Mambai, also called Mambae or Manbae, is a language spoken by the Mambai people, the second largest ethnic group in the island country of

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

Geographic distribution

Mambai is one of 15 constitutionally recognized national languages. The main centers of Mambai are Ermera, Aileu,

Remexio Remexio, officially Remexio Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in Aileu municipality, East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional administr ...

, Turiscai, Maubisse Administrative Post, Ainaro Administrative Post and

Same Administrative Post Same ( ), officially Same Administrative Post (, ), is an administrative post (and was formerly a subdistrict) in the Manufahi municipality of East Timor. Its seat or administrative centre An administrative center is a seat of regional adm ...

. The majority of the Timorese community in Australia is native in Mambai. Mambai used to be spoken in the area around Dili, when the Portuguese declared the city to be the capital of their colony

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor ( pt, Timor Português) was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the ...

. Therefore, the Tetum Prasa spoken in Dili is still exhibiting strong influences from its Mambai substrate.

Phonology

Consonants

* /r, h, k/ can also be heard as �, ħ, ʔ * /p, k/ can also be heard as aspirated ʰ, kʰ * /d/ is also heard as a voiced post-alveolar stop ̠ * /t/ is slightly aspirated ʰbefore mid and low vowels. /t/ can also have an allophone swhen preceding high vowels. * The plosives /p, b, t, d, k/ are unreleased ̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚in word-final position.

Vowels

* /i, u/ can also have shortened allophones �, ʊ

Dialects

Mambae can be divided into 3 dialects according to Fogaça (2017): ;Northwest *Liquiça: Bazartete *Ermera: Hatulia *Ermera: Railaco ;Northeast-Central *Aileu: Laulara *Aileu: Vila Grupo *Aileu: Liquidoe *Ainaro: Hatu-Builico ;South *Ainaro: Hato-Udo *Manufahi-Same: Letefoho *Manufahi-Same: Betano Examples of dialectal variation in Mambae: Comparison of selected body part words in Mambae dialects: :

References

External links

Kaipuleohone Kaipuleohone is a digital ethnographic archive that houses audio and visual files, photographs, as well as hundreds of textual material such as notes, dictionaries, and transcriptions relating to small and endangered languages. The archive is stored ...

's materials include Robert Blust's written notes on Mambai {{Languages of East Timor Languages of East Timor Timor–Babar languages