Background
With around 25,000 speakers (as of 1987), Maybrat is among the most populous languages of Indonesian Papua. Its speakers are the Maybrat people, whose main occupations have been hunting, fishing, and swidden agriculture. They have traditionally lived in scattered homesteads, with the organisation into villages (kampongs) initiated by the efforts of the Dutch administration between the 1930s and the 1950s. This has had an effect on the language. For example, the establishment of the settlement of Ayawasi in 1953 brought together scattered local groups where each family had spoken a slightly different "family dialect", resulting in a "melting pot" where these small dialectal differences are levelled in the speech of the younger generations. Maybrat is spoken in a large area in the central parts of the Bird's Head Peninsula and a large portion of its speakers are concentrated around the Ayamaru Lakes, although many are also found in urban areas of Indonesian Papua. Maybrat is surrounded by a number of languages. To the north are two other isolates: Abun language, Abun and Mpur language, Mpur; to the east are Meyah language, Meyah and Moskona language, Moskona, both members of the East Bird's Head languages, East Bird's Head language family; the South Bird's Head languages Arandai language, Arandai, Kaburi language, Kaburi, Kais language, Kais, and Konda language (Papuan), Konda are spoken to the south; the neighbouring languages to the west are Tehit language, Tehit and Moraid language, Moraid, both of the West Bird's Head languages, West Bird's Head family. The Malay language served as the language of wider communication in this area during the Dutch administration, while more recently the related Indonesian language has taken up this role. Most Maybrat speakers in Ayawasi, for example, are fully bilingual in Indonesian, with the use of Indonesian loanwords and code-switching between the two languages fairly common. The word "Maybrat" is a compound of ''mai'' 'sound, language', and according to one explanation, its meaning is "the language Brat", where "Brat" is the name of a hill near the village of Semetu in the Ayamaru region.Classification and dialects
Maybrat is often considered to be a language isolate, as a genetic relationship to any other language has not been established. There have been attempts to subsume it under putative families like the "Toror languages" (also including Abun language, Abun and the West Bird's Head languages), or the broader West Papuan languages, West Papuan phylum. Even if not demonstrably related to any other language and sharing only a small percentage of its vocabulary with its neighbours, Maybrat nevertheless has a great deal in its grammatical structure that resembles other languages of the Bird's Head. There have been various classifications and listings of the dialects of Maybrat. The local tradition of the speakers recognises the following six dialects (the villages where each is spoken are given in brackets): *Mayhapeh (Ayawasi, Kokas, Southwest Papua, Kokas, Mosun, Southwest Papua, Mosun, Konya, Southwest Papua, Konya, Kumurkek) *Mayasmaun (Ayata, Southwest Papua, Ayata, Kamat, Southwest Papua, Kamat, Aisa, Southwest Papua, Aisa) *Karon (Senopi, Fef, Southwest Papua, Fef) *Maymare (Suswa, Southwest Papua, Suswa, Sire, Southwest Papua, Sire) *Maymaru (Ayamaru): in Ayamaru District and Ayamaru Timur District *Mayte (Aytinyo, Fuoh): in Aytinyo District The most distinct dialect, at least in comparison to Mayhapeh, is Karon, which in some previous surveys has been listed as a separate language. The differences between Maymaru and Mayhapeh on the other hand are very small, but the two are nevertheless regarded by their speakers as distinct dialects. This is largely because the Maymaru speak significantly faster, so much so that the Mayhapeh often have difficulties understanding them. The dialect whose phonology and grammar are described in the following sections is Mayhapeh, as analysed by Dol in her #CITEREFDol2007, 2007 grammar. The two papers by Brown (#CITEREFBrown1990, 1990, #CITEREFBrown1991, 1991) are on noun phrases and phonology and they are based on the Maymaru dialect as spoken in the village of Kambuaya.Phonology
Maybrat has five vowel phonemes and a small consonant inventory consisting of between nine and eleven consonant phonemes, depending on the analysis. Closed syllables are not uncommon, but most types of consonant clusters are broken up with the insertion of a schwa vowel. The placement of stress is not predictable.Vowels
The following table presents the five Maybrat vowels along with their allophones as documented in the Mayhapeh dialect: A non-phonemic schwa vowel is used, mostly to break up consonant clusters (see #Consonant clusters, below). A schwa is also optionally inserted before the initial consonant in a small number of short words: ~ 'night'. Vowels are phonetically lengthened in stressed one-syllable words. A vowel at the start of a word is optionally preceded, and a vowel at the end of a word is optionally followed, by a non-phonemic glottal stop , typically when the word is uttered in isolation: ~ 'rain', ~ 'they drink'. Not all of these allophones have been documented in the Maymaru dialect. However, it does have the following allophone rules not described for the Mayhapeh dialect: word-final /o/ is pronounced as [] after /i/, while unstressed word-final /a/ is realised as [].Consonants
In the Mayhapeh dialect, the bilabial stop does not occur at the end of the word. It has two allophones – voiceless and voiced – which are in free variation in all positions: /tapam/ 'land' → ; the voiceless allophone is more common, even between vowels. The velar stop is voiceless, but it has an optional voiced allophone between vowels and an optional Unreleased stop, unreleased allophone at the end of the word. The alveolar stop is always voiceless, and in word-final position is in free variation with the Aspirated consonant, aspirated and the unreleased : /poiit/ 'food' → . The labial fricative /f/ has two allophones in free variation: the and the . The velar fricative //, which in the practical orthography is written as ''h'', can be either voiceless or voiced : /xren/ 'they sit' → . The rhotic consonant is always an alveolar trill at the start of the word, while in other positions it is in free variation with the alveolar tap . Voiced allophones are generally more common in the other dialects. For example, in the Maymaru dialect, spoken in the area of Ayamaru, the bilabial stop is always voiced , while the alveolar stop becomes voiced after . The velar stop becomes voiced either before or after . The semivowels and are treated as distinct consonantal phonemes in Dol's study of the Mayhapeh dialect of Ayawasi, but Brown's analysis of the Maymaru dialect they are instead analysed as allophones of the vowels /i/ and /u/ respectively. In the remainder of this article, the semivowel // is represented with , following the practical orthography.Consonant clusters
At the phonemic level,Stress
The placement of Stress (linguistics), stress is not predictable, although it most often falls on the first syllable (schwa vowels getting skipped: /tfo/ → ). Stress is phonemic at least in the Maymaru dialect. In his description of this dialect, Brown adduces several minimal pairs of words that differ solely in the placement of stress: 'they' (with the stress falling on the first syllable) vs. 'fence' (stress falling on the second syllable), 'she itches' vs. 'she takes'. In her study of the Mayhapeh dialect of Ayawasi, Dol notes that such pairs, though perceived by the native speakers as distinct, are acoustically indistinguishable, thus "they" and "fence" are both . Her conclusion, which has received some criticism, is that stress is only weakly phonemic. At the end of a sentence, many older speakers blow a puff of air through their nose, which appears to be a common phenomenon in the languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula.Grammar
Personal pronouns and prefixes
Maybrat has a set of independent personal pronouns and the correspondingDemonstratives
Maybrat has an elaborate system ofNumerals and counting
The younger people, noted Philomena Dol in the 1990s, normally count in Indonesian. Maybrat's traditional counting system described in the rest of this section is nowadays mostly confined to the older generation. It employs Quinary, base-5 numerals, in common with other non-Austronesian languages of the area. Counting usually starts at the little finger of either hand, and proceeds along the fingers of this hand using the dedicated number words: ''sait'' (for masculine) and ''sau'' (non-masculine) for 'one', ''ewok'' (or ''eok'') meaning 'two', ''tuf'' 'three', ''tiet'' 'four', and ''mat'' 'five'. The numbers from six to nine are counted on the other hand, again starting from the little finger, using the complex numerals ''krem sau'' (literally 'one finger') for 'six', ''krem ewok'' (lit. 'two fingers') for 'seven', etc. 'Ten' is the word ''statem'', which is derived from ''t-atem'' 'my hand'. Counting then proceeds with the little toe on one of the feet, where 'eleven' is ''oo krem sau'' (lit. 'foot toe one'), 'twelve' is ''oo krem ewok'' (lit. 'foot toe two'), etc. until 'fifteen' ''oo sau muf'' (lit. 'one full foot'). After that, counting moves to the big toe of the other foot, with 'sixteen' being ''oo sau krem sau'' (lit. 'one foot, one toe'). Counting ends at the little toe, with the word for 'twenty' ''rae sait yhai'' literally meaning 'one man is gone'. Multiples of twenty then count the number of 'men gone', thus 'forty' is ''rae ewok mhai'', lit. 'two men are gone'.Nouns and noun phrases
Nouns
Maybrat nouns referring to male humans have a masculine Grammatical gender, gender. This is not expressed on the noun but shows up in the choice of a personal prefix on words Agreement (grammar), agreeing with this noun. The masculine prefix ''y-'' contrasts with ''m-'', which is used for female humans, inanimate nouns, and in the plural (regardless of gender). This makes the feminine the Markedness, unmarked form, which is in common with most of the Papuan languages that make a gender distinction in their grammar and it is in contrast to such languages in the rest of the world. Nouns do not take number marking. Nouns can be derived from verbs using the prefix ''po-'' (which can be a standalone word meaning "thing"): ''-iit'' 'eat' -> ''poiit'' 'food', ''hren'' 'sit' -> ''pohren'' 'chair', ''-kah'' 'burn' -> ''pokah'' 'garden', ''kom'' 'write' -> ''pokom'' 'pen'. If forming an agent noun, the verb will then also take the person prefix ''m-'' (provided its phonological form allows it): ''afit'' 'bite' -> ''pomafit'' 'mosquito' (lit. 'thing that bites'), ''haf'' 'pregnant' -> ''pomhaf'' 'pumpkin' (lit. 'thing that is pregnant'). Compound nouns can be formed of either noun + noun, or noun + verb. In both cases, the second element modifies the first one, for example ''fane rapuoh'', a compound of ''fane'' 'pig' and ''rapuoh'' 'forest', means ''wild pig'', which is a kind of pig. A compound noun is phonologically a single word, but each of the two elements retains its stress (unless this would result in two consecutive stressed syllables, in which case the stress of the first element is moved to the left), with the stress on the second element becoming the main stress of the compound.Possession
In common with most languages of the peninsula, Maybrat expresses possession differently depending on whether it is Alienable and inalienable possession, alienable or inalienable. Compare the two constructions: Inalienably possessed nouns are the nouns for body parts (like "head", "root" etc.), kinship terms ("father", "wife" etc.), and spatial nouns (''m-aom'' 'outside', ''m-asuf'' 'middle', etc.). Such nouns Obligatory possession, obligatorily take a pronominal prefix, which agrees in person with the possessor; if the possessor is explicitly stated, then it precedes the possessed noun. For alienable nouns, on the other hand, the possessor follows the possessed noun, which does not feature a pronominal prefix but instead takes the possessive marker ''ro''. An inalienably possessed construction can itself be embedded in another possessed construction:Noun phrases
The order of constituents in a noun phrase generally follows the pattern: :head noun + adjectival verb + numeral or quantifying verb + demonstrative The so-called 'adjectival verbs' (see #Verbs, below) are verbs that serve the function of what in English would have been an adjective. They take a person prefix that agrees with the head noun. A numeral can be preceded by a Classifier (linguistics), classifier, whose use is optional and does not affect the meaning of the noun phrase. Classifiers agree in person with the head noun. There are four classifiers: ''-ana'' 'head' (a general classifier that is most commonly used for humans and animates), ''-akan'' 'seed/stone' (for seeds and fruit), ''m-ake'' 'fruit' (for fruit), and ''-ata'' 'leaf' (for money/banknotes). A similar use is made of the noun ''yu'' 'bag' when giving the quantity of uncountables: Quantifying verbs include verbs like ''waro'' 'little' and ''-siar'' 'many'. There are several verbs that correspond to the English "everyone/everything", these include: ''-kak'' 'absolutely everything/everyone', ''pria(n)'' 'everyone/everything', ''-tut'' 'everyone/everything' (for small groups), and ''wisau'' 'everyone/everything' (for large groups). Last in the noun phrase comes the demonstrative:Verbs
Verbs in Maybrat obligatorily take person prefixes agreeing with the subject (see #Personal pronouns and prefixes, above for more details). Verbs can be either intransitive (taking a single argument, a subject) or transitive (taking two arguments: a subject and an object). A subclass of intransitive verbs carry out functions for which languages like English use adjectives. Such 'adjectival' verbs can function both as predicates ("The book ''is red''") and as attributes ("the ''red'' book"):Clauses
A clause consists of a predicate (typically a verb) and its arguments (typically expressed by noun phrases), with optional adverbial modifiers. In Maybrat, the order of the constituents in a clause is rigid; this is common in the languages of the Bird's Head, whether Papuan or Austronesian, but unusual for the Papuan languages broader afield. Clauses show a single intonation contour, which involves a rise in Pitch (music), pitch on the stressed syllable of the last vowel in the clause, and a subsequent sharp drop. Because verbs take obligatory person prefixes, there is no need for a Subject (grammar), subject to be explicitly given if it is readily identifiable from the context. Thus, sentences consisting solely of a verb (with a person prefix) are acceptable: If expressed, the subject precedes the verb, while an Object (grammar), object follows the verb. Thus, Maybrat has a rigid Subject–verb–object, SVO word order. The object can also be omitted if it can easily be inferred from the context: An object can be given more Topicalisation, prominence as a topic by Left dislocation, moving it to the start of the clause. The object then has an intonation contour of its own and it is separated from the rest of the clause by a pause: Adverbials for time are placed before the verb, and if there is a subject they can either precede or follow it: All other types of adverbials (for manner, location, etc.) follow the verb: In common with other languages of the region, Maybrat expresses negation by a clause-final particle. This particle is ''fe'', whose typical use is given in the first example below. But ''fe'' can also function as a verb and take a person prefix, as in the second example. These two uses of ''fe'' can have different meanings, but the distinction between the two is not consistently maintained. Questions have the same Intonation (linguistics), intonation pattern as other sentence types; this is in contrast to many other languages, like English, where questions typically have a high or rising pitch. Yes/No questions are formed by the addition of ''a'' at the end of the clause: Content questions feature a question word replacing whatever part of the clause information is being sought for:Verb sequences
A notable feature of Maybrat is the extensive use that it makes of sequences of verbs without any overt marking of their relation. Such verb sequences are typified in a number of different constructions, which might be superficially similar, but show upon closer inspection to be syntactically distinct. For example, there might be differences in the readiness with which the verbs can take distinct intonation contours or allow to be separated by pauses, the availability of their objects for extraction into relative clauses, or the possibility for an interrogative particle to take scope over only one of the two verbs. "The most striking feature of the Maybrat language is that it makes extensive use of strings of juxtaposed verbs without overt coordinators between them." The various types of verb sequences described in the rest of this section can be contrasted to Coordination (linguistics), coordinated constructions in which each verb forms a separate clause:Complement clauses
A group of constructions feature a complement clause: the second verb (and its clause) functions as the object of the first verb. The first verb can be a perception verb, a mental activity verb or a verb of saying:Prepositional verbs
A construction that bears certain resemblance to the serial verb constructions known in other languages involves the four so-called prepositional verbs. These are ''-ae'' 'at', ''-kit'' 'towards', ''-pat'' 'from', and ''-kah'' 'with/to/for': There is a cline between typical verbs on the one hand and typical prepositions on the other. The four "prepositional verbs" of Maybrat each fall on different points along this cline and possess different combinations of verbal or prepositional characteristics. One typically verbal characteristic is the ability to serve as the main verb of a clause: ''-ae'' 'at' alone among these four can function as the main verb of a clause. Another verbal characteristic is the ability to show agreement with the subject of the clause. In this respect, the two verbs ''-kit'' 'towards' and ''-pat'' 'from' are more verbal in that they always take person prefixes agreeing with the subject; this contrasts both with ''-kah'' 'with/to/for', which always takes only the unmarked third-person prefix ''m-'' regardless of the subject, and with ''-ae'', which may follow either pattern. These four verbs also differ in the extent to which their objects can be extracted into relative clauses.Motion verbs
Similar to serial verb constructions is also the construction with a second verb of motion (like ''-amo'' 'go') whose subject is the same as the object of the first verb: A similar construction involving the verbs ''-o'' 'take' and ''-e'' 'give' is available to express the meaning of 'giving something ''to someone''; such a construction is necessary because verbs in Maybrat can only take two arguments (a subject and an object) and so ''-e'' 'give' on its own cannot take arguments for both the object given and the person who received it:Complex sentences
Apart from the more or less tightly integrated verb sequences from the previous section, there also exist a number of ways of combining full clauses into complex sentences. For example, a number of conjunction (grammar), conjunctions can be used for joining clauses referring to events in a sequence: ''mati'', ''na'', ''mnan'', or ''o'': Disjunction ('either, or') can be expressed with the negator ''fe''. Subordinate clauses for purpose or cause are introduced with ''re'' 'in order to', ''mi'' 'so that', or ''ke'' 'because': A relative clause is introduced by the relativiser ''ro'': this is the same particle as the one used in possessive constructions (see #Possession, above), and it may be related to the demonstrative ''re-''. Similar constructions are available for several kinds of subordinate adverbial clauses. Temporal adverbial clauses are introduced by ''um ro'' (lit. 'the moment when') or ''kine wo'' (lit. 'the time when') – the difference between these two relativisers parallels the difference between the related demonstrative prefixes ''re-'' (specific, can be pinpointed) and ''we-'' (non-specific). Adverbial clauses for manner are introduced with ''fi-re'', where ''fi-'' is the demonstrative prefix meaning "similar to". The marker for locative adverbial clauses can be one of ''wo'', ''wo-yo'' or ''wo-re'', without an apparent difference in meaning. An example of a locative clause: A style figure common in narratives is tail-head linkage, where the last predicate of one sentence is repeated at the start of the next one:Notes
References
Bibliography
* * * * * * * * * * * *Further reading
* Contains a Maybrat story along with interlinear glosses and a translation.External links