Their power declined in the 16th century, and by the time of the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia their empire had essentially collapsed except for a few large towns. Today, they are distributed sporadically around Sumatra and several other Indonesian islands.
1: Pronounciation & orthography
1.1: Orthography
Batanese has historically used a number of scripts – around
the early stages of their empire, a variant of the Malay script was used by the
majority of people, but after their conversion to Islam, the official script
became a heavily modified form of Arabic, and while some continued using the
earlier script for a few centuries, it soon died out. After exploration and
conquest by the Dutch and Portuguese, the language was transcribed in Latin,
and today is used in both Latin and Arabic – an irregular combination for its
region.
This document, for the ease of those learning the language,
is written in the Latin version, which can itself prove to be complex,
different even from neighbouring languages.
A a
|
/a/
|
N n
|
/n/
|
à ã
|
/ə/
|
Ñ ñ
|
/n̥/
|
B b
|
/b/
|
O o
|
/o/
|
C c
|
/t͡ɕ/
|
P p
|
/p/
|
D d
|
/d/
|
R r
|
/ɹ/
|
E e
|
/e/
|
Rr rr
|
/r/
|
G g
|
/g/
|
S s
|
/s/
|
H h
|
/ɕ/
|
T t
|
/t/
|
I i
|
/i/
|
U u
|
/u/
|
J j
|
/ʑ/
|
Ũ ũ
|
/y/
|
K k
|
/k/
|
V v
|
/v/
|
L l
|
/l/
|
Y y
|
/j/
|
M m
|
/m/
|
Z z
|
/z/
|
1.2:
Pronounciation rules
The stress in a word is, unless marked otherwise, on the
penultimate syllable. However, there are exceptions:
-
If the stress occurs in another place, there is
a simple acute accent on that vowel
-
If ã or ũ occurs in a word, the stress is on
that syllable, except for when an accented vowel occurs elsewhere in the word, in which
case the stress is on that vowel
2: Noun
classes and declension
2.1: Cases
The case system resembles those of a lot of Indo-European
languages, particularly Latin and Slavic, and consists of six essential cases:
-
Nominative: the subject of a verb
-
Accusative/Genitive: the direct object of a
verb, but also refers to a noun that possesses another noun
-
Dative: “to” a noun
-
Instrumental: “with” or “by using” a noun
-
Ablative: “from” a noun
-
Locative: used with a variety of prepositions
that denote a location in relation to something
2.2: Feminine
declensions
Batanese nouns also resemble those in many Indo-European
languages, not only in that nouns are divided into masculine and feminine
categories but that feminine nouns must end in either “a” or “u”.
“A”-ending nouns are considered “soft feminine” nouns – for
example, “hospa” (shoss-pah),
“horse”- and are declined like so:
Sing
|
Plu
|
|
Nom
|
-a
|
-oy
|
Acc
|
-o
|
-ay
|
Dat
|
-
|
-e
|
Ins
|
-i
|
-uy
|
Abl
|
-u
|
-o
|
Loc
|
-ta
|
-tas
|
“U”-ending nouns are “hard feminine”, such as “taku”, “apple”:
Sing
|
Plu
|
|
Nom
|
-u
|
-oy
|
Acc
|
-o
|
-uy
|
Dat
|
-
|
-ã
|
Ins
|
-i
|
-ay
|
Abl
|
-ũ
|
-o
|
Loc
|
-tu
|
-tay
|
2.3: Masculine
nouns
Masculine nouns are all those ending in a consonant, and,
like feminine nouns, are divided into two classes – “soft masculine”, those
ending in an unvoiced consonant, “ñ”, “r” or “rr” (such as “bas”, “river”), and “hard masculine”, ending in a voiced
consonant, “m”, “n” or “l” (such as “gurj”,
“sea”).
Sing
|
Plu
|
Sing
|
Plu
|
|
Soft
|
Hard
|
|||
Nom
|
-
|
-a
|
-
|
-a
|
Acc
|
-i
|
-ũ
|
-
|
-á
|
Dat
|
-oy
|
-ay
|
-o
|
-ã*
|
Ins
|
-e
|
-oh
|
-e
|
-uh
|
Abl
|
-i
|
-éy
|
-i
|
-ay
|
Loc
|
-ã
|
-ũh
|
-oy
|
-ah
|
*accent on penultimate vowel
2.4: Declension of
place names
Place names are treated with a different pattern – although
they can be divided into feminine and masculine, like other nouns, they have no
plural form (at least not in formal speech), and are declined like so:
-
Feminine
place = Nala (Australia)
-
Masculine
place = Landon (London)
Masc
|
Fem
|
|
Nom
|
-
|
-a
|
Acc
|
-
|
-o
|
Dat
|
-o
|
-ũ*
|
Ins
|
-e
|
-i
|
Abl
|
-i
|
-u
|
Loc
|
-ã*
|
-
|
It should also be noted that feminine place nouns cannot be
hard, and masculine nouns are declined the same regardless of whether their end
consonants are hard or soft.
*Accent on penultimate vowel
3: Verbs
3.1: Basic
conjugation
Present
|
Past
|
|
1st
sing.
|
-n
|
-do
|
2nd
sing.
|
-rr
|
-rro
|
3rd
sing. (masc)
|
-na
|
-da
|
3rd
sing. (fut)
|
-r
|
-du
|
1st
plu.
|
-v
|
-mo
|
2nd
plu.
|
-ra
|
-ja
|
3rd
plu.
|
-m
|
-ma
|
The particle “kar” precedes the verb to form the future with
the present, and the conditional with the past.
3.2: Past and
future participles
Participles are usually used to convert a verb to an adverb or adjective,
although in Batanese, they are also used to convert a verb to a noun. In
English, these take the ending “-ing”.
Past participles end in “–ydan” while future participles
(often treated as present participles) end in “-yro”.
3.3: Modifications
for object
A lot of verbs are modified depending on what their object
is – for example, “combóy”, which means “to go across” or “to go through”, more
generally means “to go through it/him/her/them”. To say “to go through us/me”,
the stress reverts back to “comboy” on the first syllable. “To go through you”
is “combáy”.
There are a number of patterns for modifying verbs for
object nouns, although predominantly it follows the system given above – for
those where the last vowel is “u” or “ũ”, this becomes “o” with the second
person, and for when the last vowel is “a”, “e” or “ã” it becomes “u”.
3.4: Interrogatives
and prepositions
For interrogative sentences (e.g. “Did you go that way?”),
the pronoun is used, or, if there is a regular noun as subject, the subject
comes after the verb, as in most Indo-European languages.
The pronouns are:
-
Ũn = I, me
-
Ey = you (sing.)
-
Jã = he, him
-
Ay = she, her
-
O = we, us
-
Au = you (plu.)
-
Osi = they, them
These pronouns themselves are not subject to declension in
other cases, but are marked with the preceding word “ga”, declined like a
feminine place noun. This is the same for all given names as well.
4:
Adjectives, adverbs & prepositions
4.1: Adjective
endings and inflections
Most adjectives can be split among two different endings in
the nominative masculine, “-an” and “-ro”, and are declined thus:
Masc
|
Fem
|
Plu
|
Masc
|
Fem
|
Plu
|
|
-an
|
-ro
|
|||||
Nom
|
-an
|
-au
|
-a
|
-ro
|
-rũ
|
-ra
|
Acc
|
-an
|
-o
|
-a
|
-ri
|
-ra
|
-ra
|
Dat
|
-ay
|
-ãn
|
-ay
|
-ray
|
-ran
|
-ray
|
Ins
|
-en
|
-a
|
-ay
|
-rã
|
-ru
|
-ray
|
Abl
|
-ay
|
-an
|
-i
|
-roy
|
-ru
|
-ri
|
Loc
|
-ah
|
-at
|
-ata
|
-ruh
|
-rut
|
-rta
|
4.2: Nationality
and possessive adjectives
A number of adjectives, particularly those denoting
belonging to something such as a country or person, act differently. They are
declined according to the pattern of soft feminine nouns, with the ending “ka”.
For example:
Ãngrízka = English (adjective)(noun form = Ãngríta)
Mayuha ãngrízka = English woman
Mayuh ãngrízk =to an English woman
Mayuhu ãngrízku = from an English woman
4.3: Numerals
-
1 = Ohan
-
2 = Kahan
-
3 = Ziyan
-
4 = Ayan
-
5 = Varo
-
6 = Sakro
-
7 = Tayan
-
8 = Iro
-
9 = Mahan
-
10 = Uyan
4.4: Adverbs
Adverbs are formed by taking the adjectival or participle
form, removing the “-an”/”-ro” ending and replacing it with the ending “-u”.
4.5: Prepositions
The verb “can” is shown as a preposition with the
instrumental case, “sa”, as is the verb “need” with the accusative preposition “bay”:
-
Cotóna sa gihti = I could return home
-
Cotóna bay gihto = I need to return home
Other prepositions include:
-
“hap” = “as far as, up to, until” (+dat), “on”
(+loc)
-
“ãl” = “in”(+loc)
-
“til” = “over” (+loc)
-
“tuh” = “under” (+loc)
