Momuna (Momina), also known as Somahai (Somage, Sumohai), is a
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...
spoken in
Yahukimo Regency
Yahukimo Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Indonesian province of Highland Papua. It covers an area of 17,152 km2, and had a population of 164,512 at the 2010 Census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. but this figure more t ...
,
Highland Papua
Highland Papua () is a provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, which roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Lano-Pago (often shortened to La Pago). It covers an area of and had a population of 1,467,050 according to ...
and
Asmat Regency
Asmat Regency is a regency (''kabupaten'') in the northwestern portion of the Indonesian province of South Papua. It is bounded to the southwest by the Arafura Sea, to the southeast and east by Mappi Regency, to the north by Highland Papua Provi ...
,
South Papua
South Papua, officially the South Papua Province (), is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the southern portion of Western New Guinea, Papua, following the borders of the Papuan customary region of Anim Ha. Formally establ ...
, 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 language family, family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek people and Yali people. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malc ...
, in the
Central West New Guinea, which partially overlaps with Wurm's C&SNG.
Phonology
Additionally, there are at most three tones: high, low, and mid. The mid tone only occurs on monosyllabic words.
[
]
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.]
:
References
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Momuna–Mek
* (ibid.
MomunaSomahai languages database at TransNewGuinea.org
{{Papuan languages
Momuna–Mek languages