Ethnicity Tambanuo | Dialects Lingkabau | |
Native speakers 10,000 (2000)3,000 Lingkabau (2003) Language family AustronesianMalayo-PolynesianNorth BorneanSouthwest SabahanPaitanicTombonuo |
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.
Tense and aspect
The only marked tense in Tombonuwo is past tense.
Demonstratives
References
Tombonuwo language Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA