Monumbo language

Monumbo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. There is an early description in German. It is closely related to Lilau.

Phonology
Mambuwan consonants are:

Mambuwan vowels are:

Grammar
Monumbo distinguishes five gender classes for singular and dual third-person pronouns, but only two gender classes (masculine and feminine) for third-person plural pronouns, a typologically unusual feature. There are five genders for the third-person pronoun, which are masculine, feminine, neutral, diminutive, and miscellaneous genders.

Mambuwan subject agreement prefixes are:



! !! sg !! du !! pl ! 1 ! 2 ! 3 ! 3 ! 3 ! 3 ! 3
 * a- || i- || i-
 * si- ~ su- || u- || u-
 * ni- ~ nu- || ma- || gi-
 * w- || wa-
 * i- || ma- || bo-
 * mi- || ba- ||
 * gi- || ga- ||
 * }

Mambuwan has a general oblique case marker –unum ~ -Cusum for nouns:
 * ŋait-unum
 * fire-OBL
 * ‘in/at/with/through fire’

Mambuwan also makes use of postpositions such as ŋaŋ ‘inside’:
 * su ŋaŋ
 * water inside
 * ‘in the water’

Mambuwan has highly complex verbal inflection.

Nouns
Some Mambuwan nouns and their respective plural forms:



! gloss !! singular !! plural ! ‘mouth’ ! ‘leg’ ! ‘thorn’ ! ‘door’ ! ‘stream’ ! ‘crab’ ! ‘name’ ! ‘beach’ ! ‘coconut’ ! ‘island’ ! ‘hand’
 * alakam || alakambo
 * sabo || sabo
 * pupuk || pupuka
 * kigi || kigika
 * su || suga
 * dɔra || dɔrage
 * inu || inuore
 * lulu || luluore
 * dɛ || dɛip
 * mot || motiwe
 * naŋdabi || naŋdabian
 * }