area of ​​the Tokodede and Kemak. This realm is said to be responsible for the strong linguistic influence of the Kemak on the language of the Bunak. Numerous loanwords can therefore be found in Bunak from the Austronesian Kemak, less from Mambai. In Lamknen, the Bunak adopted many phrases from the Tetum for ritual acts. The reason was the influence of the Tetum empire of Wehale , of which Lamaknen formed an autonomous region.

The numbers on Bunak in different regions
number Bobonaro Zumalai Marae
1 uen whom uwen
2 hiro-on hili-on hile-on
3 goni-on goni-on koni-on
4th goni-il goni-il koni-il
5 goni-ciet goinseet koni-tiet
6th thomor temol tomol
7th hicu hitu hitu
8th walu alu walu
9 siwe she siwe
10 so sego so
Words in different dialects
German southwest Llama cans Northeast Ainaro Manufahi
big boʔal masak tina gemel arrived
wife -ip pana pana pana pana
husband -enen mone mone mone mone
sleep animal ʧier malate malate animal
stand duʔat duʔat net net net
play bukuʔ bukuʔ kisaʔ buku nine
do not want tiaʔ ʧiaʔ piaʔ boi boi
I neto neto neto ouch neto
does not exist planer planer planer hazi muel
exist hati hati aʧi hati hono

literature

  • Schapper, Antoinette: Bunaq, a Papuan language of central Timor , PhD thesis, 2010, Australian National University.

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 169.
  2. ↑ Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 166.
  3. ↑ a b Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 170.
  4. ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística : Results of the 2015 census , accessed on November 23, 2016.
  5. ↑ Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 165.
  6. ↑ Statistical Office of East Timor, results of the 2010 census of the individual sucos ( Memento of January 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Schapper: Crossing the border, p. 13.
  8. ↑ Geoffrey Hull : The Languages ​​of East Timor: Some Basic Facts ( Memento January 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), Instituto Nacional de Linguística, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e
  9. ↑ Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 168.
  10. ↑ Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 173.
  11. ↑ Schapper: Finding Bunaq , p. 167.