The Aslian languages () are the southernmost branch of Austroasiatic languages spoken on the Malay Peninsula. They are the languages of many of the Orang Asli, the aboriginal inhabitants of the peninsula. The total number of native speakers of Aslian languages is about fifty thousand and all are in danger of extinction. Aslian languages recognized by the Malaysian administration include Kensiu, Kintaq, Jahai, Minriq, Batek, Cheq Wong, Lanoh, Temiar, Semai, Jah Hut, Mah Meri, Semaq Beri, Semelai and Temoq.Geoffrey Benjamin (1976) Austroasiatic Subgroupings and Prehistory in the Malay Peninsula Jenner et al Part I, pp. 37–128
History and origin Aslian languages originally appeared on the western side of the main mountains and eventually spread eastwards into Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang. The nearest relatives to the Aslian languages are Monic and Nicobarese.Blench, R. (2006): Why are Aslian speakers Austronesian in culture . Paper presented at the Preparatory meeting for ICAL-3, Siem Reap. There is a possibility the early Monic and Nicobarese people had contact with the migrants who moved into the Malay Peninsula from further north.
Aslian languages contain a complex palimpsest of loanwords from linguistic communities that no longer exist on the Malay Peninsula. Their former residence can be traced from the etymologies and the archaeological evidence for the succession of cultures in the region. Roger Blench (2006)Blench, Roger. 2006. Why are Aslian speakers Austronesian in culture? Papers presented at ICAL-3, Siem Reap, Cambodia. notes that Aslian languages have many Austronesian (specifically Bornean and Chamic) loanwords, pointing to a former presence of Bornean and Chamic speakers on the Malay Peninsula.
Blagden (1906),Blagden, C. O. 1906. ‘Language.’ In: W. W. Skeat and C. O. Blagden, Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula, volume 2, London: MacMillan, pp. 379-775. Evans (1937)Evans, I. H. N. 1937. The Negritos of Malaya. London: Frank Cass. and Blench (2006) note that Aslian languages, especially the Northern Aslian (Jahaic) group, contain many words that cannot be traced to any currently known language family. The extinct Kenaboi language of Negeri Sembilan also contains many words of unknown origin in addition to words of Austroasiatic and Austronesian origin.
Sidwell (2023) proposed that Proto-Aslian had arrived in the Malay Peninsula from the Gulf of Thailand region prior to Mon dominance, and was part of an early southern dispersal that also included Nicobaric. Due to its early split from the rest of Austroasiatic, Aslian contains many retentions and has escaped the areal influences that had later swept mainland Southeast Asia. Aslian likely arrived at around the Pahang area and then spread inland and upstream.
Classification A study with computational phylogenetic lexical analysis conducted by Dunn et al. (2011) devises a classification scheme for the Aslian languages as following:
Monic-Aslian-Nicobarese Aslian Jah Hut–North Aslian Jah Hut North Aslian Cheq Wong Maniq–Batek: Batek, Jahai, Minriq, Mintil, Kensiu, Kintaq, Ten'edn Central Aslian Semai Temiar–Semnam–Lanoh South Aslian Semaq Beri Semelai–Mah Meri Mah Meri Semelai
The extinct Kenaboi language is unclassified, and may or may not be Aslian.
Phillips (2012:194) lists the following consonant sound changes that each Aslian branch had innovated from Proto-Aslian. Northern Aslian: Proto-Aslian *sə- > ha- Southern Aslian: loss of Proto-Aslian *-ʔ (final glottal stop) Proto-Aslian *-N > *-DN in all branches except Jah Hut
Reconstruction
The Proto-Aslian language has been reconstructed by Timothy Phillips (2012).Phillips, Timothy C. 2012. Proto-Aslian: towards an understanding of its historical linguistic systems, principles and processes. Ph.D. thesis, Institut Alam Dan Tamadun Melayu Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi.
Phonology
Syllable structure Aslian words may either be monosyllabic, sesquisyllabic or disyllabic:
Monosyllabic: either simple CV(C) or complex CCV(C).Matissoff, J. 2003. Aslian: Mon–Khmer of Malay Peninsula Mon-Khmer Studies 33:1–58
Sesquisyllabic:Matisoff, James A, 1973. Tonogenesis in Southeast Asia. In Larry M. Hyman, ed., CTT 71-95 consist of a major syllable with fully stressed vowel, preceded by a minor syllable Temiar ləpud 'caudal fin' Semai kʔɛːp [kɛʔɛːp] 'centipede'Diffloth, Gerard.1976a. Minor-syllably vocalism in Senoic languages. In Jenner et al., Vol. I, pp 229–2480
Disyllabic: more morphologically complex, resulting from various reduplications and infixations. Compounds with unreduced though unstressed vowels also occur: Temiar diŋ-rəb 'shelter' Loanwords from Malay are a further source of disyllables: Jah Hut suraʔ 'sing', from Malay; suara 'voice' Semai tiba:ʔ 'arrive', from Malay; tiba 'arrive'Nik Safiah Karim and Ton Dinti Ibrahim. 1979. "Semoq Beri: some preliminary remarks." FMJ (n.s) 24:17–31
Temiar even has phonetic trisyllables in morphological categories such as the middle causative (tərakɔ̄w)Benjamin, Geoffrey. 1976b. "An outline of Temiar grammar". In Jenner et al, eds., Vol I, pp. 129–87 (OTG) and the continuative causative (tərɛwkɔ̄w), or in words with proclitics (barhalab ~ behalab 'go downriver').
Initial consonants Aslian words generally start with a consonant. Words which start with a vowel will be followed by a glottal stop.Asmah Hji Omar (volume editor), 2004. 'Aslian languages', 'Aslian: characteristics and usage.', The encyclopedia of Malaysia, volume 12: Languages and literatures, Kuala Lumpur. Archipelago Press, pp. 46–49 In most Aslian languages, aspirated consonants are analyzed as sequences of two phonemes, one of which happens to be h.
Austroasiatic implosives in Aslian were merged with voiced consonants. The fricative /s/ is often realized as voiceless alveolopalatal fricative [ɕ] in many Aslian languages, eg. Semaq Beri /sblɛ̃k/ [ɕə.bə.lɛ̃k], "to be straight". Northern Aslian languages except Cheq Wong feature a voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/ in their phonemic inventories. Some varieties also have a voiced alveolar /z/ or a palatal fricative /ʑ/.
Aslian syllable-initial consonant clusters are rich and varied. Stops for example may cluster without restrictions to their place of articulation or voicing: Jah Hut tkak 'palate', dkaŋ 'bamboo rat', bkul 'gray', bgɔk 'goiter'Diffloth, Gerard. 1976c. "Jah Hut, an Austroasiatic language of Malaysia." In Nguyen Dang Liem, ed., SALS II:73-118, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics C-42
Articulation of laryngeal consonants may be superimposed upon the vowel midway in its articulation, giving the impression of two identical vowels interrupted by the laryngeals. Jah Hut 'bone', 'tree'
Vowels A typical Aslian vowel system is displayed by Northern Temiar, which has 30 vocalic nuclei.
Oral Nasal short long short long Close Mid N/A N/A Open
The functional load of the nasal/oral contrast is not very high in Aslian languages (not many minimal pairs can be cited). DifflothDiffloth, Gerard. 1977. "Towards a history of Mon–Khmer: proto-Semai vowels." Tōnan Azia Kenkyū (Kyoto) 14(4):463-495 states that this phenomenon is unpredictable and irregular in Semai dialects, especially on vowels preceded by h- or ʔ-.
Phonemic vowel length has been retained in Senoic languages such as Semai, Temiar and Sabum. Contrastive length has been lost in the Northern and Southern Aslian branches. The loss of vowel length must have led to complex reorganizations in the vocalic systems of the affected languages, by developing new contrasts elsewhere.
Diphthongization is not as obvious in Aslian languages as compared to the other branches of Mon–Khmer. Proto-Semai is reconstructed with 10-11 long monophthongal vowels, but with only one diphthong, .
Senoic infixes are sensitive to the number of initial consonants in a root. Rising diphthongs like or are ambiguous, since the glide may be interpreted as either a feature of the initial or of the vowel.
Final consonants
Aslian languages are well endowed with final consonants, with most of the languages placing a lot of stress on them.
-r, -l, -s, -h and -ʔ are represented and well-preserved in Aslian.Benedict, Paul K. 1972. Sino-Tibetan: a Conspectus. Contributing ed., James A. Matisoff. Cambridge University Press. There is also a tendency to shorten long vowels before these finals.Shorto, Harry L. 1976. "The vocalism of Proto Mon–Khmer." In Jenner et al., eds., Vol. II, pp. 1041–1067
It has been reported that Temiar -h has bilabial friction after -u-, e.g. 'speak' pronounced as .
Throughout the Aslian family, final nasals are pre-stopped. In Northern Aslian this has gone further, with final nasals merging with the plosive series.
Morphology All Aslian languages that have been thoroughly studied have constructive usage of various morphophonemic devices – prefixation, infixation and reduplication. Also, most Aslian languages preserve fossilized traces of other morphological patterns that are no longer productive.
It was also noted that the use of the suffix in Aslian languages was a product of recent use of Malay loan words. For example, the use of the infix 'n' is prominent in various Aslian language and it encompasses a myriad of definition.
The Aslian languages, unlike their precategorial Austronesian neighbors, make clear distinctions between three major lexical categories in part of speech: nominals, verbs, and expressives. Some exceptions do exist although they are mostly Malay loanwords. Adjectives are a subclass of verbs known as stative verbs. Some closed classes such as pronouns and numerals may be considered parts of the nominal superclass. In Northern Aslian languages, the status of expressives appears to be uncertain, as they may function like typical verbs, whereas in Southern Aslian, they constitute a standalone independent lexical category.
Simple prefixation
C(C)VC → (P)(P)–C(C)VC
Example: Jah Hut causatives Affixes Simplex Causative p- cyɛk 'sleep' pcyɛk 'put to sleep' pr- bhec 'be afraid' prbhec 'frighten' pn- tlas 'escape' pntlas 'release' tr- hus 'get loose (clothes)' trhus 'undress' kr- lʉy 'be inside' krlʉy 'put inside'
Simple infixation Source:
C (C) V C → C-I-(C) V C
Aslian languages insert infixes between two consonants. Simple infixation is when the infix is inserted into the root. The most important liquid infix is the causative -r-, which is productive in Semai and Temiar. Semai (root has 2 initial consonants, infix comes between them): kʔā:c 'be wet', krʔā:c 'moisten something'.Diffloth, Gerard. 1972b. Ambiguïtè morphologique en semai. In J. Thomas and L.Bernot, eds. LTNS I:91-93, Paris: Klincksieck
Nasal infixes are also found in Aslian, especially used as nominalizers of verbal roots. Jah Hut (the agentive nominalizing prefix is mʔ-): lyɛp 'plait palm leaves' → mlayɛp 'one who plaits'; cyɛk 'sleep' → mʔcyɛk 'one who sleeps a lot'
Reduplicative infixation: incopyfixation Source:
A reduplication of the final consonant of the root is being infixed to the root. This process occurs in all 3 branches of Aslian.
Incopyfix of final alone (roots complex by nature): Kensiw: plɔɲ 'sing' → pɲlɔɲ 'singing' Che' Wong: hwæc 'whistle' → hcwæc 'whistling' Root-external infix plus incopyfix. In Semai, count nouns are derived from mass nouns by using a root-external nasal infix and an incopyfix of the final. When the root-initial is simple, the incopyfix precedes the infix: teːw 'river' (mass) →twneːw 'id.' (count).When the root-initial is complex, the infix precedes the incopyfix: slaːy 'swidden' (mass) → snylaːy 'id.' (count) Root-external prefix plus incopyfix. Simple-initialled verbs are formed by inserting the prefix n- and incopyfixing the final between prefix and the root-initial: Batek: jɯk 'breathe' → nkjɯk 'the act of breathing'