Mambai language (Timor)

Mambai language is spoken by the second largest ethnic group in East Timor, the Mambai people. The language is also called Mambae or Manbae.

Not to be confused with Mambai language (Cameroon), Mambaí, or Mumbai.

Mambai
Region	East Timor
Native speakers	130,000 (2010 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Timor–Babar Ramelaic Mambai
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mgm
Glottolog	mamb1306[2]
Distribution of Mambai mother-tongue speakers in East Timor

An illustration of Tetum language (left), Mambai language (center) and Portuguese language (right) being compared to one another.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	k
	voiced	b	d	ɡ
Nasal		m	n
Fricative		f	s		h
Trill			r
Approximant			l

• /r, h, k/ can also be heard as [ɾ, ħ, ʔ].
• /p, k/ can also be heard as aspirated [pʰ, kʰ].
• /d/ is also heard as a voiced post-alveolar stop [d̠].
• /t/ is slightly aspirated [tʰ] before mid and low vowels. /t/ can also have an allophone [ts] when preceding high vowels.[3]
• The plosives /p, b, t, d, k/ are unreleased [p̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚] in word-final position.[4]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

• /i, u/ can also have shortened allophones [ɪ, ʊ].[5][6]

Diphthongs

	Front	Central
Close		ai	au
Mid	ei	ae	ao

Dialects

Mambae can be divided into 3 dialects according to Fogaça (2017):[7]^:82

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:[7]

Numerals

Numeral	Northeast-Central	Northwest	South
1	iid	iid	iid
2	ruu	ruu	ruu
3	teul	teul	teul
4	faat	paat	faat/paat
5	liim	liim	liim
6	neen	hohon iid	liim nai-ida
7	hitu	hohon ruu	liim nai-rua
8	ualu	hoho teul	liim nai-telu
9	sia	hoho paat	liim nai-fata/pata
10	saguul	sakuul	saguul
20	rua nuul	guul ruu	(saguul) haet rua
30	teul nuul	guul teul	(saguul) haet teul
40	faat nuul	guul paat	(saguul) haet faat/paat
50	lima nuul	guul liim	(saguul) haet liim

Pronouns

Pronoun	Northeast-Central	Northwest	South
1.SG	au	au	au
2.SG	iit	iit	iit
3.SG	ua	ua	ura
1.PL, inclusive	iit	iit	iit
1.PL, exclusive	aem	aem	aem
2.PL	iim	iim	iim
3.PL	roo	roo	room

Lexicon

Gloss	Northeast-Central	Northwest	South
‘house’	pada	fada	uum
‘short’	bloko	pada	bada
‘wet’	broe	tita	era
‘dirty’	kiniri	rae	foer
‘many’	doto	klen	rini
‘lie (fib)’	bea	rau	halaet
‘eat’	mua	muu	aa
‘banana’	muka	mua	muu

References

1. Mambai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mambae". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Hull, Geoffrey (2003). Southern Mambai. Instituto Nacional de Linguística of the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e.
4. Fogaça (2013)
5. Sukarnyana, I Nengah (1997). Struktur Bahasa Mambai. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
6. Hull, Geoffrey (2001). Mambai Language Manual (Ainaro dialect). Dili: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project.
7. Fogaça (2017)

Further reading

• Geoffrey Hull, Celestino de Araújo, and Benjamim de Araújo e Corte-Real, Mambai Language Manual: Ainaro dialect, Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2001.
• Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Robert M. W. Dixon (eds), Grammars in contact: a cross-linguistic typology, Oxford University Press, 2006, Chapter 6.
• Fogaça, Helem Andressa de Oliveira (2013). Estudo fonético e fonológico do mambae de Same: uma língua de Timor-Leste (PDF) (Master's thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade de Brasília.
• Fogaça, Helem Andressa de Oliveira (2017). O ecossistema fundamental da língua Mambae: aspectos endoecológicos e exoecológicos de uma língua austronésia de Timor-Leste (Doctoral thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade de Brasília.

External links

• John 8,1-11 in Mambai
• Kaipuleohone's materials include Robert Blust's written notes on Mambai