Mablic language
Mablic | |
---|---|
blaw9hpla Plaw Hmaephla | |
Pronunciation | [plàw m̥āpʰlà] |
Region | West, Northwest Nagu |
Ethnicity | Mablic |
Native speakers | 34.2 million Second Language: 5.1 million (2016) |
Language family | Prra-Blen
|
Early forms: | Old Mablic
|
Writing system | Mablic alphabet |
Official status | |
Official language in | Mablag |
Regulated by | Society for the Furthering of the Mablic Language (KTPPH) |
CWS code | mbi |
The Mablic language (Mablic: blaw9hpla, DLRM: plaw hmaephla, IPA: [plàw m̥āpʰlà]) is the Prra-Blen language spoken in Mablag where it is an official language. In 2018, it was spoken as a first language by 34 million, and as a second language by 5 million.
Mablic is a tonal and analytic language, largely monosyllabic, with a subject-verb-object word order. It is somewhat mutually intelligible with Deyab, another Prra-Blen language.
Classification
Mablic belongs to the North Prra-Blen branch of the Prra-Blen languages. Mablic is the most widely spoken of the Prra-Blen languages. Mablic was also the first Prra-Blen language to develop a writing system.
Registers
Mablic is a diglossic language with two distinguishable registers:
- Literary High (H) form (xhbmf1bl<q nhaepmai auploing) the high variety, used in literature (formal writing), newspapers, and formal exchanges
- Spoken Low (L) form (bemhx1bl<q pemaenh auploing) the low variety, used in daily conversation, television, and informal writing
The literary form of Mablic retains archaic words no longer used in the colloquial form. In most cases, the corresponding words in the literary and spoken forms are totally unrelated to each other. Examples of this phenomenon include the following lexical items:
- "I" (pronoun): HIGH b)f prrai → LOW bex penh
- "you" (pronoun): HIGH byaq pyang → LOW c5y chhuuy
- "no" (marker): HIGH debwa tepwa → LOW 9f hmai
- "hey" (interjection): HIGH )iq rring → LOW 2 eu
- "have" (verb): HIGH 7dn>y ietnuiy → LOW b1y pauy
- "speak" (verb): HIGH byhdx6 pyaetnhii → LOW xhg nhaek
- "book" (noun): HIGH k)7blh khrrieplae → LOW p4 phou
- "field" (noun): HIGH blom pleim → LOW dag tak
The following sample sentence reveals that differences between literary and spoken Mablic mostly occur in nouns and verbs:
noun | adjective | noun | part. | det. | conj. | noun | noun | |
Literary (HIGH) |
m6g mig |
pr1x phraunh |
xa nha |
92q hmeung |
br2w preuw |
phq phaeng |
9ubra hmupra |
p3g phiuk |
Spoken (LOW) |
n1y nauy |
&4g hngouk |
pw< phwoi | |||||
Gloss | The market | full | night | classifier | that | because | autumn | harvest |
History
Phonology
Phonemes
Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | ||||||
Plosive | ||||||
Fricative | ||||||
Approximant |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | |||
Mid | |||
Open |