Matbat language

Matbat is a heavily Papuan-influenced Austronesian language spoken in West Papua on the island of Misool, Raja Ampat islands.[1] Dialects are Magey and Tomolol.[3]^:17 Like neighboring Ma'ya, it is one of a handful of Austronesian languages with true lexical tone rather than a pitch-accent system or complete lack of phonemic tonal contrasts as with most other Austronesian languages.[4]

Matbat
Misool
Native to	Indonesia
Region	Misool, Raja Ampat islands
Native speakers	1,000–1,500 (2001)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian South Halmahera–West New Guinea Halmahera Sea Maya–Matbat Matbat
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xmt
Glottolog	matb1237[2]
Matbat Show map of Maluku and Western New Guinea Matbat Show map of Indonesia Matbat Show map of Southeast Asia
Coordinates: 1.88°S 130.07°E / -1.88; 130.07

Phonology

Phonology of the Matbat language:[1]

Consonant sounds

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d		k g
Fricative	ɸ	s			h
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Lateral		l
Glide			j	w

Vowel sounds

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

Tones

Matbat has five lexical tones: high falling ˥˩ 41, high ˦ 3, low rising ˩˨ 12, low level ˩ 1, and low falling ˨˩ 21, which in open syllables has a peaking allophone, ˩˨˩ 121. Most Matbat words are monosyllabic; additional syllables in polysyllabic words are often weak and toneless, though a few words do have two tonic syllables. Examples of some of the longer monomorphemic words are /kamow˩˨/ 'star', /wuj˦te/ 'sea shore', /sapu˥˩luj˩˨/ 'round', /bim˦bom˩˨˩pu/ 'butterfly'.

Evolution

Tonogenesis in Matbat remains unclear. Some Matbat reflexes of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) proto-forms are listed below.[4]^:658–659

• PMP *bunuq > Mayá bu³n ‘kill’
• PMP *penuq > fo¹²n ‘full’
• PMP *salaq > sa³l ‘error’
• PMP *qateluR (> *teluR) > to¹²l ‘egg’
• PMP *matay > ma¹²t ‘die’
• PMP *kutu > u³t ‘louse’

References

1. Remijsen, A. C. L. (2002). Word-Prosodic Systems of Raja Ampat Languages. Leiden: Leiden University.
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Matbat". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Kamholz, David (2014). Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd
4. Blust, Robert (2013). The Austronesian languages. A-PL 008 (revised ed.). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/10191. ISBN 9781922185075.

Further reading

• Remijsen, Bert (2001). "A second RA tone language: Matbat". Word-prosodic systems of Raja Ampat languages (PDF). Leiden University. pp. 89–104. ISBN 90-76864-09-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)