Momuna language
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Momuna (Momina), also known as Somahai (Somage, Sumohai), is a
Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...
spoken in the highlands of Papua province, Indonesia.


Varieties

Reimer notes two dialects, one on the Balim River and one on the Rekai. One of the differences is that when /u/ follows an /u/ or /o/ in the Balim dialect, it is /i/ in the Rekai dialect. Thus the ethnonym 'Momuna' is pronounced 'Momina' in Rekai dialect.


Classification

The Somahai pronouns, singular *na, *ka, *mo, are typical of Trans–New Guinea languages. They were placed in the Central and South New Guinea branch of that family by Wurm. Ross could not locate enough evidence to classify them. Usher found them to be closest to the
Mek languages The Mek languages are a well established family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek peoples. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005). Mek, then ...
, in the Central West New Guinea, which partially overlaps with Wurm's C&SNG.


Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words of Momuna are from Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:Voorhoeve, C.L., 1975. Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. :


further reading

*Reimer, Martha. 1986. ''The notion of topic in Momuna narrative discourse''. 181–204. Pacific Linguistics A-74. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.


References

*


External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Momuna–Mek
* (ibid.
MomunaSomahai languages database at TransNewGuinea.org
{{Papuan languages Momuna–Mek languages