Mukomuko language

Mukomuko
Bahaso Mukomuko بهاسو موكوموكو‎
Native to	Indonesia (Bengkulu)
Region	Mukomuko Regency, Bengkulu (Indonesia)
Ethnicity	Mukomuko
Native speakers	(26,000 cited 1992)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian disputed: Malayo-Sumbawan or Greater North Borneo Malayic Minangkabau Mukomuko
Dialects	Northern Mukomuko Southern Mukomuko
Writing system	Latin Jawi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	(the codevmo has been merged into min in 2008)
Glottolog	muko1237

The Mukomuko language (bahaso Mukomuko) is a language in the Minangkabau language family spoken by the Mukomuko people, a subgroup of the Minangkabau people living in Mukomuko Regency, Bengkulu. In 1992, there were an estimated 26,000 Mukomuko speakers. The Mukomuko language is still closely related to the Minangkabau language, which has similarities with the Pancung Soal dialect (spoken in the southern part of Pesisir Selatan Regency in West Sumatra), whose distribution area also extends to the northern part of Mukomuko Regency.

Distribution and Usage

The Mukomuko language is spoken by some residents in the North Mukomuko District and South Mukomuko District of Bengkulu. The capital of North Mukomuko District is Mukomuko, while the capital of South Mukomuko District is Ipuh. North Mukomuko District comprises 39 hamlets, and South Mukomuko District comprises 30 hamlets. In addition to Mukomuko, the community in these districts also speaks Javanese and Kerinci. Javanese is primarily spoken by transmigrants from Java, whereas Kerinci is spoken in the hamlets of Sungai Ipuh, Pondok Baru, and Sungai Jarinjing in North Mukomuko District. The geographical range of Mukomuko language speakers extends from Pondok Suguh hamlet in the south to Lubuk Pinang hamlet in the north.

The Mukomuko language generally only functions as a social language. It is used within family and community environments in daily life in informal settings. During wedding ceremonies, public meetings, mosque sermons, and other ceremonies, the Mukomuko people tend to code-switch between Indonesian and Mukomuko. Meanwhile, in government offices, schools, and formal settings, Indonesian is used. The the official language in government institutions schools is Indonesian. However, in the early grades of elementary school, teachers from the Mukomuko area often use the Mukomuko language to present the material. In markets and among the general public, the Mukomuko language is used among members of the Mukomuko community, while between people from different areas, a mix of Mukomuko and Indonesian or other regional languages is used.

Phonology

Phoneme

In the Mukomuko language, five vowel phonemes and twenty consonant phonemes are found. The five vowel phonemes are /i/, /e/, /a/, /u/, and /o/. The consonants are /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /g/, /q/, /c/, /j/, /gh/ (/ɣ/), /r/, /s/, /l/, /m/, /n/, /h/, /ŋ/, /ɲ/, /w/, and /y/.

Vowels

The table below illustrates the vowel chart of the Mukomuko language.

Vowel Chart

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

The phoneme /i/ is a high-front vowel. This phoneme has the allophones [i] and [I]. The phoneme /i/ is pronounced as [i] when it occurs in an open syllable and also receives heavier stress than other syllables. The phoneme /e/ is a mid-front vowel. This phoneme has two allophones, namely [e] and [E]. The allophone [e] occurs in open syllables and unstressed syllables. The allophone [E], on the other hand, appears in stressed syllables, when forming a syllable by itself, or when followed by a glottal consonant. The phoneme /a/ is a low-central vowel. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [a]. The allophone [a] occurs in both open and closed syllables. The phoneme /u/ is a high-back vowel. It has two allophones, [u] and [U]. The phoneme /u/ is pronounced as [u] when it occurs in an open syllable or at the beginning of a syllable in a closed syllable. Meanwhile, the phoneme /u/ is pronounced as [U] when it occurs in a closed syllable. Lastly, the phoneme /o/ is a mid-back vowel. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [o], whether it appears in an open or closed syllable.

Consonants

The table below illustrates the consonant chart of the Mukomuko language.

Consonant Chart

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m		n	ɲ		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p		t			k	q
	voiced	b		d			ɡ
Affricate	voiceless				c
	voiced				j
Fricative				s				h
Semivowel		w				y
Lateral				l
Trill				r		ɣ

The phoneme /p/ is a voiceless bilabial stop consonant. The phoneme /p/ has two allophones, which are [p] and [p-]. The [p] allophone is a released allophone, meaning both lips are closed and then opened to produce the sound [p]. This released allophone occurs at the beginning of syllables. Conversely, the [p-] allophone is an unreleased allophone, meaning both lips remain closed for a moment before the following sound is pronounced. In the Mukomuko language, this unreleased allophone [p-] is not commonly found and occurs at the end of syllables. The phoneme /b/ is a voiced bilabial stop consonant. Its allophonic realization is only one, which is [b]. This [b] allophone occurs both at the beginning and in the middle of words. The phoneme /t/ is a voiceless dental stop consonant. It has two allophones, [t] and [t-]. The [t] allophone is a released allophone, meaning initially, the tip of the tongue does not touch the gums when pronouncing [t], and then it is released suddenly. This [t] allophone occurs only at the beginning of syllables. Conversely, the [t-] allophone is an unreleased allophone, meaning when pronouncing [t-], the tip of the tongue remains attached to the gums for a moment. This [t-] allophone occurs at the end of syllables. The phoneme /d/ is a voiceless dental stop consonant. It only has one allophone, [d], which is consistently positioned at the beginning of syllables.

The phoneme /k/ is a voiceless velar stop consonant. It has two allophones, [k] and [k-]. The [k] allophone is a released allophone, meaning that when pronouncing [k], the back of the tongue is pressed against the soft palate, and then the obstructed air is released suddenly. This released allophone [k] occurs at the beginning of syllables. The allophone [k-] is an unreleased allophone. This means that when pronouncing [k-], the back of the tongue remains attached to the soft palate for a moment. This unreleased allophone [k-] occurs at the end of syllables. From the available corpus, this unreleased allophone [k-] is not commonly found. The phoneme /g/ is a voiced velar stop consonant. It only has one allophone, [g], and it is positioned at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /q/ is a voiceless glottal stop consonant. It only has one allophone, [q], and it is positioned at the end of syllables. The phoneme /c/ is a voiceless alveopalatal affricate consonant. The phoneme only has one allophone, which is [c], and it is positioned at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /j/ is a voiced alveopalatal affricate consonant. The phoneme only has one allophone, which is [j], and it is positioned at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /s/ is a voiceless alveolar fricative consonant. The phoneme only has one allophone, which is [s], and it is positioned at the beginning of syllables.

The phoneme /h/ is a voiceless glottal fricative consonant. The phoneme only has one allophone, which is [h], and it is positioned at the end of syllables. The phoneme /l/ is a voiced alveolar lateral consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [l], and it is positioned at the beginning and end of syllables. The phoneme /m/ is a voiced bilabial nasal consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [m], and it is positioned at the beginning and end of syllables. The phoneme /n/ is a voiced alveolar nasal consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [m], and it is positioned at the beginning and end of syllables. The phoneme /ɲ/ is a voiced alveopalatal nasal consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [ɲ], and it is only found at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /ŋ/ is a voiced velar nasal consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [ŋ], and it is positioned at the beginning and end of syllables. The phoneme /r/ is a voiced alveolar trill consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [r], and it is found at the beginning and end of syllables. The phoneme /ɣ/ is a voiced palatal approximant consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [ɣ], and it is only found at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /w/ is a voiced bilabial approximant consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [w], and it is only found at the beginning of syllables. The phoneme /y/ is a voiced palatal approximant consonant. This phoneme only has one allophone, which is [y], and it is only found at the beginning of syllables.

Dialects

The Mukomuko language has two dialects, namely the Northern Mukomuko dialect and the Southern Mukomuko dialect. The Northern Mukomuko dialect is spoken by speakers in the city of Mukomuko and its surrounding areas bordering West Sumatra, while the Southern Mukomuko dialect is spoken in the southern part of Mukomuko regency bordering North Bengkulu regency. Both dialect speakers consider the Northern Mukomuko dialect to be the 'original' dialect because their ancestors originally inhabited the northern region.

The differences between the two dialects are evident in phonetics and vocabulary variations. Phonetic variations between the two dialects involve systematic sound changes. Firstly, the sound [-it] at the end of words in the northern dialect changes to [-ik]. Secondly, the sound [-ir] at the end of words in the Northern dialect changes to [gh] in the southern dialect. Thirdly, the sound [g] at the beginning of words in the Northern dialect changes to [gh] in the Southern dialect. Fourthly, the sound [-ut] at the end of words in the Northern dialect changes to [-uq] in the Southern dialect.

Furthermore, there are notable vocabulary distinctions between the two dialects. The following table presents a sample of words that exhibit differences between them:

Vocabulary variances between the Northern and Southern Mukomuko Dialects

Northern Dialect	Southern Dialect	Indonesian	English
kulit	kulik	kulit	skin
gigit	gigik	gigit	tooth
perut	peghut	perut	stomach
utaro	utagho	utara	north
barat	baghat	barat	west
gatieng	ghatieng	ranting	twigs
gambut	ghambuq	rambut	hair
giang	ghiang	riang	carefree
lutut	lutuq	lutut	knee

The differences between the two dialects can be influenced by other languages. The Southern dialect is more influenced by other languages due to community mobility and the presence of transmigrants from other regions such as Java.