This book presents highlights of the results of the research program
“Phonetics and phonology of (word) prosodic systems in the languages of
The main focus of the book is on (i) the way in which questions and
statements are realized and (ii) (absence of) lexical stress and the way in
which the stress is realized in Indonesian languages. Apart from these main
topics one chapter gives an analysis of the lexical tone system of Magey
Matbat, a language spoken on one of the Raja Ampat islands, Papua province.
Intonation, in particular the question-statement opposition, was studied
for Kutai Malay, Manado Malay and Yogyakarta palace Javanese. Like in
Western languages, intonation plays an important part in the
statement-question opposition in all three languages described in this volume.
Word-based stress was researched in Betawi Malay, (Standard) Indonesian and
Toba Batak. Findings suggest that more Indonesian languages than earlier
estimated lack a word-based stress system.
The five PhD students in the project contributed one chapter each,
highlighting some aspect of their dissertation work. The postdocs
contributed two co-authored chapters. The project coordinators’
introductory chapter includes a short introduction to prosody and its
properties. A conclusion chapter briefly summarizes the main results of the
This book is of special interest to experimental linguists working on
stress and intonation and to students of Indonesian linguistics.