| Muna | |
| Nativename: | Wamba Wuna |
| Region: | Muna Island, Buton Island |
| States: | Sulawesi, Indonesia |
| Date: | 2010 census |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Celebic |
| Fam4: | Muna–Buton |
| Fam5: | Munan |
| Fam6: | Munic |
| Fam7: | Western |
| Iso3: | mnb |
| Glotto: | muna1247 |
| Glottorefname: | Muna |
| Notice: | IPA |
Muna is an Austronesian language spoken principally on the island of Muna as well as North-west Buton Island, off the southeast coast of Sulawesi in Indonesia.[1] The language is well-documented, especially by linguist René van den Berg. In 2010, the language had around speakers.
Muna belongs to the Muna–Buton subgroup, which is a branch of the larger Celebic subgroup.[2] Within the Muna–Buton languages, Muna is the largest member of the Munic subbranch, which also includes smaller languages such as Pancana, Kioko, Liabuku, Kaimbulawa, and Busoa.[3] [4]
Muna forms a dialect web with the other languages of Sulawesi and Buton.
Muna has three dialects:
Differences between these dialects are mostly lexical, but also phonological.
In the Ethnologue database, Muna is classified "threatened" in category 6b, meaning "The language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users." The language of instruction in academia in Muna-speaking areas in Indonesian, except in lower forms but Muna is being taught in some primary schools and thus being acquired by the next generation.
Despite the fact that Indonesian is used in schools, Muna is the dominant language and is spoken in all other areas. The vast majority of the population of Muna is fluent in the languages, but not all are fluent in Indonesian Despite its small population and the fact that it is not used as the main medium of instruction in schools, the Muna language does not seem to be in immediate danger. Its population of fluent speakers on the island has stayed fairly stable between 1989 and 2007.
Muna has the following consonant phonemes.
| Labial | Lamino- dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||||||||
The vowel inventory comprises five vowels: pronounced as //a//, pronounced as //i//, pronounced as //u//, pronounced as //e//, pronounced as //o//. They can freely combine into sequences of two or three vowels. Sequences of two like vowels are pronounced as a long vowel, e.g. tuu pronounced as /[tu:]/ 'knee'. In sequences of three vowels, there is an optional non-phonemic glottal stop after the first vowel, e.g. nokoue pronounced as /[noko(ʔ)ue]/ 'it has veins'.
Like many other languages on Sulawesi,[5] Muna only has open syllables of the types CV (consonant-vowel) and V (vowel), e.g. kaindea pronounced as //ka.i.ⁿde.a// 'plantation', padamalala pronounced as //pa.da.ma.la.la// 'citronella', akumadiuandae pronounced as //a.ku.ma.di.u.a.ⁿda.e// 'I will wash them with it'. Loanwords from Malay/Indonesian and other source languages are adapted to the syllable structure of Muna: karadhaa pronounced as //karad̪aa// < Malay Malay: kerja 'work', kantori pronounced as //kaⁿtori// < Malay Malay: kantor 'office' (from Dutch Dutch; Flemish: kantoor), wakutuu pronounced as //wakutuu// < Malay Malay: waktu 'time' (from Arabic).
Verbs are inflected for mood and person (of both subject and object). Person marking is strictly nominative–accusative: person marking prefixes indicate the subject of transitive and intransitive verbs, while person marking suffixes are used to mark the direct and indirect object.
There are three verb classes, which have slightly different forms for the subject prefix. The classes are named after the first person singular prefix.
| a-class | ae-class | ao-class | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| realis | irrealis | realis | irrealis | realis | irrealis | ||
| 1.sg. | a- | a- | ae- | ae- | ao- | ao- | |
| 2.sg.fam. | o- | o- | ome- | ome- | omo- | omo- | |
| 2.sg.hon. | to- | ta- | te- | tae- | to- | tao- | |
| 3.sg. | no- | na- | ne- | nae- | no- | nao- | |
| 1.du.incl. | do- | da- | de- | dae- | do- | dao- | |
| 1.pl.incl. | do- -Vmu | da- -Vmu | de- -Vmu | dae- -Vmu | do- -Vmu | dao- -Vmu | |
| 1.pl.excl. | ta- | ta- | tae- | tae- | tao- | tao- | |
| 2.pl.fam. | o- -Vmu | o- -Vmu | ome- -Vmu | ome- -Vmu | omo- -Vmu | omo- -Vmu | |
| 2.pl.hon. | to- -Vmu | ta- -Vmu | te- -Vmu | tae- -Vmu | to- -Vmu | tao- -Vmu | |
| 3.pl. | do- | da- | de- | dae- | do- | dao- | |
de-basa 'we read' (realis) ~ dae-basa 'we will read' (irrealis)
no-lodo 'he sleeps' (realis) ~ nao-lodo 'he will sleep' (irrealis)
With a-class verbs, irrealis mood is additionally marked by the infix
no-horo 'it flies' (realis) ~ na-h<um>oro 'it will fly' (irrealis)
Intransitive verbs mostly employ a-class or ao-class prefixes. As a general rule, a-class verbs are dynamic intransitive verbs, while ao-class verbs are stative intransitive verbs. With a few exceptions, transitive verbs use ae-class prefixes with an indefinite object, but a-class prefixes with a definite object.
ne-ala-mo kapulu 'He took a machete' (indefinite, ae-class prefix)
no-ala-mo kapulu-no 'He took his machete' (definite, a-class prefix)
There are two sets of object suffixes, marking direct and indirect objects.
| direct | indirect | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.sg. | -kanau | -kanau | |
| 2.sg.fam. | -ko | -angko | |
| 2.sg.hon. | -kaeta | -kaeta | |
| 3.sg. | -e | -ane | |
| 1.du./pl.incl. | --- | --- | |
| 1.pl.excl. | -kasami | -kasami | |
| 2.pl.fam. | -koomu | -angkoomu | |
| 2.pl.hon. | -kaetaamu | -kaetaamu | |
| 3.pl. | -da | -anda |
Combinations of two suffixes are restricted to indirect object suffixes + the third person singular direct object suffix -e:
a-ghumoli-angko-e 'I will buy it for you.'