Mumeng language explained

Mumeng
States:	Papua New Guinea
Region:	Morobe Province
Speakers:	7,100 Kumalu, Zenag, Gorakor
Date:	1979
Ref:	e18
Speakers2:	1,700 Patep (2003), 350 Dambi (2000)
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Oceanic
Fam4:	Western Oceanic
Fam5:	North New Guinea ?
Fam6:	Ngero–Vitiaz ?
Fam7:	Huon Gulf
Fam8:	South Huon Gulf
Fam9:	Hote–Buang
Fam10:	Buang
Map2:	Lang Status 60-DE.svg
Lc1:	dac
Ld1:	Dambi
Lc2:	ksl
Ld2:	Kumalu
Lc3:	ptp
Ld3:	Patep (Ptep, Dengalu)
Lc4:	zeg
Ld4:	Zenag (Zenang)
Lc5:	goc
Ld5:	Gorakor
Glotto:	mume1239
Glottorefname:	Mumeng
Elp:	2145
Elpname:	Dengalu

Mumeng is a dialect chain of the Austronesian family in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Dambi–Kumalu and Patep–Zenag–Gorakor have a degree of mutual intelligibility. Kapin may belong as well.

Phonology

The following is of the Patep dialect:^[1]

Consonants

		Bilabial			Alveolar		Palatal	Back-velar		Glottal
		plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.		plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless	p	pʲ	pʷ	t	tʲ		k̠	k̠ʷ
	prenasal	ᵐb	ᵐbʲ	ᵐbʷ	ⁿd	ⁿdʲ		ᵑɡ̠	ᵑɡ̠ʷ
Affricate					ⁿdz
Fricative	voiceless				s					h
	voiced/pren.	β	βʲ		(ⁿz)			ɣ̠
Nasal		m	mʲ	mʷ	n	nʲ		ŋ̠	ŋ̠ʷ
Lateral					l
Approximant		β̞					j

• The prenasal affricate /ⁿdz/ may also fluctuate to a prenasal fricative [ⁿz] in free variation among speech.
• /ᵐb, ⁿd, ᵑɡ̠/ are heard as prenasal voiceless stops [ᵐp, ⁿt, ᵑk̠] when in word-final positions.
• /k̠/ is mostly heard as a glottal stop [ʔ] in word-final positions.
• /l/ may be heard as fricativized [l̝] or more fronted as [l̟] in word-final position.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
High-mid	e		o
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

Notes and References

1. Book: Lauck, Linda M. . A tentative phonemic statement of Patep . Adams . Karen L. . Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics . 1975 . In Richard Loving (ed.), Phonologies of five Austronesian languages . 71-128.