Bradley McDonnell & Christina L. Truong
Book chapter in The Oxford Guide to the Malayo-Polynesian Languages of Southeast Asia edited by Alexander Adelaar and Antoinette Schapper
This chapter provides a typological overview of the Non-Malayic languages of Sumatra and the Barrier islands off of the west coast of Sumatra. This group of languages is diverse, sharing few typological features that are not a result of their shared Austronesian inheritance. The chapter includes discussions of typological phenomena of broad relevance in the domains of phonology (segmental inventories, stress, reduplication, phonological processes) and morphosyntax (case, agreement, grammatical relations, word order, tense, aspect, mood, and noun phrase structure). It also critically discusses less common typological features, such as the presence of post-ploded nasals in several languages, consonant mutation of nominals in Nias, and symmetrical voice as an important typological parameter for these languages. Finally, the chapter suggests priorities and future direction for the Non-Malayic languages of Sumatra and the Barrier Islands.