Otto Steinmayer. Jalai Jako' Iban. A Basic Grammar of the Iban Language of Sarawak, 1999.

Otto Steinmayer. Jalai Jako' lban. A Basic Grammar of the Iban Language of Sarawak, 1999. Kuehing, Sarawak: Klasik Publishing House. 138pp, Appendices, Index. Illustrations by Augustine Anggat Ganjing.

Iban is lexically the best documented language in Borneo. It has an enormously rich oral literature, a good part of which has been recorded. It also has a modern literature consisting of poetry and novels. There are at least six existing Iban dictionaries as well as two dictionaries in preparation, and a summary of much anthropological and other information on Iban society has been brought together in a monumental four-volume encyclopaedia. Unfortunately, Iban is not so well provided when it comes to grammars and language manuals. Until recently, the only serious language description was Asmah Haji Omar's The Iban Language of Sarawak: A Grammatical Description (1975). This study probably remains the primary source on Iban grammar, but like most linguistic descriptions, it is accessible only to the most determined and persevering lay people who want to know more about the language in question. Otto Steinmayer has tried to change this situation by writing a grammatical introduction to the Iban language which is much more user friendly and targeted at a general readership. He does so by avoiding abbreviations and (wherever possible) obscure linguistic jargon. He is also quite successful in explaining how the Ibans are able to express themselves as accurately as English speakers do wherever their language differs fundamentally from English. This is important to point out because, whereas he presents us with a popularized grammar, his information is erudite and faithful to the structure of Iban, in contrast to many of the simplified grammars, course books for travelers and "Russian without moans" type course books that are on the market for various languages.

After an inventory of the sound system, Steinmayer's book basically proceeds with an overview of the parts of speech dealing with nouns, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, verbs, negatives, (questions and) question words, prepositions, conjunctions, particles and interjections. Some other topics such as word order, clause formation, ellipsis and how to express commands are also treated in this main section. It is followed by notes on politeness and on literature, a short bibliography, and an appendix with various tables listing numerals, vocabulary related to time, vocabulary related to weights and measurements, vocabulary related to things to eat, and so on.

The grammar is very interesting, easy to read, and surprisingly complete for its 138 pages, which include cultural notes, strategies to address people and how to be polite, and tips for what topics can be discussed in a straightforward manner (without using the euphemisms that Westerners make use of) and what sort of language usage should be avoided (such as negative overstatements). In fact, linguists can learn a lot from this "genre" of grammar, which manages to combine solid linguistic information with optimal readability.

This is not to say that there are no areas for improvement in Steinmayer's approach. In some cases he seems to be trying to do too much, for instance, when he goes to great length trying to explain the meaning and origins of the fossilized prefix ke-, or elsewhere where he gives historical explanations, which are of course not strictly necessary in a short linguistic introduction. It is not entirely clear whether in the section on tense and aspect the reader should be reminded of distinctions between simple past, perfect, imperfect and pluperfect. These notions belong to English grammar and have little diagnostic value in the much simpler Iban tense-aspect system, where, if necessary at all, tense and aspect are usually expressed adverbially. While it is good to see a systematic account of the various applications of bisi' (as an existential marker 'there is', a possessive verb 'to have', a copula, a modal marker or an aspect marker) there is little point in trying to explain how they are semantically related; such explanations tend to be speculative and remain vague. In a few cases, the enumeration of meanings of an element tends to obscure its overall function. For instance, Steinmayer describes the prefix peN-as a formant for (1) an agent, (2) the name of a thing that does something, and (3) an abstract noun. Basically, however, it seems that we have here a general nominalizing prefix (the only nominalizing prefix in Iban). Whether it forms an agent noun, an instrument noun or an abstract noun, depends on the meaning of the following root and on linguistic usage. Describing peN- in this way brings out more clearly its basic meaning, and it also accounts for the meaning of the many peN- derivations that are neither agents nor instruments or abstract nouns such as pengerami 'gathering' (from rami 'crowded'), penyengok 'window' (from jengok, 'to peek') or pengelama, ' period of time' (from lama, 'old, long').

However, these are matters of descriptive strategy and are probably of minor importance to the general reader. 1 highly recommend this very affordable little book to anyone who is looking for some easily accessible and at the same time reliable information on the Iban language. (Alexander Adelaar, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia)