Page 175 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

the stock of (Phyllum), namely North Halmahera Superstock which is derived into
stock, namely North Halmahera Stock; but parallel to the stock. North Halmahera is the
language of the West Makian and not of West Makian Stock. Based on Grimes and Grimes’
categories, Ternate-Tidore are united with Sahu in one sub-group, while there is a group
of inland languages (mainland group) with three sub-groups under its structure (Galela-
Loloda, Koa, and Tobelo), as well as one other language that is Tobaru. The existence of
different methodological perspectives is quite difficult for those who are conducting a
study there.
Secondly, Non-linguistic aspects are one of the difficulties in learning the language of
the region in this area. Muhlhausler found that language was embedded in socio-historical,
political and economic ties that are related. The language ecology concept proposed by
Mühlhäusler (2000: 331) may be overlooked because the main concern of this writing is
the region of North Maluku. Muhlhausler considers that the languages of this region have
affinity in socio-historic, political and economic factors, which all can have an impact on
the complexity of language.
Thirdly. in terms of linguistics, North Maluku is a contact point between the Austronesian
group and non-Austronesian. On the second map the Austronesian language group shown
in yellow is called Central and Eastern Polynesian-Malay while the non-Austronesian
languages in the map are also known as West Papuan and highlighted in a light purple with
black dots in it.
Fourthly, other difficulties also come from the concept of Melanesia itself. East
Polynesian-Malay based on Blust’s classification (Grimes and Grimes, 1984: 40) is
subdivided into two regions namely South Halmahera and West Papua, (ii) as well as islands
in the Oceanea region namely Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Linguistic conditions
show that the Melanesian language including languages in Micronesia and Polynesia are
in the Austronesian language group which according to Blust is Eastern Polynesian-Malay.
The issue discussed in this paper is to question how Melanesia could possibly be
included in the Austronesian language group, especially the Eastern Polynesian-Malay
language group represented by the North Maluku which is non-Austronesian.

North Maluku and Language Research
North Maluku is not an area that is isolated, both from the perspective of the bustling traffic
of trade that took place since the 15th century as well as from the academic perspective
because this region is an interesting research object for both linguistic and language,
social, cultural, archeological and historical studies.

Chapter 4 175

MELANESIA BOOK FA LAYOUT 051216.indd 175 2/10/17 2:10 PM