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.
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 |
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]
Mambuwan also makes use of postpositions such as ŋaŋ ‘inside’: [3]
Mambuwan has highly complex verbal inflection. [3]
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 |