Mlabri language

Mlabri
Native to Thailand, Laos
Native speakers
 130 (2007)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mra
Glottolog mlab1235[2]

Mlabri is a language spoken by the Mlabri people in the border area between Thailand and Laos.

It is usually classified as a Khmuic language, a subgroup of the Austroasiatic languages. Linguist Jørgen Rischel has studied the language and described its peculiarities in several works. He divides the language into three varieties: one spoken by a small group in Laos and previously called Yumbri, and two others spoken by larger groups in Thailand. They differ in intonation and in lexicon.

Although it is possible to count up to ten in Mlabri, only the numerals one and two may be used to modify a noun, and the word for 'two' has uses closer to 'pair' or 'couple' in English than a numeral.

Phonology

Mlabri distinguishes rounding in its back vowels. It does not have the register systems of some other Austroasiatic languages.

Front Back
unrounded rounded
i ɯ u
e ɤ o
ɛ ʌ ɔ
a

All vowels occur long and short. /a/ is fronted after palato-alveolar consonants, and may approach [ɛ]. There is also a very short vowel /ɪ/ that has limited distribution. Schwas occur in pre-tonic syllables, but may be epenthetic. There are several diphthongs.

Consonants include glottalized plosives and partially voiceless sonorants.

Initial consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Obstruent aspirated pʰ tʰ tʃʰ ~ s kʰ h
tenuis p t tʃ k ʔ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
glottalized ʔb ~ ɓ ʔd ~ ɗ
Nasal voiced m n ɲ ŋ
voiceless m̥ n̥ ɲ̥ ŋ̊
Sonorant voiced w l, r j
voiceless w̥ l̥, (r̥)
glottalized ʔw ʔj

/r̥/ is only attested in minor syllables.

Mlabri has a different set of consonants which occur at the ends of syllables, including aspirated sonorants /lʰ, rʰ, jʰ/. The second is a trill, and the third more post-alveolar than palatal. Other final consonants are /p t c k ʔ m n ɲ ŋ h l r j w/

References

  1. ↑ Mlabri at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Mlabri". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/18/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.