474 Chapter 15 Speech levels
(5) Kasar
Sengko' sateya ta' olle ngakan durin.
I now not allowed AV.eat durian
‘Now I am not allowed to eat durian.’
(6) Tengnga'an
Bula sanonto ta' kengeng neddha durin.
I now not allowed AV.eat durian
‘Now I am not allowed to eat durian.’
(7) Alos
Kaula samangken ta' kengeng neddha durin.
I now not allowed AV.eat durian
‘Now I am not allowed to eat durian.’
The kasar sentence in (5) includes the pronoun sengko' ‘I’, the temporal adverb
sateya ‘now’, and the verbs olle ‘allowed’ and ngakan ‘eat’. In the alos variant
in (7), these four lexical items are replaced by kaula, samangken, kengeng, and
neddha, respectively. The negative marker ta' and the noun durin ‘durian’ are
the same in both sentences. No status distinctions occur for these concepts; thus,
the words can be technically classified as biyasa vocabulary. The tengnga'an
sentence in (6) includes the alos verbs kengeng and neddha but has level-
specific variants of the first person pronoun, bula, and the temporal adverb,
sanonto. Ideally, tengnga'an sentences should include only lexical items from
the tengnga'an and biyasa vocabularies, but in practical terms, lexical items
from either kasar or alos vocabularies are used when no tengnga'an-specific or
biyasa words exist. As is clear from the examples in (5-7), only lexical and a
very few morphological differences are marked by the speech levels. There are
no syntactic differences.
The sentences in (8-10) provide another example.
(8) Kasar
Ba'na apa mare ngakan?^4
you what finish AV.eat
‘Have you eaten?’
(9) Tengnga'an
Dika nape mare ngakan?
you what finish AV.eat
‘Have you eaten?’
(^4) As described in Chapter 14 section 1, apa 'what' is used as a question particle in yes-no
questions.