Mambai language (Timor)

Mambai, also called Mambae or Manbae, is a language spoken by the Mambai people, the second largest ethnic group in the island country of East Timor.

Mambai is one of 15 constitutionally recognized national languages. The main centers of Mambai are Ermera, Aileu, Remexio, Turiscai, Maubisse Administrative Post, Ainaro Administrative Post and Same Administrative Post. The majority of the Timorese community in Australia is native in Mambai.

Mambai used to be spoken in the area around Dili, when the Portuguese declared the city to be the capital of their colony Portuguese Timor. Therefore, the Tetum Prasa spoken in Dili is still exhibiting strong influences from its Mambai substrate.

• /r, h, k/ can also be heard as [ɾ, ħ, ʔ].
• /p, k/ can also be heard as aspirated [pʰ, kʰ].
• /d/ is also heard as a voiced post-alveolar stop [d̠].
• /t/ is slightly aspirated [tʰ] before mid and low vowels. /t/ can also have an allophone [ts] when preceding high vowels.
• The plosives /p, b, t, d, k/ are unreleased [p̚, b̚, t̚, d̚, k̚] in word-final position.

• /i, u/ can also have shortened allophones [ɪ, ʊ].

Mambae can be divided into three dialects according to Fogaça (2017):

Northwest

• Liquiça: Bazartete
• Ermera: Hatulia
• Ermera: Railaco

Northeast-Central

• Aileu: Laulara
• Aileu: Vila Grupo
• Aileu: Liquidoe
• Ainaro: Hatu-Builico

South

• Ainaro: Hato-Udo
• Manufahi-Same: Letefoho
• Manufahi-Same: Betano

Examples of dialectal variation in Mambae:

Comparison of selected body part words in Mambae dialects:

• Geoffrey Hull, Celestino de Araújo, and Benjamim de Araújo e Corte-Real, Mambai Language Manual: Ainaro dialect, Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2001.
• Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Robert M. W. Dixon (eds), Grammars in contact: a cross-linguistic typology, Oxford University Press, 2006, Chapter 6.
• Fogaça, Helem Andressa de Oliveira (2013). Estudo fonético e fonológico do mambae de Same: uma língua de Timor-Leste (PDF) (Master's thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade de Brasília.
• Fogaça, Helem Andressa de Oliveira (2017). O ecossistema fundamental da língua Mambae: aspectos endoecológicos e exoecológicos de uma língua austronésia de Timor-Leste (Doctoral thesis) (in Portuguese). Universidade de Brasília.

• John 8,1-11 in Mambai
• Kaipuleohone's materials include Robert Blust's written notes on Mambai