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Fossilized affixes in Austronesian languages

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Fossilized affixes abound in Austronesian languages.

Contents

Formosan languages

Li and Tsuchida (2009) lists various fossilized reflexes of Proto-Austronesian infixes *-al-, *-aR-, and *-aN- in all major Formosan languages as well as Tagalog and Javanese. These infixes are not productive in any modern Austronesian language. Their meanings remain elusive, although Li and Tsuchida suggest that *-aN- might mean 'having the sound or quality of', as evidenced in Paiwan and Puyuma. Reid (1994) hypothesizes the meaning of *-aR- to be 'distributive, plural'.

The following table is from Li and Tsuchida (2009:358).

Bikol language

Malcolm Mintz (1992) analyzed fossilized affixes from Marcos de Lisboa's Vocabulario de la lengua bicol, which was compiled between 1609 and 1613. The Marcos de Lisboa dictionary contains many archaic forms of Bikol no longer found in modern spoken Naga Bikol.

  • a-
  • aN-
  • ali(N)-, li-, ari(N)-
  • alu-, aru-
  • ati-
  • ba-, baN-, -al-
  • ba- + ali(N)-, balik-
  • hiN-
  • mu-, pu-, -um-
  • sa-, sa- + ali(N)-, saN-
  • taga-, tagu-
  • ta-, taN-
  • so-, no-
  • -imin-
  • *kali/qali word forms

    According to Blust (2001, 2009), the fossilized morpheme *kali ~ *qali is used in various Austronesian languages to designate objects having a "sensitive connection with the spirit world."

    References

    Fossilized affixes in Austronesian languages Wikipedia