1

Here and there in Sasak, eastern Indonesia

Prof Peter K. Austin

Department of Linguistics, SOAS

18th

May 2016

1 Issues to try to make sense of

huge variation in deictic reference terms in the available sources on Sasak, eg:

‘this’ ni ~ eni ~ ini ~ seni ~ sini ~ néné ~ té ~ ti ~ te ~ sete ~ iaq ~ niki

‘that’ nó ~ enó ~ inó ~ senó ~ sinó ~ nónó ~ sie ~ siaq ~ siaqng ~ tie ~ tiaq ~ tiaqng ~ setiaq ~

setó ~ iku ~ siku ~ étóh ~ nike

‘south’ barat ~ bat ~ daya ~ daye ~ lauq ~ bòngkòt

‘west’ barat ~ bat ~ daye

timuq ‘east’, ‘north’, ‘south’

What conditions this variation and what are the semantics of the various terms?

the only previous published work on deixis in Sasak is a confusing footnote to Balinese. Is Sasak

really the same or different?

Sasak has a system of ‘speech levels’ apparently borrowed from Balinese and Javanese. How does

this affect encoding and use of spatial deictic distinctions?

where does Sasak fit within a typology of frames of reference and spatial deictic systems?

2 Background — Sasak language and culture

geographical and social context — dialects and alus vs. biase

interactional space, gestures and pointing

sources of information — dictionaries, texts, elicitation, questionnaire, observation

previous research — Adelaar 1997 on Balinese (cf. Blust 1997) proto-Malayo-Polynesian:

1. prot-Austronesian reconstructed directional terms: *laSud ‘towards the sea’ *Daya ‘towards the

interior’

2. proto-Austronesian reconstructed monsoon wind names: *habaRat ‘north-west monsoon’ *timuR

‘south-east monsoon’

p56 ‘In Bali, *laSud and *Daya also developed into terms for cardinal directions, but here we know for

certain that their meanings are still largely dependent on the relative position of the sea and the interior.

The terms for ‘west’ and ‘east’ are not derived from Austronesian monsoon names’.

The island of Bali is traversed by an east-west mountain range. In north and south Bali we get

inverse correlations of geographical direction terms to cardinal directions for the N-S axis, while E-W

remains constant. In east Bali the northern system is rotated 90 degrees clockwise to maintain basic

semantics of geographical direction terms, which now lies on an E-W axis.

North Bali South Bali East Bali

-lod ‘to mountain’ North South East

-aja ‘to sea’ South North West

-auh West West North

-angin East East South

Adelaar (1997:57) ‘a system similar to the Balinese seems to exist on Lombok … For Sasak, Goris

(1938) gives baret ‘west’ and timuq ‘east’. He glosses daya ‘down the mountain; south for northerners,

north for southerners’ and lauq ‘towards the sea; south for southerners, north for northerners.’1

3 Frames of reference

1. NP structure: N(-link N) (AdjP) ([rel S]) (dem)(=pro)

2. frame of reference nouns occur in same structures as compounds and genitives, ie. with a nasal linker,

eg. imeng inaq ‘thumb (hand-link mother)’, buku-ng Ali ‘Ali’s book’, muring Ali ‘behind Ali’

3. absolute — landmark based, eg. bòngkòt ‘direction from which water flows into bangket’ vs. diréq

‘direction away from bangket other than bòngkòt’

‘Compass’ terms: barat glossed as ‘west’, ‘south’, ‘north’; timuq glossed as ‘east, north, south’; daye

glossed as ‘north, south, west’; lauq glossed as ‘north, south, east’.

Systems of contrast, dialect distributions and skewing.

4. relative — no nouns, only demonstratives

5. intrinsic — julu ‘front’2, muri ~ mudi ‘back, behind’, seri ‘side’, atas ‘top, above’, bawaq ‘below,

under’, kiri ‘left’, kanan ~ kawan ‘right’, dalem ‘non-bounded interior’, galuh ‘bounded interior’, luar ~

luah ‘outside bounded space, beyond boundary’

(1) araq kertas siq begantung léq julung lawang [seri kiri]

exist paper rel hang loc front door side left

‘There’s a piece of paper hanging to the left of the door’

4 Demonstrative locational nouns

1. dialect differences between two-term and three-term systems (middle term missing in some dialects

and the contrast is ‘near speaker’ vs. ‘not near speaker’)

té here within speaker’s reachable area, not necessarily visible to addressee

tie there within addressee’s reachable area, necessarily visible to speaker

tó there distant from both speaker and hearer (may or may not be visible)

1 Adelaar 1997p57 fn5 “Agerbeek (1914) and Nazir Thoir et al. (1985) give the same set of terms for cardinal directions but

the meanings they attribute to each term are different. Agerbeek has barat ‘west’, timuq ‘east’, daye ‘north’, and lauq ‘south’,

whereas Nazir Thoir et al. have baret ‘north’, timuq ‘south’, daya ‘west’, and lauq ‘east’. It is not clear in which part of

Lombok they collected their data.”

2 In temporal usage julu indicates reference to the past and muri to the future, eg. julung uiq ‘day before yesterday’, ahat muri

‘next Sunday’.

3

(2) piring saq té bait

dish rel here get

‘Get this dish here!’

(3) piring saq tié bait-ang=kò

dish rel here get-applic=1sg

‘Get that dish there (near you) for me!’

saq tie can be reduced to setie

There is only a two way contrast in derived forms. Thus the adjectival comparative -an can be added to té

and tó but not to tie:

(4) piring saq tó-qan

dish rel there-compar

‘the dish which is further away (from speaker)’

These two comparatives can be used in imperative utterances:

(5) té-qan=òké

here-compar=2>1sg

‘Come here! (lit. ‘get more here’)

(6) tó-qan=òké

there-compar=2>1sg

‘Get away! (lit. ‘get more there’)

In alus speech there is only a two way contrast for all dialects of Sasak (as in Javanese, from which these

forms are borrowed):

driki here, near speaker

drike there, not near speaker

If one needed to be explicit that the place mentioned is distant from speaker and addressee this is

indicated by lengthening the final vowel and using lip pointing and head movement.

5 Demonstratives

1. dialect differences between two-term and three-term systems (middle term missing in some dialects

and the contrast is ‘near speaker’ vs. ‘not near speaker’). A typical three term system is Menu-Meni:

ni this within speaker’s reachable area, not necessarily visible to addressee

tie that within addressee’s reachable area, necessarily visible to speaker

nu that distant from both speaker and hearer (may or may not be visible)

In Meriaq-Meriku the terms employed are:

iaq this within speaker’s reachable area, not necessarily visible to addressee

iku that within addressee’s reachable area, necessarily visible to speaker

étóh that distant from both speaker and hearer (may or may not be visible)

there is variation in the vowels that is geographically distributed, eg. ni ~ né and nu ~ nó

some dialects have an prothetic vowel e or i, thus enó ~ inó

Nggetó-Nggeté has néné vs. nónó

there are (apparently synonymous) variant forms with initial se-, apparently derived from the

relativiser siq ~ saq, eg. senó ~ senu ~ sinó ~ siaq ~ siku ~ sétóh

In some dialects, eg. Menu-Meni, there is a further contrast marked by final glottal stop indicating

speaker’s belief that the addressee can see the referent (not used to draw addressee’s attention to the

referent, cf. Japanese sono):

(7) lawang senu-q

door that-visible

‘that door (distant from speaker and addressee, visible to addressee, may or may

not be visible to speaker)

When the referent is part of shared knowledge, typically by having been mentioned in previous discourse

or being something which speaker and addressee are both attending to, then the third person clitic =ng is

attached to the demonstrative as a marker of definiteness:

(8) lawang setia-q=ng

door that-visible=3

‘that door (near to addressee, visible to addressee, previously spoken about or

being attended to by both speaker and addressee)

Demonstratives and deictic nouns can be used in the same NP provided that their distance features do not

clash, as in:

(9) lawang saq tó nuq=ng langan=ò

door rel there that=3 way=2

‘Your way (in) is that door over there (that you can see, but I can’t)

(10) *lawang saq tó setiaqng langan=ò

In alus style in all dialects there is only a two way contrast: niki ‘this, near to speaker’ vs. nike ‘that, not

near to speaker’. Visibility to addressee and definiteness are not encoded in alus. Thus, in Teeuw’s 1949

dialect survey he notes against tiaq that it is kasar ‘rough, impolite’.

Demonstratives are used anaphorically to reference items referenced within texts — this is

exemplified below.

6 Frames of reference in alus style

There are both free pronouns and bound enclitics (attaching to AUX or verb, encoding S/A and P) and

these show wide dialectal and social variation. In some dialects, second person biase forms contrast male

vs. female addressee (the male form is borrowed from Arabic):

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Table 1: Free Form Pronouns — Ngenó-Ngené

First Second Third

Singular – biase aku ante (male) ie

kamu (female)

Singular – alus tiang side

Singular - humble kaji, dekaji

Singular - honorific pelungguh, pelinggih

Plural – inclusive ite

Plural – exclusive kami

Table 2: Free Form Pronouns — Nggetó-Nggeté

First Second Third

Singular – biase aku épé (male) ida, ia

kamu (female)

Singular – alus tiang ngkéq

Plural – inclusive ita

Plural – exclusive kami

Table 3: Free Form Pronouns — Menu-Meni

First Second Third

Singular – biase aku kamu ie

Singular – alus tiang side

Plural – inclusive ite

alus style is typical of polite styles and is marked by:

1. lexical choice (there are about 300 alus lexical items, mainly for body part terms and bodily actions

such as verbs of motion or consumption, mostly borrowed from Balinese and Javanese and entirely

suppletive with everyday lexicon)

2. circumspection and indirectness of reference

3. avoidance of direct contact between speaker and addressee, and lack of focus on speaker’s

possessions, family or actions - person deictic flip-flops between first and second person

4. differential practice by different segments of the community. Most strongly practised by mènak nobles,

especially politically conservative ones, who insist on being spoken to in alus, which they may then

reciprocate to non-mènak with biase.

An example of high alus style is the following conversation between two mènak men, cousins of each

other (one is cousin and one brother of my colleague who tape-recorded this interaction) discussing the

behaviour of their children. Alus items are in bold face.

Sasak Text 59 - Mènak conversation

sas-t059s001

Assalamu.alaikum

Greetings

\sp LS

sas-t059s002

Waalaikumussalam.

Greetings

\sp MB

sas-t059s003

Dawek melinggih

dawek melinggih

please sit

Please sit down.

\sp MB

sas-t059s004

Nggih, tampi asih, mbé eh, margin Kaq

nggih tampi asih mbé eh margi=n Kaq

yes receive favour where eh go=3 o.brother

bólingk niki?

bóling=k niki

o.sibling=1sg this

Yes, thank you, where has your daughter (=my elder sister) gone now?

\sp LS

sas-t059s005

Nggih sésip ak matur, mbé jage baruq, tó

nggih sésip yaq=k matur mbé jage baruq tó

yes fault fut=1sg say where perhaps recently there

muri jagaq taòqn nyeken meriap

muri jagaq taòq=n nyeke=n N-periap

back probably place=3 cont=3 tr-cook

Yes, it would be wrong for me to say (=I don't know), she proabably is

in the place behind (the house) cooking.

\sp MB

7

sas-t059s006

Nggih.

nggih

yes

Yes.

\sp LS

sas-t059s007

Gumantingk dèwèk parek niki beli, sèngaq

gumanti-N=k dèwèk parek niki beli sèngaq

on.purpose-link=1sg self come this o.brother because

kasusah manahk dèwèk siq bijem saq males

ke-susah manah=k dèwèk isiq bije=m saq males

emph-trouble mind=1sg self because child=2 rel lazy

lalòqn yaq lampaq sekólah iaq, muq berembé aran

lalòq=n yaq lampaq sekólah iaq muq berembé aran

very=3 fut walk school this perf how name

tank yaq ngejap, yaq ngajah, petétóq.

tan=k yaq N-jap yaq N-ajah petétóq

manner=1sg fut tr-prepare fut tr-educate show

I have come here on purpose older brother because I am very sad

because of my son (=this child of yours) who is very lazy to go to

school, how should I manage him to study, to direct him.

\sp LS

sas-t059s008

Ndén mélé tame sekólah bé telu mpat

ndéq=n mélé tame sekólah wah=bé telu mpat

not=3 want enter school already=perfect three four

jeló, tiang.

jeló tiang

day 1sg

He hasn't wanted to go to school for three or four days.

\sp LS

\nt tiang here is purely to indicate politeness.

sas-t059s009

Keméléngk ngangen pelungguhm yaq margi

ke-mélé-N=k N-kangen pelungguh=m yaq margi

emph-want-link=1sg tr-yearn.for 2=2 fut go

tó balé, tiang yaq ngican

tó balé tiang yaq N-ice-an

there house 1sg fut tr-bestow-nom

saran bijem niki, tiang.

saran bije=m niki tiang

behaviour child=2 this 1sg

I really want you to come to my house to give suggestions to this

child of yours.

\sp LS

\nt the speaker uses balé because it refers to his own house, gedèng

is only for someone else's house, note the use of bijem 'your child'

here so as not to be ego-centric

7 Frames of reference in action — the Haj text

The following example from a text recorded in Lombok in 2001 illustrates the various frame of reference

issues and the alus matters discussed so far. Here the absolute system of reference is projected onto an

airplane taking the flight path and mapping it to cardinal direction terms.

Sasak Text 72 - Haj

Recorded Mataram, Lombok September 2001

Conversational narrative between two adult male speakers, SK and YM, video-taped in the presence of

PA (who did not participate in the conversation, and later transcribed it with YM), where SK describes

his first trip on an aeroplane during haj to Mecca. The participants are cousins; SK is a farmer, village

headman and primary school educated, YM is university lecturer, currently doing a PhD overseas.

Speech style is alus.

sas-t072s027

mòlahkò angenkò indeng, nganjeng

mòlah=kò angen=kò inde=ng N-anjeng

easy=1sg feeling=1sg suppose=3 tr-stand.up

I felt at ease, and I stood up.

\sp SK

sas-t072s028

lalóò cóbaqè indeng

laló=ò cóbaq=è inde=ng

go=2 try=3 suppose=3

You went and tried it?3

\sp YM

3 Here =è is the third person anaphoric enclitic and it refers to the bathroom fixtures which SK mentioned investigating in the

immediately preceding discourse.

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sas-t072s029

nggih, nyingkete siq andang batng niki, muq lauq ólét

nggih nyingke=te siq andang bat=ng niki muq lauq óléq=t

yes cont=1pl rel face west=3 this perf south from=1pl

tòkòn, ndéqng jaq bèngkò menu, muk bilinè tòkòn

tòkòn ndéq=ng jaq bèng=kò menó muq=k bilin=è tòkòn

sit not=3 disc give=1sg like.that perf=1sg leave.behind=3 sit

òjòk daye, ngileng dòang indeng, kaq tuanò tie

òjòk daye N-kile=ng dòang inde=ng kakaq tuan=ò tie

to north tr-stare.at=3 only suppose=3 older.sibling master=2 that

Yes, while we were facing west4, we sat in the south part; because she didn't leave

me (a seat) like that, I left her behind and sat in the north, she kept staring,

your older sister5.

\sp SK

sas-t072s030

araq taòqng kòsòng menu?

araq taòq=ng kòsòng menó

be place=3 empty like.that

Were there any empty places?

\sp YM

sas-t072s031

araqng kòsòng, niki anuq dengan, isian nempulu dengan,

araq=ng kòsòng niki anuq dengan isi-an nem pulu dengan

be=3 empty this thing person content-nom six ten person

muq kancete sèket jage

muq kance=te sèket jage

perf with=1pl fifty perhaps

There were empty places, because this plane was for 60 passengers but we were 50

perhaps.

\sp SK

sas-t072s032

oh? araq bangku kòsòng jaring?

oh araq bangku kòsòng jari=ng

oh be seat empty become=3

Oh? There were empty seats then?

\sp YM

4 The frame of reference adopted here by the speaker is the aeroplane which was flying from Lombok to Surabaya. The flight

path is roughly east to west - note the use of niki an explicily alus demonstrative. The term ‘south part’ is not ‘towards the sea’

but references the left side of the plane, while the ‘north part (towards the mountains)’ is the right side of the plane.

5 The speaker avoids direct reference to his wife by using a term that references the addressee’s (classificatory) relationship to

this person. Note that tuan ‘master’ is an honorific term for the addressee, lit. ‘your (master’s) elder sibling’. Notice the use of

the spatial demonstrative tie ‘near to addressee’ here - this is an anaphoric and metaphorical use of the demonstrative to

deictically anchor the possession relationship with the addressee (who was not literally present on the airplane).

sas-t072s033

araq bangku kòsòng, muk bilinè òjòk daye,

araq bangku kòsòng muq=k bilin=è òjòk daye

be seat empty perf=1sg leave.behind=3 to north

gedek rueng tebilin indeng kilengkò dòang, lutng

gedek rue=ng te-bilin inde=ng kile=ng=kò dòang lut=ng

angry shape=3 pass-leave.behind suppose=3 stare.at=3=1sg only more=3

kilengkò sérékò lampaq, laguq tó mélékò ketaòn ruen

kile=ng=kò séré=kò lampaq laguq tó mélé=kò ketaòn rue=n

stare.at=3=1sg more=1sg walk but there want=1sg know shape=3

tó léq anuq dengan, léq kaptèn, kaptèn unite ndèh

tó léq anuq dengan léq kaptèn kaptèn uni=te ndèh

there loc thing person loc captain captain say=1pl tag

kapan atas

kapan atas

passenger.vehicle top

There were empty seats, I left her to the north6, she looked angry being left just

staring at me, she stared at me more and I walked more, but there7 I wanted to know

about what it was like [the form] there near the person, near the captain, 'captain'

isn't that what we say for a plane?

\sp SK

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

6 Another instance of the use of absolute frame of reference within the context of the plane flight.

7 The term used is tó ‘distant from speaker and addressee’ - within the frame of reference of the plane the cockpit was far from

speaker.