| Mah Meri | |
|---|---|
| Besisi, Betiseʼ | |
| Native to | Malaysia |
| Region | Malay Peninsula |
| Ethnicity | Mah Meri |
Native speakers | 3,700 (2008)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mhe |
| Glottolog | besi1244 |
| ELP | Mah Meri |
Mah Meri, also known asBesisi,Cellate,Hmaʼ Btsisiʼ,Maʼ Betisek, and pejoratively asOrang Sabat,[2] is anAustroasiatic language spoken in theMalay Peninsula. Along withSemaq Beri,Semelai andTemoq, Mah Meri belongs to theSouthern Aslian branch of theAslian languages.[1] Mah Meri is the only remainingAslian language spoken in a coastal area (on the coasts ofNegeri Sembilan andSelangor) and its speaker population is 3,675 as recorded at theOrang Asli Museum inGombak.[1] A dictionary of the Mah Meri language has been compiled by Nicole Kruspe.[3][4]
Source:[5]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -round | +round | |||
| High | i ĩ | ɨ̞ | ɯ ɯ̃ | u ũ |
| Mid High | e ẽ | ə ә̃ | o õ | |
| Mid Low | ɛ ɛ̃ | ɔ ɔ̃ | ||
| Low | a ã | |||
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -round | +round | |||
| High | i̤ | ɯ̤ | ṳ | |
| Mid High | e̤ | ə̤ | o̤ | |
| Mid Low | ɛ̤ | ɔ̤ | ||
| Low | a̤ | |||
Source:[5]
There are twovoice registers in Mah Meri:
Register 1: Register 1 vowels have a clear tense voice quality, shorter duration and lowerpitch. Register 1 vowels also have fewerphonotactic restrictions.
Register 2: Register 2 vowels are laxer, longer and higher in pitch. Register 2 vowels also have a slightbreathy voicing.
Source:[5]
| Labial | Denti- alveolar | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t | d | k g | ʔ | ||
| pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||||
| Nasal | m̥ m | n̥ n | ɲ̊ ɲ | ŋ̊ ŋ | |||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||||
| Fricative | s | h | |||||
| Affricate | tɕdʑ | ||||||
| tɕʰ | |||||||
| Approximant | ʍw | j | ɰ | ||||
| LateralApproximant | l̥ l | ||||||
Source:[4]
In Mah Meri,modifiers anddemonstratives occur after the head as shown in examples (1) and (2) whileprepositions occur before the head as shown in example (3).
dṳk
house
naleʔ
old
dṳk naleʔ
house old
'old house'
lɘmɔl
man
horoʔ
old
ke
that
lɘmɔl horoʔ ke
man old that
'that old man'
Fortransitive clauses, Mah Meri generally follows anAgent-Verb-Object (AVO) order as shown in example (4), but a Verb-Agent-Object (VAO) order is more common during natural discourse as shown in example (5).
lɘpas
after
ke
that
ʔeʔə̤t
kɘdeʔ,
hide
kaye
see
hŋkiʔ
ʔeʔə̤t
lɘpas ke nɔŋ, ʔeʔə̤t kɘdeʔ, kaye hŋkiʔ ʔeʔə̤t
after that PST:PROX 1SG hide see 3 1SG
'After that, I hid, (lest) he see me.'
For intransitive clauses in Mah Meri, bothSubject-Verb (SV) and Verb-Subject (VS) orders are possible as shown in examples (6) and (7) respectively.
ʔeʔə̤t
lSG
nimbol
come.from
bawaw
sea
ʔeʔə̤t nimbol bawaw nɔŋ
lSG come.from sea PST:PROX
'I came from the sea just now.'
Source:[4]
Morphology in Mah Meri is exclusively throughprefixation andinfixation.
1.Detransitivizing N- 'DTR'
2.Transitive focus ka- 'TR'
3.Distributive < l > 'DISTR'
The prefixsɘ is attached to the initial constituent of reduplicated bases to expressiteration.Example:
The prefixtɘ- expresses:
Example:tɘ-ka-ca 'happen to eat'
The prefixbɘ- is applied to either verbal or nominal roots to express anattributive orpossessive function.Example:bɘ-dṳk 'having a house'
According toEthnologue,[2] the language status of Mah Meri is '6b: Threatened', referring to the situation whereby the language is used for face-to-face communications within all generations, but is losing users. This status is based on Lewis and Smino's (2010)[6]Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS).
A study by Coluzzi, Riget & Wang (2017)[7] on language use and attitudes across 4 different Mah Meri villages onCarey Island suggests that while Mah Meri still holds a strong and positive status in the community, there is a possibility of a complete language shift towardsMalay in the future due to lesser usage of Mah Meri amongst the younger generation.