[2] The vast majority of Biak speakers are also fluent in the local variety of Malay, but not all of them are proficient in standard Indonesian.

Biak is only actively used as a spoken language by members of the community over 50 years of age or so and even they regularly code switch into Malay.

Free personal pronouns in Biak share their main distributional properties with nouns; however, they are somewhat more restricted.

'In Biak, pronominal affixes can combine with verbs in three possible inflection patterns (given in the table below), which are partly phonologically conditioned.

Thus the following sentence is still grammatical without NP Rusa nanine, while the verb has a pronominal affix that gives the same information.

[14] This is shown in the examples below: I-fúr3SG-makeyuk=oukulele=NSPC.SGfaCONSy-ún1SG-takei3SGvetoWaranda.The.NetherlandsI-fúr yuk=o fa y-ún i ve Waranda.3SG-make ukulele=NSPC.SG CONS 1SG-take 3SG to The.Netherlands'He is making/will make a ukulele so that I can take it to the Netherlands'I-fúr3SG-makeyuk=yaukulele=3SG.SPCfaCONSy-ún1SG-takei3SGvetoWaranda.The.NetherlandsI-fúr yuk=ya fa y-ún i ve Waranda.3SG-make ukulele=3SG.SPC CONS 1SG-take 3SG to The.Netherlands'He has made a ukulele so that I can take it to the Netherlands'Biak has identical forms in adnominal and pronominal demonstratives, which is common in Austronesian languages.

Also, it is important to note that the corpus contains no example of complex articles containing both a directional and a motion marker.

[15] Furthermore, yi and wu are used as allomorphs of ya and wa, respectively, but attested in article-final position only.

Deictic nouns are formed by applying the formative di 'place' at the position preceding demonstratives, as illustrated by di-pur-wu 'place-back-over.there' and di-ne 'place-here.'

Locative-existentials is different from predicative pronouns because they do not possess a specificity marker, which is illustrated by i-is-wa '3SG.PRED-over.there'.

For the semantic characterization of demonstratives, a part of Levinson's terminology should be known to grasp the difference between the Figure and the Ground or the Relatum.

The deictic centre called origo is approximately equal to the speaker's position.

From a perspective of syntax, Deictic nouns typically set the complement of a preposition.

Similar to other Austronesian languages, Biak makes a grammatical distinction between alienable and inalienable for possession.

Those that are form the stem words from which to derive other body parts through the method of compounding.

[23] The inflectional system for inalienable body parts is as follows: Unusual for Austronesian languages of the area, Biak contains a partial prefix system for inflecting inalienable body parts.

[29] The following table exhibits the inflectional system for inalienable locational nouns: The suffix -n expresses the plurality and inanimateness of the possessum (REF pg.

The locational noun possessive structure is illustrated in this example: balballi-ne3SG.SPC-thisvark<3SG>lieroLOCkarui=su-yastone=3DU-SPCbonsuupside-NSG.INAN-3DUbal i-ne vark ro karui=su-ya bonsuball 3SG.SPC-this <3SG>lie LOC stone=3DU-SPC upside-NSG.INAN-3DU'This ball lies on top of two stones'[29]Biak distinguishes between factual and imperative negation (prohibitive).

'[34]Romaromawasonvyaninev=an-i-ne<3SG>POS=GIV-3SG.SPC-thisdóved-óve3SG-saybapakbapakfatherisneis-ne3SG.PRED-thisva,vaNEGyakramuya-kram=u1SG-store=Usenosen=ocent=NSPC.SGva.vaNEGRoma vyanine dóve bapak isne va, yakramu seno va.romawa v=an-i-ne d-óve bapak is-ne va ya-kram=u sen=o vason <3SG>POS=GIV-3SG.SPC-this 3SG-say father 3SG.PRED-this NEG 1SG-store=U cent=NSPC.SG NEG'His son said "father isn't here, I do not have a penny."

'[36]In complex clauses with fa, a conjunction expressing result, it seems that the negator va always occurs last in the sentence.

In the corpus of spontaneous speech collected by van den Heuvel, there are no examples with va appearing at the end of the first clause.

[37] MansrenManserenLordYesusYesusJesusipoki-pok3SG-ablefafaCONSvyefaranderve-farander<3SG>VBZ-forgetkoko1PL.INCLva.vaNEGMansren Yesus ipok fa vyefarander ko va.Manseren Yesus i-pok fa ve-farander ko vaLord Jesus 3SG-able CONS <3SG>VBZ-forget 1PL.INCL NEG'The Lord Jesus cannot forget us.

'[40]Vyeurusve-urus<3SG>VBZ-arrangepyumpyumgoodbaknbaknbodyvyedineve=d-i-ne<3SG>VBZ=3SG-SPC-thisvavaNEGrao isofrorao isofrountildármaker.d-ármakr3SG-scabiesVyeurus pyum bakn vyedine va {rao isofro} dármaker.ve-urus pyum bakn ve=d-i-ne va {rao isofro} d-ármakr<3SG>VBZ-arrange good body <3SG>VBZ=3SG-SPC-this NEG until 3SG-scabies'He did not take care of his body very well, until he got scabies.

In Indonesian, the use of bukan, outside its function of negating noun phrases, expresses emphasis.

[43] IndyaindyasobukanbukanNEGkokainko-kain1PL.INCL-sitkofafyárko-fafyár1PL.INCL-tellbiasabiasausualva.vaNEGIndya bukan kokain kofafyár biasa va.indya bukan ko-kain ko-fafyár biasa vaso NEG 1PL.INCL-sit 1PL.INCL-tell usual NEG'So we are not (just) sitting and telling here (but have a serious meeting)'[43]Pendetapendetaministerdóved-óve3SG-say"a,aabukanbukanNEGyakofnya-kofn1SG-speakvevetokoko1PL.INCLvapevapebutyakofnya-kofn1SG-speakvevetowargawargamemberjemaatsi.jemaat=s-ichurch=3PL.ANIM-SPCPendeta dóve "a, bukan yakofn ve ko vape yakofn ve warga jemaatsi.pendeta d-óve a bukan ya-kofn ve ko vape ya-kofn ve warga jemaat=s-iminister 3SG-say a NEG 1SG-speak to 1PL.INCL but 1SG-speak to member church=3PL.ANIM-SPC'The minister said "Ah, I did not say that to us, but to the members of the church!

[43] OnoonoINDEF.PLsibursi-bur3PL.ANIM-leavevevetomovomov=oplace=NSPC.SGmovomov=oplace=NSPC.SGvaímvaímnot.yetkámkámallvovoSIM(…)  Ono sibur ve movo movo vaím kám vo (…)ono si-bur ve mov=o mov=o vaím kám vo {}INDEF.PL 3PL.ANIM-leave to place=NSPC.SG place=NSPC.SG not.yet all SIM {}'There were not yet any people at all who had left to other places and (….

Clause final negation, however, is a common feature in the region of the Eastern Bird's Head Peninsula, in both Austronesian and Papuan languages.

[49] CONS:consecutive SPC:specific NSPC:nonspecific NSG:non-singular GIV:given SIM:simultaneous U:'filler' YU:-yu