Mato is a minor Austronesian language of northern Papua New Guinea just inside Morobe Province. Mato is also referred to by the names ''Nenaya'', ''Nengaya'', and ''Nineia''. Mato language has two minor variations, Tabares and Remuk, and the two variations are each spoken in three separate villages. While Mato is surrounded by several other languages, this has no effect on the grammar changes within Mato boundaries. The linguistic situation is very stable, due in part to the geographical isolation of the Mato people.

Linguistics

Tabares and Remuk show a cognate similarity of 96% and among cognates there is a regular phonetic variation that occurs in the velar fricative; otherwise, the cognate words are usually pronounced the same. The grammar between the dialects does not vary; when it does differ, the residents of the Mato area said the words could be pronounced either way and that it depended on the preference of the speaker. The only minor difference that separate the variations is the constant phoneme . (1) → 'door' (Tabares speaker) → 'door' (Ramuk speaker) (2) → 'pig' (Tabares speaker) → 'pig' (Ramuk speaker) (3) → 'medicine' (Tabares speaker) → 'medicine' (Ramuk speaker) Speakers of the Ramuk dialect pronounce as in all environments. In the Tabares dialect, the velar fricative is released as initially and (voiced) intervocalically, except when followed by the high front vowel , where it is also retroflexed . The front mid-vowel is usually pronounced in word-final heavy syllables, but pronounced elsewhere. The back mid-vowel is pronounced in closed syllables in just a few words but pronounced elsewhere. The diphthong is usually pronounced in rapid speech, and the diphthong is usually pronounced in rapid speech.

Consonant phonemes

Phonemic inventory

Sentence typology is subject–verb–object (SVO).

References

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea Ngero–Vitiaz languages Languages of Morobe Province