Mumeng language
| Mumeng | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Morobe Province |
Native speakers | (7,100 Kumalu, Zenag, Gorakor cited 1979)[1] 1,700 Patep (2003), 350 Dambi (2000) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:dac – Dambiksl – Kumaluptp – Patep (Ptep, Dengalu)zeg – Zenag (Zenang)goc – Gorakor |
| Glottolog | mume1239 |
| ELP | Dengalu |
 Mumeng is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
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
[edit]The following is of the Patep dialect:[2]
Consonants
[edit]| 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.[2]
Vowels
[edit]| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| High-mid | e | o | |
| Low-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Low | a |
References
[edit]- ^ Dambi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Kumalu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Patep (Ptep, Dengalu) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Zenag (Zenang) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Gorakor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ a b Lauck, Linda M.; Adams, Karen L. (1975). A tentative phonemic statement of Patep. In Richard Loving (ed.), Phonologies of five Austronesian languages: Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 71–128.