Kambera language
Kambera (also known as Sumbanese, East Sumbanese, Oost-Sumbaas, Humba, Hilu Humba, East Sumba, and Sumba) is a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. Kambera is a member of Bima-Sumba subgrouping within Central Malayo-Polynesian inside Malayo-Polynesian.[1] The island of Sumba, located in the Eastern Indonesia, has an area of 12,297 sq. km.[2] The name Kambera comes from a traditional region which is close to a town in Waingapu. Because of export trades which concentrated in Waingapu in the 19th century, the language of the Kambera region has become the bridging language in eastern Sumba. There are many names for the language Kambera. Its speakers refer to Kambera as hilu Humba ‘Sumbanese language’. In the Dutch literature, Kambera is known as Sumbaneesch, Sumba(a)sch, Oost-Sumbaas and Kamberaas.[3] In Indonesian literature, it is referred as Bahasa Sumba/Kamberaor Bahasa Sumba Timur dalam dialek Kambera (‘Eastern Sumbanese in the Kambera dialect’).[4]
Phonology
Vowels
The diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ function phonologically as the long counterparts to /e/ and /o/, respectively.
Consonants
Kambera formerly had /s/, but a sound change occurring around the turn of the 20th century replaced all occurrences of former /s/ with /h/.
Morphology
Pronouns and Person Markers
Personal pronouns are used in Kambera for emphasis/disambiguation and the syntactic relation between full pronouns and clitics is similar to that between NPs and clitics. NPs and pronouns have morphological case.
Personal Pronouns
| Person |
Number |
| Singular |
Plural |
| 1INC |
|
nyuta |
| 1EXCL |
nyungga |
nyuma |
| 2 |
nyumu |
nyimi |
| 3 |
nyuna |
nyuda |
Kambera, as a head-marking language, has rich morpho-syntactic marking on its predicators. The pronominal, aspectual and/or mood clitics together with the predicate constitute the nuclear clause. Definite verbal arguments are crossreferenced on the predicate for person, number and case (Nominative (N), Gentive (G), Dative (D), Accusative (A)). The four main pronominal clitic paradigms are given below.
|
Nominative |
Genitive |
Accusative |
Dative |
| 1SG |
ku- |
-nggu |
-ka |
-ngga |
| 2SG |
(m)u- |
-mu |
-kau |
-nggao |
| 3SG |
na- |
-na |
-ya |
-nya |
| 1PL.INC |
ta- |
-nda |
ta- |
-nda |
| 1PL.EXC |
ma- |
-ma |
-kama |
-nggama |
| 2PL |
(m)i- |
-mi |
-ka(m)i |
-ngga(m)i |
| 3PL |
da- |
-da |
-ha |
-nja |
Examples:
-
| (1) |
apu-nggu' |
|
granny-1SG.GEN |
|
"My granny." |
-
| (2) |
ana-na' |
|
child-3SG.GEN |
|
"His child." |
-
| (3) |
Kau |
pa.ta.lunggur-ya |
na |
wihi-na |
|
|
|
|
scratch |
CAU.be sore |
ART |
leg-3SG.GEN |
|
|
|
|
"He scratched his leg sore." (lit. "He scratched and caused his leg to be sore") |
-
| (4) |
Na-tari-bia |
nahu |
angu-na |
|
3SG.NOM-watch-MOD |
now |
companion-3SG.GEN |
|
"He just watches his comapnion." |
-
| (5) |
Ningu |
uma-nggua |
|
|
be.here |
house-3SG.GEN |
|
|
"I have a house." (lit. "Here is a house of mine.") |
-
| (6) |
Nyuda-ha-ka |
nahu |
da |
ana-nda |
|
they-3PL.ACC-PRF |
now |
ART |
child-1PL.GEN |
|
"They are our children now." |
The items in the table below mark person and number of the subject when the clause has continuative aspect.
| Person |
Number |
| Singular |
Plural |
| 1INC |
|
-ndanya |
| 1EXCL |
-nggunya |
-manya |
| 2 |
-munya |
-minya |
| 3 |
-nanya |
-danya |
Examples:
-
| (1) |
Lunggur-nanya |
na |
Ihi-na |
|
|
scratch-3SG.CONT |
ART |
body-3SG.GEN |
|
"He is scratching his body." |
-
| (2) |
"Laku-nnguya |
ina", |
wa-na |
|
|
go-1SG.CONT |
mother |
say-3SG |
|
"'I am going, mother," he said.'" |
- ^ Klamer, 1998
- ^ Klamer 1998
- ^ Klamer 1998
- ^ Klamer 1998
Bibliography
- Klamer, Marian (1998). Kambera. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Klamer, Marian (2005). "Kambera". In Adelaar, Karl Alexander and Himmelmann, Nikolaus. The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. London: Curzon Press.
External links