Mori Bawah, also known as Lower Mori or East Mori, is an Austronesian language of the Celebic branch. It is one of the principal languages of the Morowali Regency in Central Sulawesi.
Classification Mori Bawah is classified as a member of the Bungku-Tolaki group of languages, and shares its closest affinities with Bungku and other languages of the eastern seaboard of Sulawesi, such as Wawonii and Kulisusu.Mead, David. 1998. Proto-Bungku-Tolaki: Reconstruction of its phonology and aspects of its morphosyntax. (PhD dissertation, Rice University, 1998), p. 117. Together, Mori Bawah and the Mori Atas language are sometimes referred to collectively by the cover term Mori.
Dialects Mori Bawah comprises several dialects. Following Esser, five dialects can be regarded as principal.Esser, S. J. Phonology and Morphology of Mori, translated from the Dutch version of 1927-1933 (Dallas: SIL, 2011), pp. 2 ff. Tinompo Tiu Moiki Watu Karunsi’e The Tinompo dialect is highest in prestige. Tinompo was the dialect spoken by the indigenous royal class, and in the first half of the twentieth century it was further promoted by colonial authorities as a standard throughout the Mori area, including for Mori Atas and Padoe.
Phonology Mori Bawah has the following sound inventory:
+ Consonants Labial Alveolar Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Fricative Trill Lateral
+ Vowels Front Back Close Close-Mid Open
Only open syllables of the shape V, CV are allowed. Consequently, Mori Bawah is a strictly vowel final-language.
Grammar Pronouns Mori Bawah has seven sets of bound and free pronouns: nominative absolutive possessive independent additive non-future future direct applicative 1.sg. 2.sg. 3.sg. 1.pl.in. 1.pl.ex. 2.pl. 3.pl.
Agreement Core arguments (A: subject of transitive verbs; O: object of transitive verbs, S: subject of intransitive verbs) are not marked for case, but are obligatorily indexed by a pronominal agreement marker on the verb.
With transitive verbs, A is always indexed by a nominative pronoun, and O by an absolutive pronoun.
The indexing of the single argument of intransitive verbs shows split-ergative alignment: S is always indexed by a nominative pronoun in future clauses, and also in imperative, negative and certain other dependent types of non-future clauses. In all other cases, S is indexed by an absolutive pronoun.
Voice Mori Bawah has two valency-reducing voice types, passive voice and antipassive voice.
If a transitive verb is marked for passive voice with the infix <in>, it becomes formally intransitive, and O (the "object") becomes the S-argument. The original A-argument cannot be mentioned at all.
In antipassive voice, the verb takes the prefix poN-. The object can be omitted, or overtly expressed if indefinite; it is however not indexed by a person-indexing pronoun. The original subject of the transitive verb becomes the S-argument in a formally intransitive antipassive clause.
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