Musom language


Musom is an Austronesian language spoken in the single village of Musom in Labuta Rural LLG, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The other name for Musom is Misatik, given by the older generations because this was the name of the village that the ancestors settled on. Musom is currently an endangered language due to the fact that native Musom speakers are continuing to marry other language speakers. Musom is also endangered because of its change in grammar and vocabulary due to its bi- and multilingualism. In the Musom village, other languages that Musom speakers may speak are Aribwuang and Duwet. In the Gwabadik village, because of intermarriages other languages that Musom speakers may speak are Nabak and Mesem.

Phonology

In Musom, voiceless, voiced and prenasalised voice are the only series of stops when it comes to consonants. For Musom consonants, if there is a prenasalised voice stop, the vowel is then seen after it and is can be as nasal only. Allophones are contained in the prenasalised voiced affricated alveolar stop /ndz/ which occurs initially, medially, and then occurs finally.
For the consonants, /w, kw, gw/ they do not occur initially, medially and finally, but all other consonants do. Other consonants that do not occur finally are /d, g, ndz/. When the word ends in with a consonant and the next word also begins with a consonant, a prothetic a is put in between the words. For the consonant /r/, it contains two allophones and , but only in free variation.
FrontCentralBack
Highiu
Mideo
Lowa
Diphthongs: ai, ou, au, oi, oai

When Musom is compared to Yabim, there are claims that infer that Musom may have a 7-vowel system.

Syllable Structure

Musom language has a syllable structure of V .

Morphophonemics

In Musom language, if a speaker were to talk fast, /u/ could be heard as . Some examples that could be heard are:
If a subject pronoun prefix that contains a vowel, comes before the root that is within a vowel, the verb root changes according to what came before it. Some examples are:
a-mbidi 1st person subject > u-mbudi 2nd person subject
i-mbidi 3rd person subject
a-mbitsi 1st person subject > u-mbutsi 2nd person subject
i-imbitsi 3rd person subject
Words that contain multiple syllables, those syllables could be dropped or centralized. A vowel turns into schwa in the unstressed syllable. Here is an example:
Focal pronouns are able to be used as subjects and objects of verbs. Prepositions only occur with objects of verbs. Focal pronouns are also found in a possessive phrase. For 1st singular, short form only occurs when wir is switched for u or ur.
SGDUPL
1 excl.wir/u/ursikintse
1 incl.-suktsir
2inggsom sikintsom
3inisikinis

Interrogative pronouns can be seen with who and what. In Musom, who and what can be used with two different pronouns. Those two different pronouns are:
Some examples of these two pronouns are:
Rak anu sira? What is that there?
Asa ngaing gi-its ingg? Who hit you?
Both reflexive and emphatic pronouns both mean Pronoun + self. This table shows the reflexive and emphatic pronouns:
SGDUPL
1EXCrongrogengrogeng
1INC-ronsrons
2romromemromem
3ronronsrons

Possession

The first type of possession in Musom has inalienable nouns. Some examples of these inalienable nouns are kin terms, body parts, name, namesake, friend or trade partner.
SGDUPL
1EXCwir/ur a + N-ngsikin a + N-ng tse + N-ng
1INCsuk a + N-ngtsir a + N-ng
2ingg a + N-msom sikin a + N-mtsom a + N-m
3in a + N-nisikin a + N-nis a + N-m

The second type of possession in Musom is Alienable possession. The second type of possession holds all the nouns that are not in the first type. The possessive phrase can contain noun or pronoun possession, and prothetic a. Then there is a noun that is not attributed to the possessive markers which is the noun possessed. Here are some examples:
ingg a mimin your betelnut
in a tahung his smoke
is a kom/kom a is en their dog

Sentence Structure

Coordination

In the Musom language, sentences can be formed by using conjunctions such as da 'and, but' and ma 'or'. One example using da is:
weEXC P-SPP1-go P-SPP1-cook breadfruit and P-SPP1-fish
We cooked breadfruit and fished in the river.
One example using ma is:
youSG IRR-SPP2-go Madang or youSG IRR-SPP2-go
You can go to Madang or you can go to Ramu.

Conditional

The Musom language when using conditional sentences can be found in the form of:
da + Subject 1 + ng-SPP-V da + Subject 2 bo-ng-SPP-V
An example using a conditional sentence is:
and rain IRR-SPP3-fall I FUT-IRR-SPP1-stay village
If it rains I will stay in the village