Makalero dialect
| Makalero | |
|---|---|
| Native to | East Timor |
| Region | Timor Island, eastern end around Baucau and inland, west of Fataluku, from northern to southern coast in a dialect chain. |
Native speakers | 8,000 (2017)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea ?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mjb |
| Glottolog | makl1245 |
 Distribution of Makalero mother-tongue speakers in East Timor | |
| Coordinates: 8°39′S 126°30′E / 8.650°S 126.500°E | |
Makalero or Maklere is a Papuan language spoken in the Lautém district of East Timor. It was previously considered to be a dialect of Makasae, but is nowadays seen as a separate language, both by its speakers and linguists.[1]
Phonology[]
The data in this section are from Huber (2017).[1]
Consonants[]
Makalero has 11 native consonant phonemes.
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | t | d | k | ʔ | |||||
| Fricative | f | s | ||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||
Vowels[]
Monophthongs[]
Makalero has five vowel phonemes. Most long vowels occur in predictable contexts; thus Huber argues long vowels are marginal phonemes at best.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i (i:) | u (u:) | |
| Mid | e (e:) | o (o:) | |
| Open | a (a:) |
Syllables are commonly CV; some are CVC. Epenthetic vowels are often inserted between series of two consonants, and echo vowels are often added to the end of phonological phrases.
Grammar[]
All information in this section is from Huber 2011.[2]
Lexical Categories[]
Makalero does not have a definitive noun/verb distinction. Nearly all content words can be heads of NPs as well as predicates. In the following examples, isit can be a predicate or a nominal.
asi-atupusi hai nomo isit[2]: 98 1s:POSS-belly NSIT NEG ill 'my belly did not hurt anymore'
Ki-isit=ee hai k-ua-misa[2]: 98 3:POSS-ill=DEF NSIT 3:UND-on.top:RED-go.up 'His illness got worse' (lit. went up on top)
Content words must be bimoraic, unlike function words, which may be monomoraic.
Valency[]
Makalero has only avalent verbs and divalent verbs. There are no trivalent verbs; instead, biclausal constructions are used.
The avalent verbs are adverbial verbs such as atanana 'first,' hana’e 'a long time ago,' aire’ 'now,' kamunei 'tomorrow,' mu’it 'for a long time,' raine’ 'last night,' and tone’ 'maybe.'
Divalent verbs allow for a subject and either an object or complement.
In the following example, Kiloo is the subject and ani is the object.
Kiloo ani pase[2]: 143 3s 1s beat 'He beat me'
In the following example, ani is the subject and rau-rau is the complement.
Ani mei=ni rau-rau-kena[2]: 143 1s take=LNK1 RDL-good-see:BD 'I see it very well'
Numerals[]
- unu - One
- loloi - Two
- lolitu - Three
- faata - Four
- lima - Five
- douhu - Six
- fitu - Seven
- afo - Eight
- siwa - Nine
- ruru-u - Ten
- ruu resi nu - Eleven
- ruu resi loloi - Twelve
- ruu resi lolitu - Thirteen
- ruu resi faata - Fourteen
- ruu resi lima - Fifteen
Notes[]
References[]
- Huber, Juliette (2011). A grammar of Makalero - A Papuan language of East Timor (Doctoral thesis). Utrecht: LOT (Leiden University). hdl:1887/17684. ISBN 9789460930607.
- Huber, Juliette (2017). "5. Makalero and Makasae". In Schapper, Antoinette (ed.). The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar. Pacific Linguistics 655. volume 2. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 267–351. doi:10.1515/9781614519027-005. ISBN 9781614519027.
|volume=has extra text (help)
External links[]
- Makasai at The Language Archive
 | This East Timor-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
 | This article about Trans–New Guinea languages is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . |
- Oirata–Makasai languages
- Languages of East Timor
- East Timor stubs
- Trans–New Guinea language stubs