Matigsalug language

Last updated
Matigsalug
Matig-Salug Manobo
Tigwa
Native to Philippines
Regionsouthern parts of Bukidnon province, Mindanao
Native speakers
50,000 (2010) [1]
Dialects
  • Kulamanen
  • Tigwa
  • Tala Ingod
  • Matig-Salug
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mbt
Glottolog mati1250

Matigsalug (Matig-Salug Manobo) is a Manobo language of Mindanao in the Philippines. It belongs to the Austronesian language family.

Contents

Distribution and dialects

There are approximately at least 50,000 speakers of the language, most of whom are concentrated in Mindanao, notably in south central Bukidnon, north-northeastern Cotabato and northwestern Davao del Sur provinces. [2] A total of 5,000 monolingual speakers of the language has been reported.

Matigsalug can be divided into four major dialects: Kulamanen, Tigwa, Tala Ingod, and Matigsalug Proper. Dialects are divergent, such that Tigwa has marginal intelligibility of Matigsalug, and only Tala Ingod may have adequate intelligibility of Matigsalug.

Writing system

Matigsalug is typically written using eighteen graphemes: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w, and y. The graphemes c, f, j, o, q, v, x, and z are used in recently borrowed words and the names of people and places. The glottal stop is represented by a hyphen when it occurs word medially, but not where it occurs intervocalically. For example, the word [manʔʌʔ] 'again' is written as man-e, while the word [tiʔaŋ] 'carry on the shoulder' is written as tiang.

Phonology

Vowels

Matigsalug has four vowels: [3] /i, ʌ, a, u/.

Long vowels do occur in Matigsalug, albeit rarely. The orthographic convention for long vowels is to write two vowel segments. For example, the word [pa:n] 'bread' is written as paan. This is in contrast with the spelling convention of most other Philippine languages, where sequences of identical vowels are separated by a glottal stop, e.g. Tagalog saan ([sa'ʔan]).

Consonants

There are 14 Matigsalug consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

Matigsalug consonant phonemes
Bilabial Alveolar
/Dental
Post-al.
/Palatal
Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p b t d k g ʔ
Fricative s h
Approximant l j w

Stress

Stress in Matigsalug always occurs penultimately, that is, on the second-to-last vowel. Because it is completely predictable, stress is not marked orthographically.

Matigsalug does have small one-syllable clitics. When these phonologically join to the previous word, they cause the stress to shift in order to maintain penultimate stress. For example, the word for 'father' is ámey; when the possessive determiner rin 'his/her' is added, the stress shifts to the second syllable of the word for 'father': améy rin.

Morphosyntax

Noun phrases

Nouns are preceded by a case marker. There are three types of case markers in Matigsalug.

First, similar to the better-studied ang-marking in Tagalog, the language also employs a case-marking reserved for the noun with which the verb agrees (via focus/voice morphology). This marker exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the noun is a proper noun or a common noun. Si is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; ka is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

si

Focus

Inday/Anggam

Inday/uncle

si Inday/Anggam

Focus Inday/uncle

'Inday/Uncle'

ka

Focus

tirè/geyinawa rin

sugar cane/breath his

ka {tirè/geyinawa rin}

Focus {sugar cane/breath his}

'the sugar cane/his breath'

Second, when the verb shows agreement with any other noun other than the agent/experiencer, the agent/experiencer is marked with a separate case marking. In other words, this would be comparable with the by-phrase in an English passive. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ni is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

ni

NonFocus(Ag)

Inday/Anggam

Inday/uncle

ni Inday/Anggam

NonFocus(Ag) Inday/uncle

'by Inday/uncle'

te

NonFocus(Ag)

lukes

man

te lukes

NonFocus(Ag) man

'by the man'

Lastly, there is case marking reserved for non-focused non-agent/experiencer roles in the clause. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ki is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

ki

NonFocus

Inday/Anggam

Inday/uncle

ki Inday/Anggam

NonFocus Inday/uncle

'to/from Inday/uncle'

te

NonFocus

lukes

man

te lukes

NonFocus man

'to/from the man'

Focus/voice morphology

Characteristic of Philippine-type languages, Matigsalug verbs carry what is known in the literature as focus morphology. This piece of morphology indicates the semantic roles of the participants in the clause with respect to the verb. Matigsalug can put the agent/experiencer (AF), goal (GF), location (LF), and instrument (IF) into direct focus.

In the first example, the prefix eg- indicates that the ka-marked noun functions as the agent, that is, the entity doing the kicking. In the second example, the prefix eg- in combination with the suffix -en together indicate that the ka-marked noun is the goal, that is, the entity being kicked.

Egsipè

NonPast-kick-Agent

ka

Focus

kuddè

horse

te

NonFocus

kuddè

child

Egsipè ka kuddè te kuddè

NonPast-kick-Agent Focus horse NonFocus child

'The horse kicks the child'

Egsipeen

NonPast-kick-Agent

ka

Focus

kuddè

horse

te

NonFocus(Ag)

kuddè

child

Egsipeen ka kuddè te kuddè

NonPast-kick-Agent Focus horse NonFocus(Ag) child

'The child kicks the horse'

Related Research Articles

In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term allomorph describes the realization of phonological variations for a specific morpheme. The different allomorphs that a morpheme can become are governed by morphophonemic rules. These phonological rules determine what phonetic form, or specific pronunciation, a morpheme will take based on the phonological or morphological context in which they appear.

Chuvash is a Turkic language spoken in European Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages, one of the two principal branches of the Turkic family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crow language</span>

Crow is a Missouri Valley Siouan language spoken primarily by the Crow Nation in present-day southeastern Montana. The word, Apsáalooke, translates to "children of the raven." It is one of the larger populations of American Indian languages with 2,480 speakers according to the 1990 US Census.

Tagalog grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the Tagalog language, the language of the Tagalog region of the Philippines.

Tokelauan is a Polynesian language spoken in Tokelau and on Swains Island in American Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokelauan has a co-official status with English in Tokelau. There are approximately 4,260 speakers of Tokelauan, of whom 2,100 live in New Zealand, 1,400 in Tokelau, and 17 in Swains Island. "Tokelau" means "north-northeast".

Miami-Illinois also known as Irenwa, or Irenwe is an indigenous Algonquian language spoken in the United States, primarily in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, western Ohio and adjacent areas along the Mississippi River by the Miami and Wea as well as the tribes of the Illinois Confederation, including the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Tamaroa, and possibly Mitchigamea. The Myaamia (Miami) Nation of Indiana still practice and use their native heritage to teach young and old so they can keep their traditional language alive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunica language</span> Extinct language isolate of the Mississippi Valley

The Tunica or Luhchi Yoroni language is a language isolate that was spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no native speakers of the Tunica language, but as of 2017, there are 32 second language speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kashaya language</span> Native American language

Kashaya is the critically endangered language of the Kashia band of the Pomo people. The Pomoan languages have been classified as part of the Hokan language family. The name Kashaya corresponds to words in neighboring languages with meanings such as "skillful" and "expert gambler". It is spoken by the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria.

Tübatulabal is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language, traditionally spoken in Kern County, California, United States. It is the traditional language of the Tübatulabal, who have now shifted to English. The language originally had three main dialects: Bakalanchi, Pakanapul and Palegawan.

Paumarí is an Arauan language spoken in Brazil by about 300 older adults out of an ethnic population of 900. It is spoken by the Paumari Indians, who call their language “Pamoari”. The word “Pamoari” has several different meanings in the Paumarí language: ‘man,’ ‘people,’ ‘human being,’ and ‘client.’ These multiple meanings stem from their different relationships with outsiders; presumably it means ‘human being’ when they refer to themselves to someone of ostensibly equal status, and ‘client’ when referring to their people among river traders and Portuguese speakers.

Like nouns in many Native American languages, the Tlingit noun is easily conceptualized but difficult to formally define. It can be simple or compound, and can be derived from verb forms as well as other nouns. It is marked for case, but not normally for number. Noun possession divides all nouns into two open classes of possessable and unpossessable nouns, and the possessable nouns are further divided based on their alienability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarahumara language</span> Uto-Aztecan language spoken in Mexico

The Tarahumara language is a Mexican indigenous language of the Uto-Aztecan language family spoken by around 70,000 Tarahumara (Rarámuri/Ralámuli) people in the state of Chihuahua, according to an estimate by the government of Mexico.

Bororo (Borôro), also known as Boe, is the sole surviving language of a small family believed to be part of the Macro-Gê languages. It is spoken by the Bororo, hunters and gatherers in the central Mato Grosso region of Brazil.

The Nukak language is a language of uncertain classification, perhaps part of the macrofamily Puinave-Maku. It is very closely related to Kakwa.

In morpheme-based morphology, the term null allomorph or zero allomorph is sometimes used to refer to some kind of null morpheme for which there are also contexts in which the underlying morpheme is manifested in the surface structure. It is therefore also an allomorph. The phenomenon itself is known as null allomorphy, morphological blocking or total morpheme blocking.

The Lake Miwok language is a moribund language of Northern California, traditionally spoken in an area adjacent to the Clear Lake. It is one of the languages of the Clear Lake Linguistic Area, along with Patwin, East and Southeastern Pomo, and Wappo.

Grass Koiari (Koiali) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the inland Port Moresby area. It is not very close to the other language which shares its name, Mountain Koiali. It is considered a threatened language.

Vamale (Pamale) is a Kanak language of northern New Caledonia. The Hmwaeke dialect, spoken in Tiéta, is fusing with Haveke and nearly extinct. Vamale is nowadays spoken in Tiendanite, We Hava, Téganpaïk and Tiouandé. It was spoken in the Pamale valley and its tributaries Vawe and Usa until the colonial of war of 1917, when its speakers were displaced.

Tiruray or Teduray is an Austronesian language of the southern Philippines. Tiruray is spoken in Datu Blah T. Sinsuat, Upi, the South Upi municipalities, southwestern Former Maguindanao Province, Lebak municipality, and northwestern Sultan Kudarat Province.

Wamesa is an Austronesian language of Indonesian New Guinea, spoken across the neck of the Doberai Peninsula or Bird's Head. There are currently 5,000–8,000 speakers. While it was historically used as a lingua franca, it is currently considered to under-documented, endangered language. This means that fewer and fewer children have an active command of Wamesa. Instead, Papuan Malay has become increasingly dominant in the area.

References

  1. Matigsalug at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "Manobo, Matigsalug". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2020-12-30.
  3. Wang, P. (1991). "The phonemics and morphophonemics of Matig-Salug Manobo". Philippine Journal of Linguistics. 22 (1–2): 1–29.

Sources