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Ulumandaʼ
Native to Indonesia
Region Sulawesi
Native speakers
(30,000 cited 1986) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 ulm
Glottolog ulum1237

Ulumandaʼ is an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is nearly intelligible with other Pitu Ulunna Salu languages. [2]

Phonology

The vowel inventory of Ulumandaʼ is as follows: [3]

Vowels of Ulumandaʼ according to Zobel (2018)
Front Back
Close i y u
Mid e ø o
Open æ ɑ

The attested consonant inventory is as follows:

Consonants attested in the vocabulary of Smith (1993) [4]
Labial Alveolar Dorsal Glottal
Plosive voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative s h
Trill r
Lateral l
Approximant j

Vowel harmony

Ulumandaʼ is unusual among the Austronesian languages of Sulawesi for featuring a vowel harmony opposition of front vowels /æ, ø, y/ to corresponding back vowels /ɑ, o, u/ comparable to that of the Uralic languages. Originally, fronted vowels arose from the fronting of back vowels before syllable-final velar consonants *k and , but were phonemicized in final syllables when word-final *-m and *-n merged with to result in but did not front a preceding back vowel unlike original *-ŋ. These fronted vowels then fronted any other back vowels in a word except if a neutral vowel like *e or *i intervened between the vowels.

A contrastive pair includes /uraŋ/ "person" vs. /uræŋ/ [yræŋ] "shrimp".

References

  1. ^ Ulumandaʼ at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Friberg, Timothy; Laskowske, Thomas V. (1989). "South Sulawesi languages" (PDF). In J.N. Sneddon (ed.). Studies in Sulawesi linguistics part 1. NUSA 17. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa. pp. 1–17.
  3. ^ Zobel, Erik (September 15, 2014). "Vowel Fronting in Ulumanda' (South Sulawesi)". Sounds from around the Pacific Ocean. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  4. ^ Smith, Beverly Kean (1993). A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Pitu Ulunna Salu. University of Texas at Arlington.