Monumbo language
| Monumbo | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Bogia District, Madang Province |
Native speakers | 410 (2003)[1] |
Torricelli – Sepik Coast
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mxk |
| Glottolog | nucl1458 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
Monumbo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. There is an early description in German.[2] It is closely related to Lilau.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Mambuwan consonants are:[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | q | |
| prenasalized | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ||||
| voiced | z | ɣ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
Mambuwan vowels are:[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-Mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Grammar
[edit | edit source]Monumbo distinguishes five gender classes for singular and dual third-person pronouns, but only two gender classes (masculine and feminine) for third-person plural pronouns, a typologically unusual feature. There are five genders for the third-person pronoun, which are masculine, feminine, neutral, diminutive, and miscellaneous genders.[3]
Mambuwan subject agreement prefixes are:[3]
sg du pl 1 a- i- i- 2 si- ~ su- u- u- 3M ni- ~ nu- ma- gi- 3F w- wa- 3N i- ma- bo- 3DIM mi- ba- 3OTHER gi- ga-
Mambuwan has a general oblique case marker –unum ~ -Cusum for nouns:[3]
- ŋait-unum
- fire-OBL
- ‘in/at/with/through fire’
Mambuwan also makes use of postpositions such as ŋaŋ ‘inside’:[3]
- su ŋaŋ
- water inside
- ‘in the water’
Mambuwan has highly complex verbal inflection.[3]
Nouns
[edit | edit source]Some Mambuwan nouns and their respective plural forms:[3]
gloss singular plural ‘mouth’ alakam alakambo ‘leg’ sabo sabo ‘thorn’ pupuk pupuka ‘door’ kigi kigika ‘stream’ su suga ‘crab’ dɔra dɔrage ‘name’ inu inuore ‘beach’ lulu luluore ‘coconut’ dɛ dɛip ‘island’ mot motiwe ‘hand’ naŋdabi naŋdabian