Monumbo language

Last updated
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 Monumbo

Monumbo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. There is an early description in German. [2] It is closely related to Lilau.

Contents

Phonology

Mambuwan consonants are: [3]

Consonants
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]

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-Mid e ə o
Open-Mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Grammar

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]

sgdupl
1a-i-i-
2si- ~ su-u-u-
3Mni- ~ nu-ma-gi-
3Fw-wa-
3Ni-ma-bo-
3DIMmi-ba-
3OTHERgi-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

Some Mambuwan nouns and their respective plural forms: [3]

glosssingularplural
‘mouth’alakamalakambo
‘leg’sabosabo
‘thorn’pupukpupuka
‘door’kigikigika
‘stream’susuga
‘crab’dɔradɔrage
‘name’inuinuore
‘beach’lulululuore
‘coconut’dɛip
‘island’motmotiwe
‘hand’naŋdabinaŋdabian

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torricelli languages</span> Language family

The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh, with about 30,000 speakers.

Isaka (I'saka) is a Papuan language spoken by the people of the villages of Krisa and Pasi in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It has also been referred to as Krisa, after the village, although this name is not actually a possible word in the language itself. The sole published source for the language is Donohue and San Roque (2004), although the authors of this have also Identified I’saka material in Donald Laycock's unpublished fieldnotes.

The Senagi languages are a small family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They consist of the two languages Angor and Dera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepik languages</span> Papuan language family

The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.

Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province. Villages include Guma in East Pomio Rural LLG. With such a low population of speakers, this language is considered to be endangered. Sulka speakers had originally migrated to East New Britain from New Ireland.

The Burmeso language – also known as Taurap – is spoken by some 300 people in Burmeso village along the mid Mamberamo River in Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. It is surrounded by the Kwerba languages to the north, the Lakes Plain languages to the south, and the East Cenderawasih Bay languages to the west.

The Anêm language is a Papuan language spoken in five main villages along the northwestern coast of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Bird's Head languages</span> Families of Papuan languages

The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider them to be part of Trans–New Guinea. However, according to Dryer (2022), based on a preliminary quantitative analysis of data from the ASJP database, South Bird's Head languages are likely to be a subgroup of Trans–New Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Sepik languages</span> Groups of Sepik languages

The Middle Sepik languages comprise diverse groups of Sepik languages spoken in northern Papua New Guinea. The Middle Sepik grouping is provisionally accepted by Foley (2018) based on shared innovations in pronouns, but is divided by Glottolog. They are spoken in areas surrounding the town of Ambunti in East Sepik Province.

Mehek is a Tama language spoken by about 6300 people in a somewhat mountainous area along the southern base of the Torricelli Mountains in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Mehek is spoken in six villages of Sandaun Province: Nuku, Yiminum, Mansuku, Yifkindu, Wilwil, and Kafle. Mehek is most closely related to Pahi, with 51% lexical similarity, and spoken approximately 20 kilometers to the southwest. Mehek is a fairly typical Papuan language, being verb-final, having a relatively simple phonology, and agglutinative morphology. There is very little published information about Mehek. The literacy rate in Tok Pisin, spoken by nearly everyone, is 50-75%. Mehek is not written, so there is no literacy in Mehek. Tok Pisin is primarily used in the schools, with 50% children attending. There is also a sign language used by the large number of deaf people in the Mehek community.

Nabak is a Papuan language spoken by around 16,000 people in the Morobe Province located in the western Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea. Nabak follows the SOV typology. It uses Latin script in its written form.

References

  1. Monumbo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Vormann, Franz and Scharfenberger, Wilhel. 1914. Die Monumbo-Sprache: Grammatik und Worterverzeichnis
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.