Malayo ( Arosario, Arsario, Damana, Guamaca, Guamaka, Malayo, Maracasero, Marocasero, Sancá, Sanja, Sanka, Wiwa ) is an endangered Chibchan language spoken by the Viva (Malayo) people who live on the southern and eastern slopes Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta isolated mountain range in Colombia.
| Malayo | |
|---|---|
| Countries | Colombia |
| Regions | Sierra nevada de santa marta |
| Total number of speakers | 1.850 (2007) |
| Status | |
| Classification | |
| |
| Writing | latin |
| Language Codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | - |
| ISO 639-2 | - |
| ISO 639-3 | mbp |
| WALS | |
| Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| Ethnologue | |
| ELCat | |
| IETF | |
| Glottolog | |
Content
- 1 Genealogical and areal information
- 2 Sociolinguistic information
- 3 Typological characteristics
- 3.1 Type of expression of morphological values
- 3.2 The nature of the boundaries between morphemes
- 3.3 Type of role coding
- 3.4 Marking
- 3.5 Word Order
- 4 Phonetics
- 4.1 Consonant phonemes
- 4.2 Vowel phonemes
- 5 Morphology
- 5.1 Name
- 5.2 Verb
- 6 List of used gloss
- 7 References
- 8 Notes
- 9 References
Genealogical and areal information
The Malayo language belongs to the Arvak subgroup of the Colombian group of the Chibchan language family. The Chibchan family belongs to the Indian languages of South America; Some linguists also distinguish a Macro-Chibchan family, which includes Chibchan, Misumalp, and Lenkan languages, but not all scholars recognize the existence of these language groups within a separate language family.
Sociolinguistic Information
Native speakers are the small Viva people who inhabit the isolated highlands of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. The number of native speakers according to 2007 is 1850 people, however, their number decreases every year. According to Ethnologue, the status of language 6b is endangered. The language is also used as a second Kogi people (about 2,000 people). Most native Malayo bilinguals speak Spanish.
Typological Characteristics
Type of expression of morphological values
Malayo is a synthetic language with elements of analyticism. The basic grammatical meanings are expressed by affixes, however, serial constructions play an important role in the verb inflection, in which grammmes of time, aspect and mood are expressed in the composition of both the lexical and auxiliary verbs.
(1) terua wandukwega-ru an-dun-u-nә-ŋ-ka
male ugly-TOP 3SgIO-want-NEG-be-VBZ-3SgPRTC
She never liked ugly men.
(2) nay-á kima aw-á
go-PFV.ST INF do-PFV.ST
He went out.
The nature of the boundaries between morphemes
From the point of view of intermorphic boundaries, malayo is a vivid example of an inflected language. Both formal fusion and semantic (cumulation) are common in it.
Example of cumulation (one indicator expresses several grammatical values):
(3) nә-tu-a-á
1SG.DO-see-PFV-ST
He saw me.
An example of a formal fusion (several morphemes are combined into one due to phonetic processes):
(4) dukəkənámba ipá uši
dukəkəná-ba i-pa-a-á u-ši
knee-obl loc-flat-pfv-st do-fimp
Put it on his lap.
Role Encoding Type
Role coding in malayo is ergative, that is, the patient of the transitive verb and the main actant of the single are encoded in the same way.
The transitive verb agent is marked with an ergative, the patient is not marked:
(5) rá-gə lorénso tu-w-á
1SG-ERG Lorenzo see-PFV-ST
I saw Lorenzo.
The intransitive verb is not marked by case.
(6) lorénso nai-a-á
Lorenzo go out-PFV-ST
Lorenzo came out.
(7) ran-ži-áde nay-uñi a-win
1S-POSI-father go-NEGPRF do-CK
My father did not go.
Patient single verb is also not marked.
(8) džirá han-a-á u-ku-a-aškә
water dry-PFV-ST do-FP-PFV-OVLP
The water has evaporated.
Marking
In the nominal group, marking is dependent, that is, case indicators are expressed as part of the dependent word form. So, in a possessive design, the accessory is marked:
(9) [ména tšukkwegán] -že məŋkəsára
[woman big] -POSA clothes
Full woman's clothes.
Variation labeling is observed in prediction. If the actants are expressed in pronouns, the marking is vertex - the indicators of the actants are expressed in the verb form.
(10) žinžoma a-di-kau-a
book 3SG.IO-3PL.S-give-PFV
They gave him a book.
However, the actants expressed by nouns are marked with grammatical indicators of the case, the verb does not carry information about the grammatical properties of the actants.
(11) man-ža-de-gə dumagə gwag-a-á ki a-ù
2SG-POSI-father-ERG lion kill-PFV-ST IF do-Q
Did your father kill the lion?
Word Order
The basic word order in malayo is not defined - there are sentences with the order of both SOV and OSV.
(12) a. terua dumaga tu-aa
male lion see-pfv-st
b. dumaga terua tu-aa
lion male see-pfv-st
A man sees a lion.
Phonetics
In total, the Malayo language has 20 phonemes - 14 consonants and 6 vowels.
Consonant Phonemes
| Labial | Front lingual | Postalveolar | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noisy | Hooked | pb | td | kg | |
| Fricatives | sz | š ž | |||
| Sleepy | Nasal | m | n | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Trembling | r |
Vowel phonemes
| Front row | Middle row | Back row | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top lift | i | u | |
| Medium rise | e | ә | o |
| Lower rise | a |
Morphology
Name
In malayo, such parts of speech as a noun, adjective, personal pronoun and numeral stand out. The main grammatical categories are case (absolute, genitive, ergative and obliquus), number (singular and plural). Neither nouns nor pronouns are labeled by gender. The functions of the cases in Malayo are as follows: the patient is transitive verb absolute and intransitive actant, this case is expressed by a zero morpheme. Genitive means belonging to two species - alienable and inalienable. The ergative is macroscopic of the transitive verb. Oblikvus expresses a wide range of meanings - locative, instrumental, also the addressee is marked with this case.
Verb
The grammatical categories of verbal word forms are tense , aspect , mood and voice .
List of used glosses
| Gloss | Decryption |
|---|---|
| Ck | well-known fact |
| DO | direct addition |
| FIMP | prescriptive (strict imperative) |
| Pqp | plussquamperfect |
| IF | interrogative focus |
| IO | indirect addition |
| NEGPRF | negative negation |
| Ovlp | simultaneity indicator |
| POSA | alienated loyalty |
| Posi | inalienable possessiveness |
| PRTC | participle |
| Q | interrogative particle |
| ST | clause end indicator |
| TOP | topicalizer |
| Vbz | verbalizer |
References used
"A grammar sketch of Damana" Williams, Cindy (1993)