Semai (engrok Semai) is a Austroasiatic language of western Malaysia spoken by about 60,438 Semai people. It is one of the few Aslian languages which are not endangered, and even has 2,000 monolingual speakers. It is currently spoken by 3 main groups; the Northern Semai, Central Semai and the Southern Semai.
| Semai | |
|---|---|
| engrok Semai | |
| Native to | Peninsular Malaysia |
| Ethnicity | 60,438 Semai people (2020)[1] |
Native speakers | 60,438 (2020)[2] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | sea |
| Glottolog | sema1266 |
| ELP | Semai |
Phonology
editOne 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.
Vowels
edit| 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
edit| 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 | ||
| Fricative | s | h | ||||
| Rhotic | ɾ~r | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
Examples
editExamples of words in Semai include the following:
| English | Semai | Malay |
|---|---|---|
| I | Eng | Saya |
| Eat | Cak | Makan |
| Drink | Ngaut | Minum |
| Bathe | Mehmu | Mandi |
| Clean | Parlain | Bersih |
| Good | Bor | Bagus |
| Chicken | Bafung/Fung | Ayam |
| Rice | Cengroy | Beras |
| Mushroom | Cenai | Cendawan |
| Why | Jalek | Kenapa |
| How | Rahalook | Bagaimana |
In popular culture
editReferences
edit- ^ "Basic Data / Statistics". JAKOA. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
- ^ Semai at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
- ^ "Asli". Cinema Online. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ Loh, Ivan (19 October 2017). "Semai Dialogue a First in Local Film". The Star. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
Further reading
edit- 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
edit- 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
- Semai dictionary of SIL International – online version accessible from Webonary.org
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