Musom language
| Musom | |
|---|---|
| Misatik | |
| Region | Markham Valley, New Guinea |
Native speakers | (200 cited 2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | msu |
| Glottolog | muso1238 |
| ELP | Musom |
| Coordinates: 6°41′01″S 147°06′52″E / 6.683574°S 147.11452°E | |
Musom is an Austronesian language spoken in the single village of Musom (6°41′01″S 147°06′52″E / 6.683574°S 147.11452°E) in Labuta Rural LLG, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.[2] Musom is currently an endangered language due to the fact that native Musom speakers are continuing to marry other language speakers.[3] Musom is also endangered because of its change in grammar and vocabulary due to its bi- and multilingualism.[3]
Phonology
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Affricated
Alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | Labio-velar | |
| Stop: Voiceless | p | t | ts | k | ' | kw |
| Voiced | b | d | dz | g | gw | |
| Prenasalised | (nts) | |||||
| Voiceless | ||||||
| Voiced | mb | nd | ndz | ngg | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ng | |||
| Fricatives | s | h | ||||
| Liquid | r | |||||
| Semi-vowel | w |
In Musom, voiceless, voiced and prenasalised voice are the only series of stops when it comes to consonants.[3] For Musom consonants, if there is a prenasalised voice stop, the vowel is then seen seen after it and is can be as nasal only.[3] Allophones are contained in the prenasalised voiced affricate alveolar stop /ndz/ which occurs initially, medially, and then [nts] occurs finally.[3]
For the consonants, /w, kw, gw/ they do not occur initially, medially and finally, but all other consonants do.[3] Other consonants that do not occur finally are /d, g, ndz/.[3] When the word ends in with a consonant and the next word also begins with a consonant, a prothetic a is put in between the words.[3] For the consonant /r/, it contains two allophones [r] and [l], but only in free variation.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a | ||
| Diphthongs: ai, ou, au, oi, oai |
When Musom is compared to Yabim, there are claims that infer that Musom may have a 7-vowel system.[3]
Syllable Structure
Musom language has a syllable structure of (C) V (C) (V) (C).[3]
Morphophonemics
In Musom language, if a speaker were to talk fast, /u/ could be heard as [i].[3] Some examples that could be heard are:[3]
- num > [nim] drink
- wutsin . [witsin] inside
If a subject pronoun prefix that contains a vowel, comes before the root that is within a vowel (verb root), the verb root changes according to what came before it.[3] Some examples are:[3]
- mbidi stand up
a-mbidi 1st person subject > u-mbudi 2nd person subject
i-mbidi 3rd person subject
- mbitsi cook on fire
a-mbitsi 1st person subject > u-mbutsi 2nd person subject
i-imbitsi 3rd person subject
Words that contain multiple syllables, those syllables could be dropped or centralized.[3] Some examples are:[3]
- 'apun
References
- ^ Musom at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Holzknecht, Susanne (1989). The Markham Languages of Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-394-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Wurm, Stephen A. (1997). Materials on Languages in Danger of Disappearing in the Asia-Pacific Region No. 1. Australia: Pacific Linguistics. p. 69. ISBN 0 85883 467 7.
 | This article about North New Guinea languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |