Tombonuwo (Tambonuo) is a Paitanic language spoken in the Pitas and Labuk-Sugut Districts of northwest Sabah, Malaysia.[2][3]
Phonology[4]
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t | d | g k | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | s | ||||||
| Affricate | dʒ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Lateral | l | ||||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Semi-vowel | w | j |
The phonemes /p, t, k, s, ʔ/ are voiceless. All other expressions are voiced.
Vowels
| Non-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Non-high | a | o |
/o/ is often pronounced as unrounded [ʌ].
/a/ is neutralized to [ʌ] in a pre-stressed syllable.
Morphology
Focus
Sabahan languages are characterized by "focus" morphology, which marks a syntactic relationship between the predicate of a clause and the "focused" noun phrase of the clause[5] (see Austronesian alignment).
Tombonuwo has four focus categories, conventionally labelled "actor", "patient", "referent" and "theme".[6] Focus is marked by affixation on the verb.
- Actor: -um- / m(u)-
- Patient: -on (Present tense) / -∅ (Past tense)
- Referent: -an
- Theme: i-
Tense and aspect[6]
The only marked tense in Tombonuwo is past tense.
- Past tense: n- (-in-)
- Stative: o-
- Perfective: ko-
- Non-volitional past tense: n-o-
- Accomplishment: n-o-ko-
Demonstratives[6]
- Near the speaker: itu
- Far from the speaker: iri
- Medium distance from the speaker: ono
References
- ^ a b Tombonuo at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ King, Julie (1984). The Paitanic language family. Canberra: Australian National University. pp. 146. ISBN 0858832976.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Lobel, Jason William (2013). Philippine and North Bornean languages: issues in description, subgrouping and reconstruction (PDF) (PHD dissertation). Manoa: University of Hawai'i. p. 370.
- ^ King, John Wayne (1993). Tombonuwo phonemics. Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Museum. pp. 97–106. ISBN 9789839638059.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Boutin, Michael (1988). Problems in analyzing focus in the languages of Sabah. Dallas: SIL. p. 54. ISBN 0883122146.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ a b c King, John Wayne; Levinsohn, Stephen (1991). Participant reference in Tombonuo. Canberra: Australian National University. p. 76. ISBN 0-85883-406-5.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help)
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This page was last edited on 15 September 2023, at 00:05