Ulumandaʼ language
{{short description|Language spoken on Sulawesi, Indonesia}}
{{Infobox language
|name = Ulumanda{{hamza}}
|nativename =
|states = Indonesia
|region = Sulawesi
|speakers = 30,000
|date = 1986
|ref = e18
|familycolor = Austronesian
|fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian
|fam3 = South Sulawesi
|fam4 = Northern
|fam5 = Pitu Ulunna Salu
|iso3 = ulm
|glotto=ulum1237
|glottorefname=Ulumanda
}}
Ulumanda{{hamza}} is an Austronesian language of West Sulawesi, Indonesia. It is nearly intelligible with other Pitu Ulunna Salu languages,{{cite book |last1=Friberg |first1=Timothy |last2=Laskowske |first2=Thomas V. |year=1989 |chapter=South Sulawesi languages |editor=J.N. Sneddon |title=Studies in Sulawesi linguistics part 1 |pages=1–17 |series=NUSA 17 |place=Jakarta |publisher=Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa |chapter-url=http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v31-p1-18.pdf}} but Ulumanda’ is distinguished by an unusual series of front vowels.
Phonology
The vowel inventory of Ulumanda{{hamza}} is as follows:{{cite web | first=Erik|last=Zobel|title=Vowel Fronting in Ulumanda' (South Sulawesi) | website=Sounds from around the Pacific Ocean | date=September 15, 2014 | url=https://ezlinguistics.blogspot.com/p/ulumanda-fronting.html | access-date=April 19, 2024}}
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Vowels of Ulumanda{{hamza}} according to Zobel (2018) ! !Back |
| align="center"
|i y |u |
| Mid
|e ø |o |
|---|
| align="center"
!Open | æ | ɑ |
The attested consonant inventory is as follows:
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Consonants attested in the vocabulary of Smith (1993){{cite book | last=Smith | first=Beverly Kean| title=A Phonological Reconstruction of Proto-Pitu Ulunna Salu | publisher=University of Texas at Arlington | year=1993}} ! colspan="2" | |
| rowspan="2" |Plosive
!voiceless |p |t |k |ʔ |
|---|
| voiced
|b |d |ɡ | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|m |n |ŋ | |
| colspan="2" |Fricative
| |s | |h |
| colspan="2" |Trill
| |r | | |
| colspan="2" |Lateral
| |l | | |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
| | |j | |
=Vowel harmony=
Ulumanda{{hamza}} 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 *ŋ, but were phonemicized in final syllables when word-final *-m and *-n merged with *ŋ to result in -ŋ 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
{{Reflist}}
{{South Sulawesi languages}}
{{Austronesian languages}}
{{Languages of Indonesia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulumanda' language}}
Category:Languages of Sulawesi
Category:South Sulawesi languages
{{austronesian-lang-stub}}