Musi language
Language from southern Sumatra, Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musi (Basé Musi) is one of the Musi languages spoken natively by the indigenous Musi ethnic group in parts of South Sumatra, Indonesia. It is one of the standard varieties amongst the Musi languages besides the Standard Palembang which natively spoken by its neighbouring Palembang ethnic group in South Sumatra and parts of Bengkulu.[2] Standard Musi initially used as an endonym specific to the Musi variety spoken in the upstream parts of Musi River.[3]
| Musi | |
|---|---|
| Standard Musi | |
| Basé Musi | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | South Sumatra |
| Ethnicity | Musi |
Native speakers | (~600,000 cited 2000 census)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mui |
mui-sek (Sekayu) | |
mui-pel (Penukal) | |
mui-kel (Kelingi) | |
| Glottolog | nucl1812 |
The distribution of Musi lects across southern Sumatra | |
Classification
Based on lexicostatistical analyses, mappings of sound changes, and mutual intelligibility tests, McDowell & Anderbeck (2020) classify Sumatran varieties in southern Sumatra into two dialect groups, namely 1) South Barisan Malay (also called Central Malay or Middle Malay) and 2) Musi. The Musi grouping can be further divided into two clusters: 1) Upper Musi, containing Musi Proper (i.e. the lect referred to as "Musi" in local usage), Rawas, Pegagan, and Col, and 2) Palembang–Lowland, containing Palembang and Lowland subcluster (Belide, Lematang Ilir, and Penesak varieties).[4]
All Upper Musi lects lost Proto-Malayic *h word-medially, including between like vowels, e.g. *dahan > dan 'branch'.[5] As with other Southern Sumatran lects, *r is sometimes reflected as [r] and [ʔ], contrasting with a velar/uvular rhotic. More uniquely, Upper Musi lects evince 1) the loss of initial *r, e.g. *rumah 'house' > umah and *rusa 'deer' > use; 2) the shift of final *-ri > -ray, e.g. *jari 'finger' > jaray and *duri 'thorn' > duray, and 3) the merger of final *-ar, *-ur, and *-ir > -[o(ɰ)], e.g. *akar 'root' > ako, *bibir 'lip' > bibo, and *kapur 'lime' > kapo. The last merger did not happen in Rawas, as it only reflects the *-ar > -o shift. In addition, while most Upper Musi lects shifted final *a > [e], Rawas shifted the vowel to [o].[6]
Musi Proper is spoken throughout parts of Musi Banyuasin and Musi Rawas regencies in South Sumatra. Internally, it can be divided into three subdialects, namely 1) Sekayu, 2) Kelingi, and 3) Penukal, each roughly corresponding to the names of the geographical area where they are spoken.[1][7] Sekayu is spoken in and around the town of Sekayu, Musi Banyuasin, and is the central variety.[8] Kelingi is spoken in parts of Musi Rawas Regency and neighbors the Sindang Kelingi subdialect of Col to the west. Meanwhile, Penukal speech area covers most of Penukal Abab Lematang Ilir Regency, bordering to its south the Lowland lects of Lematang Ilir and Belide, as well as the Highland (Central Malay) lect of Benakat.[1][9][10]
