Ulumandaʼ language explained

Ulumanda
States:Indonesia
Region:Sulawesi
Speakers:30,000
Date:1986
Ref:e18
Familycolor:Austronesian
Fam2:Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:South Sulawesi
Fam4:Northern
Fam5:Pitu Ulunna Salu
Iso3:ulm
Glotto:ulum1237
Glottorefname:Ulumanda'}}

Ulumanda is an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is nearly intelligible with other Pitu Ulunna Salu languages.[1]

Phonology

The vowel inventory of Ulumanda is as follows:[2]

Vowels of Ulumanda according to Zobel (2018)!!Front!Back
Closei yu
Mide øo
Openæɑ

The attested consonant inventory is as follows:

!Labial!Alveolar!Dorsal!Glottal
Plosivevoicelessptkʔ
voicedbdɡ
Nasalmnŋ
Fricativesh
Trillr
Laterall
Approximantj

Vowel harmony

Ulumanda is unusual among the Austronesian languages of Sulawesi for featuring a vowel harmony opposition of front vowels /æ, ø, y/ to corresponding back vowels /ɑ, o, u/ comparable to that of the Uralic languages. Originally, fronted vowels arose from the fronting of back vowels before syllable-final velar consonants *k and , but were phonemicized in final syllables when word-final *-m and *-n merged with to result in but did not front a preceding back vowel unlike original *-ŋ. These fronted vowels then fronted any other back vowels in a word except if a neutral vowel like *e or *i intervened between the vowels.

A contrastive pair includes /uraŋ/ "person" vs. /uræŋ/ [yræŋ] "shrimp".

References

Notes and References

  1. Book: Friberg . Timothy . Laskowske . Thomas V. . 1989 . South Sulawesi languages . J.N. Sneddon . Studies in Sulawesi linguistics part 1 . 1–17 . NUSA 17 . Jakarta . Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa . http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v31-p1-18.pdf.
  2. Web site: Erik. Zobel. Vowel Fronting in Ulumanda' (South Sulawesi) . Sounds from around the Pacific Ocean . September 15, 2014 . April 19, 2024.