Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Tombonuwo language

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Native to
  
Malaysia

Ethnicity
  
Tambanuo

Region
  
Sabah

Dialects
  
Lingkabau

Native speakers
  
10,000 (2000) 3,000 Lingkabau (2003)

Language family
  
Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian North Bornean Southwest Sabahan Paitanic Tombonuo

Tombonuwo (Tambonuo) is a Paitanic language spoken in the Pitas and Labuk-Sugut Districts of northwest Sabah. Tombonuwo is apparently also the name

Contents

Consonants

The phonemes /p, t, k, s, ʔ/ are voiceless. All other expressions are voiced.

Vowels

/o/ is often pronounced as unrounded [ʌ].

/a/ is neutralized to [ʌ] in a pre-stressed syllable.

Focus

Sabahan languages are characterized by "focus" morphology, which marks a syntactic relationship between the predicate of a clause and the "focused" noun phrase of the clause (see Austronesian alignment).

Tombonuwo has four focus categories, conventionally labelled "actor", "patient", "referent" and "theme". Focus is marked by affixation on the verb.

  • Actor: -um- / m(u)-
  • Patient: -on (Present tense) / -∅ (Past tense)
  • Referent: -an
  • Theme: i-

    • Tense and aspect

    The only marked tense in Tombonuwo is past tense.

  • Past tense: n- (-in-)
  • Stative: o-
  • Perfective: ko-
  • Non-volitional past tense: n-o-
  • Accomplishment: n-o-ko-

    • Demonstratives

  • Near the speaker: itu
  • Far from the speaker: iri
  • Medium distance from the speaker: ono

    • References

    Tombonuwo language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA