Makalero dialect

Makalero or Maklere is a Papuan language spoken in the Lautém district of East Timor. It was previously considered to be a dialect of Makasae, but is nowadays seen as a separate language, both by its speakers and linguists.[1]

Makalero
Native toEast Timor
RegionTimor Island, eastern end around Baucau and inland, west of Fataluku, from northern to southern coast in a dialect chain.
Native speakers
8,000 (2017)[1]
Trans–New Guinea ?
Language codes
ISO 639-3mjb
Glottologmakl1245[2]
Distribution of Makalero mother-tongue speakers in East Timor
Coordinates: 8°39′S 126°30′E

Phonology

The data in this section are from Huber (2017).[1]

Consonants

Makalero has 11 native consonant phonemes.

Consonant phonemes
  Labial Alveolar Post-alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive p  t  d  k  ʔ 
Fricative f  s          
Nasal  m  n         
Trill     r         
Lateral approximant     l         

Vowels

Monophthongs

Makalero has five vowel phonemes. Most long vowels occur in predictable contexts; thus Huber argues long vowels are marginal phonemes at best.

Monophthong phonemes
  Front Central Back
Close i (i:)   u (u:)
Mid e (e:)   o (o:)
Open   a (a:)  

Syllables are commonly CV; some are CVC. Epenthetic vowels are often inserted between series of two consonants, and echo vowels are often added to the end of phonological phrases.

Grammar

All information in this section is from Huber 2011.[3]

Lexical Categories

Makalero does not have a definitive noun/verb distinction. Nearly all content words can be heads of NPs as well as predicates. In the following examples, isit can be a predicate or a nominal.

asi-atupusihainomoisit[3]:98
1s:POSS-bellyNSITNEGill
'my belly did not hurt anymore'
Ki-isit=eehaik-ua-misa[3]:98
3:POSS-ill=DEFNSIT3:UND-on.top:RED-go.up
'His illness got worse' (lit. went up on top)

Content words must be bimoraic, unlike function words, which may be monomoraic.

Valency

Makalero has only avalent verbs and divalent verbs. There are no trivalent verbs; instead, biclausal constructions are used.

The avalent verbs are adverbial verbs such as atanana 'first,' hana’e 'a long time ago,' aire’ 'now,' kamunei 'tomorrow,' mu’it 'for a long time,' raine’ 'last night,' and tone’ 'maybe.'

Divalent verbs allow for a subject and either an object or complement.

In the following example, Kiloo is the subject and ani is the object.

Kilooanipase[3]:143
3s1sbeat
'He beat me'

In the following example, ani is the subject and rau-rau is the complement.

Animei=nirau-rau-kena[3]:143
1stake=LNK1RDL-good-see:BD
'I see it very well'

Numerals
  • unu - One
  • loloi - Two
  • lolitu - Three
  • faata - Four
  • lima - Five
  • douhu - Six
  • fitu - Seven
  • afo - Eight
  • siwa - Nine
  • ruru-u - Ten
  • ruu resi nu - Eleven
  • ruu resi loloi - Twelve
  • ruu resi lolitu - Thirteen
  • ruu resi faata - Fourteen
  • ruu resi lima - Fifteen

Notes
  1. Huber (2017)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Maklere". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Huber (2011)

References
  • Huber, Juliette (2011). A grammar of Makalero - A Papuan language of East Timor (Doctoral thesis). Utrecht: LOT (Leiden University). hdl:1887/17684. ISBN 9789460930607.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Huber, Juliette (2017). "5. Makalero and Makasae". In Schapper, Antoinette (ed.). The Papuan Languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar. Pacific Linguistics 655. volume 2. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 267–351. doi:10.1515/9781614519027-005. ISBN 9781614519027.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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