Mah Meri language

Mah Meri, also known as Besisi, Cellate, Hma’ Btsisi’, Ma’ Betisek, and “Orang Sabat” (pejorative term), is an Austroasiatic language spoken in the Malay Peninsula. Along with Semaq Beri, Semelai and Temoq, Mah Meri belongs to the Southern Aslian branch of the Aslian languages. Mah Meri is the only remaining Aslian language spoken in a coastal area (on the coasts of Negeri Sembilan and Selangor) and its speaker population is 3,675 as recorded at the Orang Asli Museum in Gombak. A dictionary of the Mah Meri language has been compiled by Nicole Kruspe.

Mah Meri
Besisi, Betise’
Native to	Malaysia
Region	Malay Peninsula
Ethnicity	Mah Meri
Native speakers	3,700 (2008)
Language family	Austroasiatic Aslian Southern Mah Meri
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mhe
Glottolog	besi1244
ELP	Mah Meri

Phonology

Vowels

Source:

Register 1 vowels

	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

Register 2 vowels

	Front	Central	Back
			-round	+round
High	i̤		ɯ̤	ṳ
Mid High	e̤	ə̤		o̤
Mid Low	ɛ̤			ɔ̤
Low		a̤

Voice Register

Source:

There are two voice registers in Mah Meri:
Register 1: Register 1 vowels have a clear tense voice quality, shorter duration and lower pitch. Register 1 vowels also have fewer phonotactic restrictions.
Register 2: Register 2 vowels are laxer, longer and higher in pitch. Register 2 vowels also have a slight breathy voicing.

Consonants

Source:

		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					tɕ dʑ
					tɕʰ
Approximant		ʍ w			j	ɰ
Lateral Approximant				l̥     l

Grammar

Syntax

Source:

In Mah Meri, modifiers and demonstratives occur after the head as shown in examples (1) and (2) while prepositions occur before the head as shown in example (3).

(1)

dṳk

house

naleʔ

old

dṳk naleʔ

house old

'old house'

(2)

lɘmɔl

man

horoʔ

old

ke

that

lɘmɔl horoʔ ke

man old that

'that old man'

(3)

haʔ

LOC

mbɘri

forest

haʔ mbɘri

LOC forest

'in the forest'

For transitive clauses, Mah Meri generally follows an Agent-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).

(4)

hŋkiʔ

3

tomboʔ

punch

lɘmɔl

man

ke

that

hŋkiʔ tomboʔ lɘmɔl ke

3 punch man that

'He punched that man.'

(5)

lɘpas

after

ke

that

nɔŋ,

PST:PROX

ʔeʔə̤t

1SG

kɘdeʔ,

hide

kaye

see

hŋkiʔ

3

ʔeʔə̤t

1SG

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, both Subject-Verb (SV) and Verb-Subject (VS) orders are possible as shown in examples (6) and (7) respectively.

(6)

ʔeʔə̤t

lSG

nimbol

come.from

bawaw

sea

nɔŋ

PST:PROX

ʔeʔə̤t nimbol bawaw nɔŋ

lSG come.from sea PST:PROX

'I came from the sea just now.'

(7)

lɛp

enter

do

water

haʔ

LOC

tə̤k

ear

lɛp do haʔ tə̤k

enter water LOC ear

'Water got into (my) ear.'

Morphology

Source:

Morphology in Mah Meri is exclusively through prefixation and infixation.

Semi-productive derivations

1. Detransitivizing N- 'DTR'

The prefix n- is attached to monosyllabic verbs and the vowel from the final syllable is reduplicated into the vowel position.

Example: bɛ 'to do' → nɛ-bɛ 'doing, doer'

For disyllabic verbs, the initial consonant is replaced by a homorganic nasal.

Example: plɘt 'to extinguish' → m:ɘlɘt 'extinguishing'

2. Transitive focus ka- 'TR'

The prefix ka- only applies to indigenous monosyllabic verbs.

Example: jɛt 'to follow' → ka-jɛt 'to follow someone or something', cɔʔ 'to go' → ka-cɔʔ 'to go to someone or a place'

3. Distributive < l > 'DISTR'

The infix < l > applies to disyllabic intransitive verbs of position or state and also some verbs of motion.

The infix is inserted into the initial syllable and a schwa replaces to well to correct syllable structure.

Example: kancɛw 'to be naked' → kɘlancɛw 'many naked (people)'.

If the penultimate syllable CV is a palatal stop plus schwa, the < la > infix is applied instead.

Example: jɘkɘʔ 'to sit motionless' → jɘ-la-kɘʔ 'many sitting motionless'

Regular productive derivations

Iterative sɘ-RDP-root 'ITER'

The prefix sɘ is attached to the initial constituent of reduplicated bases to express iteration. Example:

sɘ-nake-nake

ITER-REDUP-that

sɘ-nake-nake

ITER-REDUP-that

'that one over and over again'

Happenstance tɘ- 'happ'

The prefix tɘ- expresses:

• an inadvertent event
• ability or inability when used in a negated clause.

Example: tɘ-ka-ca 'happen to eat'

Middle voice bɘ- 'MID'

The prefix bɘ- is applied to either verbal or nominal roots to express an attributive or possessive function. Example: bɘ-dṳk 'having a house'

Language Endangerment and Vitality

According to Ethnologue, 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) Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS).

A study by Coluzzi, Riget & Wang (2017) on language use and attitudes across 4 different Mah Meri villages on Carey 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 towards Malay in the future due to lesser usage of Mah Meri amongst the younger generation.

External links

• http://projekt.ht.lu.se/rwaai RWAAI (Repository and Workspace for Austroasiatic Intangible Heritage)
• http://hdl.handle.net/10050/00-0000-0000-0003-66E2-7@view Mah Meri in RWAAI Digital Archive
• ELAR archive of Mah Meri (and Ceq Wong) language documentation materials