Historical Relationship of Taba and Patani Languages in North Maluku

Abstract

North Maluku is a multilingual area with approximately thirty regional languages. However, the study of these languages still needs to be improved. Taba language and Patani language are two languages among the regional languages in North Maluku. These two languages have similarities in form and meaning both phonologically and lexically. This research using historical-comparative linguistics, aims to describe the linguistic characteristics of the Taba and Patani languages from a phonological and lexical perspective and the kinship relationship between the two languages. The research data were taken using the Blust revision of the Swadesh vocabulary list in three observation areas: the first observation area in Patani, Central Halmahera in the villages of Kipai, Wailegi, and Banemo. Then the second observation area was in East Makeang, namely Ngofagita and Ngofakiaha villages. Data was collected using the field questionnaire method with note and record techniques. Data were analyzed by applying quantitative and qualitative methods. The research results show that the two languages have similar linguistic characteristics, both from a phonological and lexical point of view.

Regarding phonology, there are similarities in the characteristics, namely the number of five vowels and 18 consonants. The difference in BTb is that there are long vowels [a, o, u, e], there are diphthongs [ai,au, ou], vowel series, consonant clusters, which are geminate consonants at the beginning of words [ww, ss, dd] in BTb and [nn] in BPt, consonant series, and the same phonotactic system. Some forms correspond regularly, namely [o] ≈ [Ø] and [o] ≈[a] on the ultima, and there are varied forms, namely [i] ~ [a] and [o] ~ [e] also on ultimate. From a lexical point of view, some words are similar in form and meaning; in the Patani language, some words experience contractions or sound fragments at the end of words/apocope and the addition of sound in the middle/epenthesis. In addition, the two languages have several vocabulary words similar to Papuan, such as the pronominal persona au, i, and am. Quantitatively using lexicostatistics techniques shows that Taba and Patani are two languages in the same language family.