The Status of Nias Language

The purpose of this study is to investigate the kinship relationship of the three languages spoken in North Nias, West Nias, and South Nias based on Swadesh 200 words by utilizing the lexicostatistics and glottochronology methods. The use of this language in the three districts of Nias certainly has a kinship relationship either of similar or different. Definitely, the derivation of this Austronesian language, Nias language, is reflected lexically in Nias language which is bequeathed either linearly or innovatively. The data collection of the three languages in North, West, and South of Nias is obtained from the informant interviews, observation and native informant speech recorded. Findings showed that the kinship of North Nias language and West Nias language by 91% with an estimated yearlanguage category separation is between 164-170 (0-500) years ago, between the years 1846 to 1852. The results of the study also revealed that the kinship of North Nias language and South Nias language 86.5% year-language category with estimated separation is between 271-335 (0-500) years ago, between the years 1681 to 1745 and the kinship of West Nias category with estimated year separation is between 164-170 (0-500) years ago, between the years 1846 to 1852 (counting from 2016).


Introduction
The comparative historical linguistics or diachronic linguistics is a branch of linguistics discussing the kinship relationship between language and the equality of languages.Language and historical kinship is one specific area.The kinship relationship or the derivation found is abstracted in the form of the terminology.Additionally, it is implied that linguistic facts are formed as the basis of determining and proving of the kinship relationship.The fact of that linguistics describes the historical process of the relatives of those languages in the course of time.The trace and the interpretation of their language evolution symptoms in the past became the main feature of diachronic linguistics.
After separating from protolanguage, every language develops even deviates in his way according to the environmental conditions.Differences in the human universe as a living language context determine the level of difference.Universe man is in the natural universe.Overall the various entities in certain settings interact, inter relate, be independently, which by guyub symbolically recorded verbal speech.Verbally encoded diversity is other parameters.Diversity is appeared by language diversity, particularly etymon diversity which is the words of the recording of ancient reality.Etymon khazanah is important signs of resilience and naturally, strain treasures of the ancient word especially referentially meaningful (Arka 2003).
Nias language is one of the languages that is declared to be in the Austronesian family which is spoken by about 700 000 people (based on data on niasonline.com,December 4, 2012).Geographically the region of Nias speakers is an island separated from the other Austronesian language speakers who is stated a sub group with Nias language such as the Batak language.Although expressed in Austronesian groups, but in fact, it has its own unique language as part of a group of Austronesian languages.This is certainly related to the differences in the universe community of Nias speakers and other languages' speakers which are related, in which the region's position of Nias' speakers is an island separated by other Austronesian speakers in Indonesia so that Nias vocabulary is formed in a different way with the establishment of Austronesian language vocabulary in general.Among these is the uniqueness of Nias language which has six vowels, namely a, e, i, u, o, and coupled with ö (pronounced with an "e" as in the mention of "six").Besides that Nias vocabulary also has differences with the Austronesian languages in general, namely Nias language is a language that tends to end in vowels.
Genetically found that the DNA of the indigenous Nias belongs to the group O, in contrast to other ethnic communities in Indonesia including Batak tribe who typically have DNA that belongs to group Y. Group O itself is closely related to the original inhabitants of Taiwan who are still included in Austronesian (Oven, 2013).The discovery of the DNA may be associated with differences in the language used by Nias people to the language used by the tribes closest to the island because of the people of Nias, in fact, are not from the area around the Nias Island.The object of this research is the languages which are related to the language in Nias, namely North Nias language, West Nias language and South Nias language.The researcher is interested in investigating the pedigree of their kinship, the split time all three languages, and the approximate age of these languages diachronically.And also seen from the reflections of lexical Proto Austronesian in Nias language occur either reflected linearly or reflected in innovatively.Some examples below will illustrate the similarities and differences of the three languages that become the object of research.The above data showed that all three languages had equal kinship and also have the distinction of vocabulary.This is the basis for the author to do this research.In addition, the author also realized that as a recognized language in the world, Nias language is rarely studied.It is difficult to find the data if you want to talk about this language.In fact, Nias language has unique characteristics, for example, every word that always ends by vocal or open syllables.In addition, Nias language has some considerable differences with the surrounding languages.Admittedly, the Nias tribe is apart with their surroundings because they inhabit in an island.This factor may be very instrumental in the exclusiveness of Nias language.The indicators used to look at the pedigree or kinship vocabulary of this language is the basis of the consideration that Swadesh list is a list of the most widely used as a reference for the study of language kinship in the world.Swadesh vocabulary becomes the referenced study of amounted 200 vocabularies, a vocabulary that is used universally in the world.It implies that this vocabulary is on the world's population and is unlikely to change in a long time.
In the development of the user, Nias language evolved into multiple variations of the language by the regions of the native speakers, namely North Nias, West Nias and South Nias.It would be very interesting to study further how language as a language of South Nias evolve and move into these variations so that in the future it can be predicted how these variations will develop; whether becomes a new language or dialect as occurs in the regional languages apart from its protolanguage.
Below are examples of Proto Austronesian (PAN) reflected linearly (retention) and innovation (change) in Nias language (NL).The uniqueness in terms of languages or genetic causes a bigger question about the identity of the community and Nias language.It is interesting to note the extent to which Nias language has formed to leave Austronesia protolanguage by researching the etymons reflected in Nias language's vocabulary.Research on this etymon should be conducted to expose the track record of inheritance, development, and changes of protolanguage Austronesia in Nias language as an effort to identify the disclosure of Nias language at once an attempt to conserve the Nias language.
Azhar ( 2008) found the results of the study on retention and innovation Austronesian protolanguage phonemes in Madura language is that reflex/traces phoneme of Austronesian protolanguage is still evident in Madura.The clarity can be seen from several things, among others: (1) the presentation of high cognate between Austronesian protolanguage of Madura, (2) some of the lexicon of protolanguage Austronesian lexicon undergo a perfect retention that is very similar.
The lexical level is one important aspect in comparative studies.It appears mainly on observations of the early levels in an effort kinship grouping across languages.By using quantitative evidence that is more oriented to the observation at a glance on a number of basic vocabularies, kinship groping language can be determined based on the number of percentages.The phonological level can be used at an advanced level to determine the reconstruction of protolanguage.Based on the regular sound changes that occur in each of related languages, can be arranged phoneme correspondence rules (Dyen, 1978 andBynon, 1979: 25).
Basically, the core search efforts towards language kinship, either for the purpose of languages grouping (sub-grouping) and inventions (reconstruction) language is the discovery of conclusive evidence contained in any language that compared.Such evidence may be quantitatively and qualitatively.Quantitative evidence is in the form of a number vocabulary relatives (cognate sets) that are associated with the retention joint (shared retention), qualitative evidence in the form of joint innovation (shared innovation) and phonological correspondence (Crowley, 1983).What is meant by innovation is the changes that occur in the dialect/language studied, while the retention is defined as the forms or elements of proto-language that is reflected in the dialect/language modern.
The trace of quantitative evidence or retention together based on the assumption that the vocabulary is universal and constant throughout the period.It is said universal, because it is a core vocabulary which is very intimate with human life and in every language.Core vocabulary includes a vocabulary that is as old as human and thus more difficult to change compared to other vocabularies.The changes of vocabulary were only about twenty percent in every thousand years or able to survive at 80% (Crowley, 1983), 81% (Hockett, 1963 andSwadesh, 1972).That is why it is said to be the constant vocabulary of all time.The quantitative evidence is used as the basis for grouping in the early stages of a language for the purpose of acquisition of the percentages of kinship vocabulary which is calculated by using lexicostatistics, and calculates the period of each language separation by using glottochronology (Dyen, 1978 andSwadesh, 1972).The trace of the qualitative evidence is the discovery efforts on the facts about the changes that are exclusive only in two or more languages.Changes along the exclusive (shared exclusively linguistic innovation) it is a legacy protolanguage and not found in the language or other subgroups.Changes in question occurred only once in the history of the language.

Lexicostatistics
Lexicostatistics is a technique that allows the researcher to determine the level of relationship between the two languages, using the most convenient way, by comparing the vocabulary in those languages which can then be viewed and determined the level of similarity between the vocabularies of the two languages (Crowley: 1992: 168).Thus, the extent of kinship one language to another language could have known.
According to Crowley (1987: 191-192), the lexicostatistics method operates under two basic assumptions.The first assumption is that some parts of the vocabulary of a language are difficult to change than others.What is a vocabulary that is difficult to change is the basic vocabulary, ie words that are very intimately in the life of the language, and the elements that determine the viability of a dead language (see also Keraf, 1991: 123).Later, the term 'change' refers to the replacement of a word with the non-kinship word because the original shape changed its meaning so that they appear to refer to something else, or because a word borrowed from another language to express a particular meaning.
According Keraf (1991: 121) lexicostatistics is a technique in language groupings which is more likely to give priority to the observation of words (lexicon) statistically, then tried to set the grouping percentage based on similarities and differences in language to another language.

Basic assumptions of lexicostatistics
There are four kinds of basic assumptions that can be used as a starting point in the search for answers regarding the age of the language, or to be exact, and where differentiation occurs between two or more languages (Keraf: 1991: 123).
The basic assumptions are: 1) Most of the vocabulary of a language is a very difficult thing to change when compared with the rest.The vocabulary which is difficult to change in the basic assumption is that the basic vocabulary that is very intimate in the life of language and the elements that determine the viability of a dead or alive of a language.
The vocabularies taken in the lexicostatistics method are limited in number, having conducted a rigorous assessment and tests for applying these methods well.What is to achieve in this selection is to develop a list that is universal, meaning that the vocabulary that is considered to be present in all languages from the very beginning of its development.
The basic vocabulary that includes: ▪ Parts of Body ▪ Pronouns, greeting, and a reference ▪ The system of kinship ▪ The life of the village and the community ▪ The house and its parts Numbers and sizes 2) Retention (resistance) basic vocabulary is constant all the time.The basic assumption of the second says that the basic vocabulary that exists in a language, a certain percentage, will always persist in 1,000 years.
If this assumption is accepted, then from a language that has a vocabulary of 809, after 1,000 years will last 80.5%, and of the rest after 1,000 years later will last longer at the same percentage.
3) Changes in basic vocabulary in all languages are equal.After testing several languages at third base this assumption, the results will show that in every 1000 years, the basic vocabulary of a language to survive with figures on average 80.5%.If we want to calculate retention (resistance) of the basic vocabularies both languages by using two basic assumptions that can be expressed by the formula: 80.5% x N where N is the number of basic vocabulary that existed at the beginning of the year 1000 multiples of both languages.So that the basic vocabulary of 809 (N) language in 1000 after the first year will stay 80.5% x 809 = 651.245words, rounded up to 651 words, after 1000 the second year will stay 80.5% x 651 = 524.1 word or words rounded to 524 words.
Furthermore, after 1000 the third year of basic vocabulary living is 80.5% x 524 = 421.82words to 422 words or rounded to 1000 fourth year basic vocabulary lived 80.5% x 422 = 339.71word or words rounded to 340 words.Similarly, 1000 years later after the fifth then basically lived vocabulary of 340 words x 80.5% = 273.7 rounded to 274 words or words and so on.
4) If the percentage of bilingual relatives (cognate) is known, it can be calculated the time separating the two languages.Based on the basic assumption that the second, third, and fourth, we can calculate the age or the time separation of Nias language of Proto-Austronesian if known the relative percentage word in both languages.
And since in both languages every 1000 years the relatives of each will lose the basic vocabulary in the same percentage, then split time in both languages should be halved.For example, the percentage of the relative word is 80, 5%, then the time separating the two languages was 500 years ago (Mahsun, 2005).

Glottochronology
Glottochronology is a technique in historical linguistics that is trying to hold the grouping with more emphasis computation time (time depth) or calculation of the age of the languages relatives.In this case, age is not calculated absolute language of a given year but calculated in general, for example, to use the unit for thousands of years (millennium) (Keraf, 1991: 121).This opinion was supported by the findings of other experts who claim that the second method is usually used to determine the exact time when the language is related to the part called the glottochronology.This method allows a linguist to know how long the languages are related, in this case including at the level of sub-grouping has been split (Crowley, 1992: 79).So, if lexicostatistics tried grouping the language based on the time separating the languages studied, glottochronology is trying to estimate the age of these languages.
The formula used is: W= log C/2 log r, where: W = split time in thousands of years.r = resistance levels in 1000 year or the index (80.5%:Swadesh).C = the percentage of kinship.
Temporarily corrected for possible variations of key vocabulary for the approximate period of separation, is given by the formula: S = √ C (1-C) / n S = the standard error in the regulations said relatives C = percentages relative word n = number of words than Based on these principles, the time separation of the kinship language with kinship words can be estimated as follows: Tabel 3: Glottochronology

Research methods
This study utilized two methods of research namely the qualitative and quantitative methods.Historical research was conducted on Proto Austronesian languages and Nias language, thus, to determine and prove whether these languages have the closeness of kinship, it is done by two approaches, namely quantitative and qualitative approaches.The quantitative approach was conducted at the first time and then preceded with a qualitative approach.A quantitative approach exposures the lexicostatistics methods used to obtain an idea of the percentage of closeness of kinship North Nias language, West Nias language and South Nias language,

Research sites
This research was conducted in the Nias province by taking to the three locations of Nias districts namely North Nias in the district Afulu and Alasa, and West Nias district in the district Mandrehe Mandrehe and North and South Nias district in the district Gomo and Bawomataluo.All of these districts have taken each of the villages as a research object.The basic consideration of this study was taken at three locations of the district is due to three districts of Nias different dialects.Each district is the object of studies and the informants have been chosen aged 25 to 60 years.

Data collection
Data collection methods used in this study were interviews with proficient techniques, talk, note and record (Sudaryanto, 1988: 7) .In the field, the method is the implemented in the form of a face-toface conversation.That is, by face to face, the researchers and informants involved in a conversation in informal and amicably and happen naturally (Moleong, 1997: 25-27).To obtain the data that is valid and complete, it is required a reference in the form of a data collection tool.Data collection tool has been used in this study consisting of basic Swadesh list of 200 words (with revisions Blust, 2003) and a list of Holle to 1400 words.
In addition to data collection in the field, the author also uses secondary data from literature Study performed on PAN and BN.PAN and secondary data collection methods refer to BN done with and assisted by technical note.Thus, the PAN data searched one by one at the dictionary PAN based on a list of glosses and that becomes the benchmark in English Finderlist of reconstructions in Austronesian Languages (1978) in the finding of Dempwolff (1938), Blust (1972), andStresemann (1927), while BN collection of secondary data retrieved from the Nias dictionary.Similarly, the collection of secondary data PAN, BN secondary data collection is done by searching the data one by one in the Nias dictionary based on glossary list.

Data analysis
There are two methods used in the analysis of this data.The second method is that lexicostatistics and comparison methods (Crowley, 1992: 90;Bynon, 1979: 45).

3.
Results and findings

3.1
The lexicostatistics of Nias language This section analyzes the status of Nias language to answer the first question in this study.To analyze the status of language Nias lexicostatistics method is used to determine the status of linguistic relations with the North Nias West Nias (BNU-BNB), North Nias South (BNU-BNS) and West Nias South Nias (BNB-BNS).The table below shows the data acquisition Swadesh list of 200 vocabularies BNU, BNB, BNS is as follows:

Conclusion
Based on the analysis and discussion of the data presented previously, it can be concluded that: 1.The status of linguistic NorthNias language, South Nias language, and West Nias language is the language with the percentage of: -Kinship North Nias language and West Nias language by 91% with an estimated year-language category separation is between 164-170 (0-500) years ago, between the years 1846 to 1852 (counting from 2016).
-The kinship of North Nias language and South Nias language 86.5% year-language category with estimated separation is between 271-335 (0-500) years ago, between the years 1681 to 1745 (calculated on the idea in 2016).
2. The reflection lexical PAN in Nias language is related linearly or in innovation.Lexical reflection linearly does not change, in a word (PAN).
* / ama / be / ama / in Nias language,.PAN * / asu / be / asu / in Nias language.Reflection form is meaningful innovations that reflection shape etymon PAN has changed.The changes of shape occur in the form of vocal and consonants.Examples PAN * / babuy / be / Bassi / in Nias language, PAN * / thin /be / anifi / in Nias language.
Tabel 4: Vocabularies of Swadesh pan in north Nias language, west Nias language and south Nias language