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Uma language

Uma (known natively as ') is an Austronesian language spoken in Central and South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Phonology

Consonants

Notes:

  • acts as a nasal in some respects and causes the nasalization of non-front vowels (e.g., [] 'ten'→ with nasal vowels).
  • is realized as retroflex contiguous to non-front vowels.
  • is neutralized word-initially, and is the only consonant that can occur in the coda or word-finally.
  • In the Lincio variety of Central Uma, is pronounced .
  • The semivowel is rare, found mainly in loan words.
  • The affricate /tʃ/ is found only following /n/, i.e., in the prenasalized stop /ⁿtʃ/.

Orthographic notes:

  • is 'w'
  • is 'ny'
  • is 'ng'
  • is 'y'
  • is 'j'
  • is 'c'
  • is an apostrophe or simply 'ʔ'

Vowels

Pronouns

Notes:

  • <small>ABS</small> refers to pronominals in the absolutive case, while <small>ERG</small> refers to the ergative and <small>GEN</small> to the genitive.
  • 1P means 'first person,' 2P means 'second person,' and 3P means 'third person.'
  • (<small>SG</small>) means 'singular' and (<small>PL</small>) means 'plural.' (<small>PL.ex</small>) means 'plural exclusive' and (<small>PL.in</small>) means 'plural inclusive.'
  • [∅-] means that ∅ is a proclitic.
  • [-∅] means that ∅ is an enclitic.
  • In the Tobaku, Tolee', and Winatu dialects, the possessives [] and [] are [] and [] respectively.
  • In the Tolee' and Winatu dialects, the absolutives [] and [] are [] and [] respectively. The free forms [] and [] are [] and [] respectively.

Numerals

The cardinal numbers from 1 to 10 are:

Classification of Uma varieties

Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013) recognizes seven dialects of Uma.

  • Bana
  • Benggaulu (= Bingkolu)
  • Kantewu (= Central Uma)
  • Aria (= Southern Uma)
  • Tobaku (= Ompa, Dompa, Western Uma)
  • Tolee' (= Eastern Uma)
  • Winatu (= Northern Uma)

Martens (2014) recognized six major dialects of Uma, noting that the Tori'untu dialect is nearly extinct due to the encroachment of the Kantewu dialect and non-Uma languages.

  • Kantewu (= Central)
  • Southern
  • Tolee'
  • Tobaku
  • Winatu
  • Tori'untu

Martens also identifies two dialects closely related to Uma spoken in the Pasangkayu Regency.

  • Sarudu
  • Benggaulu (= Bingkolu)

References

Bibliography