Matbat is a heavily Papuan-influenced Austronesian language spoken in West Papua, Indonesia, on the island of Misool, Raja Ampat islands. Its dialects are Magey and Tomolol.: 17 Similar to the neighboring Ma'ya language, Matbat 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.
Distribution
Matbat is spoken in the following locations within Raja Ampat Regency:4
- Misool Timur District: Tumolol, Lenmalas, Lenmalas Timur Barat, Audam, Foley, and Eduai villages
- Misool Utara District: Atkari and Salafen villages
- Misool Barat District: Magei village
Phonology
The phonology of the Matbat language is summarized below:5
Consonant sounds| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | ||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Glide | j | w |
/j/ can be heard freely as [ʝ] or [ɟ] in word-initial position.6
Vowel sounds| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| 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.7: 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'
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.
References
Remijsen, A. C. L. (2002). Word-Prosodic Systems of Raja Ampat Languages. Leiden: Leiden University. ↩
Kamholz, David (2014). Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and Change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea (Ph.D. thesis). University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd ↩
Blust, Robert (2013). The Austronesian Languages (Revised ed.). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/10191. ISBN 978-1-922185-07-5. 978-1-922185-07-5 ↩
Ronsumbre, Adolof (2020). Ensiklopedia Suku Bangsa di Provinsi Papua Barat. Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kepel Press. ISBN 978-602-356-318-0. 978-602-356-318-0 ↩
Remijsen, Bert (2010). Nouns and Verbs in Magey Matbat. Michael C. Ewing and Marian Klamer (eds.), East Nusantara: typological and areal analyses: Australian National University. pp. 281–311. ↩
Remijsen, A. C. L. (2002). Word-Prosodic Systems of Raja Ampat Languages. Leiden: Leiden University. ↩
Blust, Robert (2013). The Austronesian Languages (Revised ed.). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. hdl:1885/10191. ISBN 978-1-922185-07-5. 978-1-922185-07-5 ↩