Semai language

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)
Native speakers	60,438 (2020)
Language family	Austroasiatic Aslian Senoic Semai
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sea
Glottolog	sema1266
ELP	Semai

Phonology

One 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

Oral vowels

	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

Nasal vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ĩ ĩː	ɨ̃ ɨ̃ː	ũ ũː
Mid	ɛ̃ ɛ̃ː	ə̃	ɔ̃ ɔ̃ː
Open		ɑ̃ ɑ̃ː

Consonants

		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

Examples 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

• Asli (2017), a film directed by David Liew, is about a bi-racial girl on a road to discover her cultural heritage, is the first film to use the Semai language in 50% of its dialogue.

Further reading

• 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

• 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