| Musom | |
| Also Known As: | Misatik |
| Region: | Markham Valley, New Guinea |
| Coordinates: | -6.6836°N 147.1145°W |
| Speakers: | 200 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Oceanic |
| Fam4: | Western Oceanic |
| Fam5: | Huon Gulf |
| Fam6: | Markham |
| Fam7: | Lower Markham |
| Fam8: | Busu |
| Map2: | Lang Status 60-DE.svg |
| Iso3: | msu |
| Glotto: | muso1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Musom |
Musom is an Austronesian language spoken in the single village of Musom (-6.6836°N 147.1145°W) in Labuta Rural LLG, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.[1] The other name for Musom is Misatik, given by the older generations because this was the name of the village that the ancestors settled on. Musom is currently an endangered language due to the fact that native Musom speakers are continuing to marry other language speakers.[2] Musom is also endangered because of its change in grammar and vocabulary due to its bi- and multilingualism. In the Musom village, other languages that Musom speakers may speak are Aribwuang and Duwet. In the Gwabadik village, because of intermarriages other languages that Musom speakers may speak are Nabak and Mesem.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | AffricatedAlveolar | 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 |
For the consonants, /w, kw, gw/ they do not occur initially, medially and finally, but all other consonants do. Other consonants that do not occur finally are /d, g, ndz/. 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. For the consonant /r/, it contains two allophones [r] and [l], but only in free variation.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
| High | i | u | ||
| Mid | e | o | ||
| Low | a | |||
| Diphthongs: ai, ou, au, oi, oai |
Musom language has a syllable structure of (C) V (C) (V) (C).
In Musom language, if a speaker were to talk fast, /u/ could be heard as [i]. Some examples that could be heard are:
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. Some examples are:
i-mbidi 3rd person subject
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. A vowel turns into schwa [ə] in the unstressed syllable. Here is an example:
Focal pronouns are able to be used as subjects and objects of verbs. Prepositions only occur with objects of verbs. Focal pronouns are also found in a possessive phrase. For 1st singular, short form only occurs when wir is switched for u or ur.
| SG | DU | PL | ||
| 1 excl. | wir/u/ur | sikin | tse | |
| 1 incl. | - | suk | tsir | |
| 2 | ingg | som sikin | tsom | |
| 3 | in | isikin | is |
Some examples of these two pronouns are:
Asa ngaing gi-its ingg? Who hit you? (lit. Which man hit you?)
Both reflexive and emphatic pronouns both mean Pronoun + self. This table shows the reflexive and emphatic pronouns:
| SG | DU | PL | ||
| 1EXC | (o)rong | ro(ng)geng | ro(ng)geng | |
| 1INC | - | rons | rons | |
| 2 | (i)rom | romem | romem | |
| 3 | ron | rons | rons |
The first type of possession in Musom has inalienable nouns. Some examples of these inalienable nouns are kin terms, body parts, name, namesake, friend or trade partner.
| SG | DU | PL | ||
| 1EXC | wir/ur a + N-ng(g) | sikin a + N-ng (g) | tse + N-ng(g) | |
| 1INC | suk a + N-ng(g) | tsir a + N-ng(g) | ||
| 2 | ingg a + N-m | som sikin a + N-m | tsom a + N-m | |
| 3 | in a + N-n | isikin a + N-n | is a + N-m |
ingg a mimin your betelnut
in a tahung his smoke
is a kom/kom a is en their dog
In the Musom language, sentences can be formed by using conjunctions such as da 'and, but' and ma 'or'. One example using da is:
weEXC P-SPP1-go P-SPP1-cook breadfruit and P-SPP1-fish
We cooked breadfruit and fished (for crayfish) in the river.
One example using ma is:
youSG IRR-SPP2-go Madang or youSG IRR-SPP2-go
You can go to Madang or you can go to Ramu.
The Musom language when using conditional sentences can be found in the form of:
da + Subject 1 + ng-SPP-V da + Subject 2 bo-ng-SPP-V
An example using a conditional sentence is:
and rain IRR-SPP3-fall I FUT-IRR-SPP1-stay village
If it rains I will stay in the village