Semai language
Semai | |
---|---|
Engrok Semai | |
Native to | Peninsular Malaysia |
Ethnicity | 42,400 Semai people (2008)[1] |
Native speakers | 10,000 (2007)[1] |
Language family | Austroasiatic
|
Writing system | Latin |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | sea |
Glottolog | sema1266 |
ELP | Semai |
Semai (Engrok Semai) is a Austroasiatic language of western Malaysia spoken by about 44,000 Semai people. It is perhaps the only Aslian language which is not endangered, and even has 2,000 monolingual speakers.
One notable aspect of Semai phonology is its highly irregular pattern of expressive reduplication, showing discontiguous copying from just the edges of the reduplicant's base, thus forming a minor syllable.
Examples of words in Semai:
English | Malay | Semai |
---|---|---|
I | Saya | Eng |
Eat | Makan | Cak |
Drink | Minum | Ngaut |
Bathe | Mandi | Mehmu |
Clean | Bersih | Parlain |
Good | Bagus | Bor |
Chicken | Ayam | Bafung/Fung |
Rice | Beras | Cengroy |
Mushroom | Cendawan | Cenai |
Why | Kenapa | Jalek |
How | Bagaimana | Rahalook |
Phonology[]
This article or section should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}} or {{transl}} (or {{IPA}} or similar for phonetic transcriptions), with an appropriate ISO 639 code. (June 2021) |
Vowels[]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | ɨ ɨː | u uː |
Close-mid | e eː | o oː | |
Open-mid | ɛ ɛː | ə | ɔ ɔː |
Open | ɑ ɑː |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | ĩ ĩː | ɨ̃ ɨ̃ː | ũ ũː |
Mid | ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː | ə̃ | ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː |
Open | ɑ̃ ɑ̃ː |
Consonants[]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
Nasal | voiced | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |
preploded | ᵇm | ᵈn | ɟɲ | ᶢŋ | ||
Rhotic | ɾ~r | |||||
Lateral | l | |||||
Fricative | s | h | ||||
Approximant | w | j |
In popular culture[]
- Asli (2017),[2] a film directed by David Liew is about a bi-racial girl on a road to discover her cultural heritage, is the first film to use the Semai language in 50% of its dialogue.[3]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Semai at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ "Asli | Movie Release, Showtimes & Trailer | Cinema Online". www.cinema.com.my. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
- ^ "Semai dialogue a first in local film | The Star". www.thestar.com.my. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
Further reading[]
- Diffloth, Gerard. 1976a. Minor-Syllable Vocalism in Senoic Languages. In Philip N. Lenner, Laurence C. Thompson, and Stanley Starosta (eds.), Austroasiatic Studies, Part I, 229-247. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.
- Diffloth, Gerard. 1976b. Expressives in Semai. In Philip N. Lenner, Laurence C. Thompson, and Stanley Starosta (eds.), Austroasiatic Studies, Part I, 249-264. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.
- Hendricks, Sean. 2001. Bare-Consonant Reduplication Without Prosodic Templates: Expressive Reduplication in Semai. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10: 287-306.
- Phillips, Timothy C. 2013. Linguistic Comparison of Semai Dialects. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2013-010: 1-111.
External links[]
- http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
- http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-66BF-5@view Semai in RWAAI Digital Archive
Categories:
- Malaysia stubs
- Austroasiatic language stubs
- Languages of Malaysia
- Aslian languages