[3] It is also preserved in the Buru communities on Ambon and some other Maluku Islands, as well as in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and in the Netherlands.
Aside from native vernaculars, most Buru people, especially in the coastal regions and towns, have at least some command and understanding of the official language of the country, Indonesian.
However, contrary to many other Austronesian cultures, Buru people do refer to the deceased relatives by name.
Other restrictions apply to the objects of nature, harvest, hunting and fishing, for which certain words should be chosen depending on the island area.
Other types of borrowed words came from Malayan languages as a result of inflow of people from the nearby island.
Buru Christians worship with a Bible written in their native language, the first translations of which were made in 1904 by Dutch missionaries.
Even whole stories may be concluded with a sentence or two expressing the speaker's attitude to what was just said, where or who they heard it from, or similar judgements.
This is reflected at both the sentence and even clause level by means of auxiliaries, parts of the TAM (Tense-aspect-mood) system, tags, and other such modifiers.
[3]: 232 This comes to include speaker evaluation of the truth value of what is said, marked by moo, the main negative adverbial in Buru.
This is substantiated by the fact that "historical records indicate long-term and extensive interactions between Austronesians and Non-Austronesians in Halmahera and the Moluccas".
[9]: 375 Consequently, Klamer concludes that it is “reasonable to analyze ... final negation in ... Buru ... as having a [non-Austronesian (i.e. Papuan)] origin for which there is substantial historical and linguistic evidence”.
Unlike other negative adverbials and auxiliaries, the segment tehuk may appear in both the "nucleus" (directly following the verb) or clause-final, as well as (rather uniquely) in both positions at once.
[3]: §15.2 Leasuntau-nfull-GENdii,DISTda3.SGdufagetsaonemoo,NEG,da3.SGolireturnhamasearchsaa.oneLea tau-n dii, da dufa sa moo, da oli hama saa.sun full-GEN DIST 3.SG get one NEG, 3.SG return search one'All that day, if he gets nothing, he goes home hunting for something.
': (55), §22.2.2 If moo directly follows a verb, then the cliticised object marker -h, if present, will attach to it to form of mohe.
': (241), §12.4.25.1 Free pronouns may be used equally for the subject and object of intransitive verbs (marking either actor or undergoer).
(p. 280)The possessive word can also accept valence changing verbal prefixes; however, this is restricted to the third singular form nake.
(p. 280)Geba-roperson-PLkadu-kcome-kpaREALdu3PLwanaawakeem-nake-kSTAT-3SG.POSS-ketauntillea.sunGeba-ro kadu-k pa du wana em-nake-k eta lea.person-PL come-k REAL 3PL awake STAT-3SG.POSS-k until sun'People came and they stayed away at his disposal keeping him company until dawn.'
Kawasanheadp-em-nake-kCAUS-STAT-3SG.POSS-kgebapersonruatwouteDATringe3SGetauntildenaarriveladownstreammasi.seaKawasan p-em-nake-k geba rua ute ringe eta dena la masi.head CAUS-STAT-3SG.POSS-k person two DAT 3SG until arrive downstream sea'The village head put two people at his disposal until they should reach the coast.'
(p. 281)The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) classifies demonstratives based on two criteria: the demonstrative has a meaning that contrasts with some other form in terms of physical proximity to the speaker, so that there is at least a two-way contrast of proximal (near speaker) versus distal (not near speaker); or that the form can be used as an indication that the hearer is intended to direct their attention towards something in the physical environment.
Paulohi, Tetun and Nualu are just some of the CMP languages that follow this pattern, and there do not appear to be any exceptions to this rule.
Demonstrative tags dita – 'that particular way, like that, in that way' – and nata 'this particular one, like this, in this way' – are formed by combining the general definite deictics dii and naa with /-ta/.[3]:173.
'Deictics narrow the scope of definiteness and referentiality, with general deictics marking both time and space.
Deictics saka and pao are typically oriented to the topographical notions of 'up' and 'down' (respectively) the sides of a valley perpendicular to a stream or river.
Headwaters (olo-n) and sources (lahi-n) are of extreme cultural significance on the island of Buru.
The preposition la 'to, for' has also developed from the notion of 'away from an emic centre', signalling energy being directed away from the Actor as the source of the action or effort toward a goal.
Deictics in noun phrases (NP) are always final and thus never cliticised as topic or in post-verbal arguments.
In cases where deictics behave as pro-forms for noun phrases, they cannot be modified for number or attribute.[3]:171.
Where information is not anaphorically retrievable, the cliticised form of a deictic may function as a non-restrictive modifier when placed before the head noun.
'Fi is thought to have been derived from the archaic verbs fili(m) 'be from' and fiki(ng) 'be at' [3]259.For fi to not be followed by a deictic in some form would be ungrammatical.
La has also developed into dative 'to, toward' and benefactive 'for', indicating energy being directed away from the Actor.[3]:257.