Monumbo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. There is an early description in German.Vormann, Franz and Scharfenberger, Wilhel. 1914. Die Monumbo-Sprache: Grammatik und Worterverzeichnis It is closely related to Lilau.
Phonology Mambuwan consonants are:
+Consonants Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar UvularNasal Plosivevoiceless prenasalized Fricativevoiceless voiced Rhotic Approximant
Mambuwan vowels are:
+Vowels Front Central Back Close Close-Mid Open-Mid Open
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.
Mambuwan subject agreement prefixes are:
! !! sg !! du !! pl |- ! 1 | a- || i- || i- |- ! 2 | si- ~ su- || u- || u- |- ! 3 | ni- ~ nu- || ma- || gi- |- ! 3 | w- || wa- |- ! 3 | i- || ma- || bo- |- ! 3 | mi- || ba- || |- ! 3 | gi- || ga- ||
Mambuwan has a general oblique case marker –unum ~ -Cusum for nouns: ŋait-unum fire-OBL ‘in/at/with/through fire’
Mambuwan also makes use of postpositions such as ŋaŋ ‘inside’: su ŋaŋ water inside ‘in the water’
Mambuwan has highly complex verbal inflection.
Nouns Some Mambuwan nouns and their respective plural forms:
! 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
References