| Monumbo | |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Region: | Bogia District, Madang Province |
| Speakers: | 410 |
| Date: | 2003 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Torricelli – Sepik Coast |
| Fam2: | Sepik Coast |
| Fam3: | Monumbo languages |
| Iso3: | mxk |
| Glotto: | nucl1458 |
| Glottorefname: | Monumbo |
Monumbo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. There is an early description in German.[1] It is closely related to Lilau.
Mambuwan consonants are:
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| prenasalized | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Mambuwan vowels are:
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
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.[2]
Mambuwan subject agreement prefixes are:[2]
| 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:[2]
ŋait-unum
fire-OBL
‘in/at/with/through fire’
Mambuwan also makes use of postpositions such as ŋaŋ ‘inside’:[2]
su ŋaŋ
water inside
‘in the water’
Mambuwan has highly complex verbal inflection.[2]
Some Mambuwan nouns and their respective plural forms:[2]
| 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 |
. William A. Foley . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 197–432 . 978-3-11-028642-7.