Momuna

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Momuna (Momina,) also known as Sumo or Somahai (Somage,) is spoken in at least two dialects by approximate 1,000 (1986) people living in the area around the Bim River, an eastern tributary of the Balim, and the upper Catalina River in the lowlands immediately south of the central cordillera in Indonesia's Papua province. Somahai is a Yali word meaning “lowland people,“ Sumo /sumɒ/ is the name of the most centrally-located village in the Momuna region (Voorhoeve 1975: 398, Reimer 1986: 201-202, n.d.: 1)

Momina is sometimes listed as a second language, but according to Reimer (n.d.) it is simply the pronunciation of Momuna in the Rekai River dialect. Momuna's nearest relatives are the Mek languages spoken in the montane valleys to the north and northeast (q.v. Louwerse 1998: 3.)

There are at least two dialects of Momuna, which are distinguishable in part by the realization of high back rounded vowel /u/ as high front [i] in the Rekai River dialect when it appears in a word with another back rounded vowel (Reimer n.d.):

Momuna

Balim River (Momuna)

Rekai River (Momina)

Voorhoeve (1975: 101) 33 comparative terms for Somahai after Leland and Wilson

Voorheove (2007) 106 comparative terms for Somahai of Sumo village, Sumbako village, Catalina River and Bim River

Reimer (1986) Momuna topics

Reimer (1990) Momuna texts

Reimer (1991) vocabulary of Momuna

Reimer (n.d.) phonology of Momuna

Reimer (n.d.) phonology of Momuna

Reimer (n.d.) survey vocabulary of Momuna of Sumo village, provided by Paul Whitehouse in comparative spreadsheet format

Kroneman (n.d.) survey vocabulary of Momina of Samboku village, provided by Paul Whitehouse in comparative spreadsheet format

Wilbrink (2004: 107a-107f) 115 comparative terms for Momuna of after de Vries and 79 comparative terms after Kroneman

In addition to these, a survey vocabulary of Somahai was provided in spreadsheet form by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics; howver it is undated and unattributed.

Reimer (1986: 201-202) gives 14 consonants and 7 vowels for Momuna of Sumo village as follows:

In addition to the simple vowels given above, five diphthongs are found as follows:

This consonant inventory is signficiantly simplified in Reimer's (n.d.) phonology, in which semivowels [w j] and rounded and palatalized offglides are interpreted as underlying high vowels /i u/ while [r] is treated as an allophone of /d/, for only 7 consonants as follows:

It seems probable that this reduction is unduly simplified, as phonemes /*kʷ *gʷ *w *j/ are reconstructed for protio-Momuna-Mek, while sequential vowels are restricted to a limited number of rising diphthongs. Therefore we suggest an inventory of 10 consonants as follows:

Apical voiced stop /d/ is realized as [d] initially or as the second member of a consonant cluster and as non-stop [r] between vowels.

De Vries' vocabulary (Wilbrink 2004: 107a-107f) frequently shows occlusion of bilabial and palatal non-stops [w j] to [β] and [ʒ dʒ dʲ] respectively.

Of the consonants, only <n> has been observed to occur syllable- or word-finally. This is best viewed as a nasal archiphoneme /N/ as is found in the Awbono-Bayono languages immediately to the southeast, as it reflects both finals /*m *n/ and is sometimes heard as either a velar nasal [ŋ] or as nasalization of the preceding vowel [Ṽ].

According to Reimer, three tones, high mid and low, are distinguished in monosyllables. In words with more than one syllable, two tones are distinguished on the vowel which carries primary stress. However, Reimer's materials still mark both high and low tones, along with unmarked mid tones, on disyllables without explanation.

Reimer (1986) gives free pronouns for Momuna as follows:

Possession is indicated by the preposition of a free pronoun to a possessed nominal. Agents are indicated by the addition of a suffix /-re̝/ which also marks the instrumental case on nominals.

[under construction]

Reimer (1986: 200-201) gives personal desinence paradigms for four Momuna verb types, illustrated in combination with immediate past/completive suffix /-ba/, as follows. Plural actors are not distinguished for person:

(Reimer analyzes the past/completive suffix as /-b/ and the “reduced” forms as /-b-a/.)

The forms forms designated as grounded, serial and reduced …

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[under construction]

… West Ok … (q.v. Wilbrink 2004: 103a-110f):

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