Buru language

In Buru, a speaker's perspective or evaluation of one or several utterances often appears at the end. 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. Grimes classifies these items as "external to the clause proper".[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.

All page references refer to Grimes (1991).[3]

Such clause-final negation is atypical of Austronesian languages, in which the negative almost exclusively appears before the verb or predicate. This feature appears to have crossed the linguistic boundary between neighbouring Papuan languages and Buru, as well as other languages of the Moluccas. 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”.[10]^: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”.[10]^:376

By combining with moo, other negative adverbials have been derived throughout the language's history, giving rise to mohede ("not yet") and tehuk moo ("no longer").[3]^:§12.4 Mohede is a frozen compound of the words moo and hede, where hede is an adverbial with a continuative aspect[3]^:§12.4.5 (translated as "still", i.e. mohede = "still not", c.f. German "noch nicht" or Italian "ancora no(n)"). 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]^:§12.4.6

The deictic element sa can be combined with moo (or any of the other aforementioned negative elements) to mean "nothing, no(ne), nobody”. Sa is related to the quantifier sia (“some”), and, as such, constructions involving sa … moo may be glossed as “not one”. Where exactly a speaker places this element sa indicates the intended scope of the negation, whilst the negative, as is mandatory for Buru, remains clause final. The negative polarity items “anyone” and “anything” are represented consistently in Buru as ii sa ("one thing") and geba sa ("one person") respectively. [3]^:§15.2

Moo may also be employed to add stronger emphasis to prohibitive clauses that are introduced by the prohibitive marker bara ("don't").[3]^:§22.2.2

In the event that moo directly follows a verb, the cliticised object marker -h, if present, will attach to it to form of mohe.[3]^:§12.4.25.1

Free pronouns may be used equally for the subject and object of intransitive verbs (marking either actor or undergoer).[3]

Examples:

(1)	Yako	paha	ringe
	1SG	hit	3SG
	"I hit him."

(2)	Ringe	paha	yako
	1SG	hit	1SG
	"He hit me."

(3)	Yako	iko
	1SG	go
	"I go."

(4)	Sira	oli
	3PL	return
	"They come back."

(5)	Yako	glada
	1SG	hunger
	"I am hungry."

(6)	Ringe	mata
	3SG	die
	"He died."

Examples:

(7)	Ya	paha	ringe
	1SG	hit	3SG
	"I hit him."

(8)	da	paha	yako
	3SG	hit	1SG
	"He hit me."

(9)	ya	iko
	1SG	go
	"I go."

(10)	Du	oli
	3PL	return
	"They come back."

(11)	Ya	glada
	1SG	hunger
	"I am hungry."

(12)	Da	mata
	3SG	die
	"He died."

Depending on its distribution a possessive word can behave verbally or nominally, or as the head of a predicative possessive construction or as the modifier of the possessive NP. The possessive word is the only word in the Buru language obligatorily inflected for person and number and behaves much like a verb in its affixing possibilities. All examples in this section have been taken from Grimes, 1991 chapter 14.[3]
The basic structure of the constituent is SVO.

(1)	Yako	nango	huma	saa.
	1SG	1SGPOSS	house	one
	"I have/own a house." (p. 279)

Functional and distributional behaviour of the possessive construction:
Applicative /-k/ is used to indicate a definite pronominal object (an object that functions as a pronoun).

(2)	Todo	naa,	ya	nangu-k.
	machete	PROX	1SG	1SGPOSS-k
	"This machete, it is mine." (p. 280)

(3)	San	nake-k?
	who	3SGPOSS-k
	"Whose is it?." (p. 280)

The possessive word can also accept valence changing verbal prefixes however this is restricted to the third singular form 'nake'.

(4)	Petu	kami	rua	hai	em-nake-k	eta	dena	na	Rana.
	SEQ	1PLE	two	follow	STAT-3SGPOSS-k	until	arrive	PROX	lake
	"So the two of us followed as his companion-assistants until arriving here at Rana." (p. 280)

(5)	Geba-ro	kadu-k	pa	du	wana	em-nake-k	eta	lea.
	person-PL	come-k	REAL	3PL	awake	STAT-3SGPOSS-k	until	sun
	"People came and they stayed away at his disposal keeping him company until dawn." (p. 280)

People can be put at someone’s disposal through the combination of /ep-em-/.

(6)	Kawasan	p-em-nake-k	geba	rua	ute	ringe	eta	dena	la	masi.
	head	CAUS-STAT-3SGPOSS-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. 280/1)

The possessive word, with or without a proceeding cliticised free pronoun, functions as a possessive pronoun with a NP.

(7)	Da	kala-k	ya	nang	ama.
	3SG	call-k	[1SG	1SGPOSS	father]NP
	"He summoned my father." (p. 281)

(8)	Da	lata-h	tu	ya	nang	todo.
	3SG	cut-it	[with	1SG	1SGPOSS	machete]
	"He cut it with my machete." (p. 281)

Used with verbs of exchange, the possessive word can have the force of a dative argument.

(9)	Ego	nang	pawe	saa.
	Get	1SGPOSS	mango	one
	"Get me a mango/get a mango for me." (p. 281)