Arapesh languages

Last updated
Arapesh
Ethnicity Arapesh people
Geographic
distribution
eastern Sandaun Province and northern East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classification Torricelli
  • Arapesh
Subdivisions
Glottolog arap1279
Torricelli languages map.svg
The Torricelli languages as classified by Foley (2018)

The Arapesh languages are several closely related Torricelli languages of the 32,000 Arapesh people of Papua New Guinea. They are spoken in eastern Sandaun Province and northern East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.

Contents

The Arapesh languages are among the better-studied of Papuan languages and are most distinctive in their gender systems, which contain up to thirteen genders (noun classes) with noun-phrase concordance. Mufian, for example, has 17 noun classes for count nouns plus two extra noun classes, i.e. proper names and place names. [1] (See that article for examples.)

Phonology

The most notable feature of the Arapesh phoneme inventory is the use of labialization as a contrastive device.

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain labialized plain labialized
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop voiceless t k
voiced d ɡ ɡʷ
Fricative s h
Flap ɾ
Lateral l

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e ə o
Low a

Arapesh syllables have the structure (C)V(V)(C), though monosyllables always contain coda consonants.

Higher central vowels /ɨ ə/ sometimes break up consonant clusters in the middle of words.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Arapesh and other related Torricelli languages: [2]

KombioMountain
Arapesh
Southern
Arapesh
UrimUratAruopKayik
1SGapmyek~eikaeʔkupmŋamamkəmex
2SGyiknɲak~ɲekinəʔkitnninyikiyox
3SGkɨlənan~naniənənkilkindintəno
1PLan(t)okok~kwakwiapəmenpoimendikupox

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database. [3]

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. bʌrʌkʰa, berag for “head”) or not (e.g. ɛligʌ, atah for “ear”).

gloss Abu' Arapesh [4] Bukiyip [5]
headbʌrʌkʰaberag
hairbʌrʌkʰa
earɛligʌatah
eyeŋʌimnabep
nosemutu
toothnʌluhnau̥h̥
tongueʌhʌkʌjaham
legburʔahaijag
lousenumunʌl
dognubʌtnybat
pigbul
birdʌlimilaramir
eggʌlhuʌbjuhuryb
bloodusibɛlausibør
bonepisitʌnʌgelbøløpigør
skinbeni'kohjageniu̥h̥
breastnumʌb
treelʌ·wʌklawag
manʌʔlemʌnaraman
womannumʌtoara- matoku
sunuʔwʌhaun
moon'ʌ'unaun
waterʌbʌlbør
fireunihnih̥
stoneutʌmutom
road, pathiʌh
nameɛigil
eat'nʌsʌh
oneetin
twobiəsbium

Grammar

Recent shifts have moved Arapesh languages from the typical Papuan SOV to a SVO order, along with a corresponding shift in adpositional order. Most modifiers usually precede the noun, though as a result of changes in word order genitives and nouns do not have a fixed order.

The language's unique gender system is largely based on the ending of the noun. There are cognate pairings of each gender for singular and plural numbers. The whole gender system, unlike most of the comparable complexity in Niger–Congo languages, is sex-based: Gender IV is for all female beings and Gender VII for male ones. Arapesh culture forbids the use of personal names, so that kinship nouns are used extensively to address even intimate relatives.

Arapesh languages also have a system of verbal nouns: there by default belong to gender VIII.

Gender agreement, along with that for person and number, occurs with all adjectives, numerals and interrogative pronouns and the subject and object of verbs. Verbs in Arapesh languages are inflected by means of prefixes. The basic template for this inflection is the order SUBJECT-MOOD-ROOT.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torricelli languages</span> Language family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mairasi languages</span> Family of Papuan languages

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepik languages</span> Papuan language family

The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.

The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm's Sepik–Ramu proposal. However, Foley and Ross could find no lexical or morphological evidence that they are related to the Sepik or Ramu languages.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tama languages</span> Small family of languages of northern Papua New Guinea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ram languages</span> Language family spoken in Papua New Guinea

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Mehek is a Tama language spoken by about 6300 people in a somewhat mountainous area along the southern base of the Torricelli Mountains in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Mehek is spoken in six villages of Sandaun Province: Nuku, Yiminum, Mansuku, Yifkindu, Wilwil, and Kafle. Mehek is most closely related to Pahi, with 51% lexical similarity, and spoken approximately 20 kilometers to the southwest. Mehek is a fairly typical Papuan language, being verb-final, having a relatively simple phonology, and agglutinative morphology. There is very little published information about Mehek. The literacy rate in Tok Pisin, spoken by nearly everyone, is 50-75%. Mehek is not written, so there is no literacy in Mehek. Tok Pisin is primarily used in the schools, with 50% children attending. There is also a sign language used by the large number of deaf people in the Mehek community.

Kiwai is a Papuan language, or languages, of southern Papua New Guinea. Dialects number 1,300 Kope, 700 Gibaio, 1,700 Urama, 700 Arigibi, 3,800 Coast, 1,000 Daru, 4,500 Island, 400 Doumori. Wurm and Hattori (1981) classify Arigibi as a separate language.

Bukiyip (Bukiyúp), or Mountain Arapesh, is an Arapesh language (Torricelli) spoken by around 16,000 people between Yangoru and Maprik in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Bukiyip follows the SVO typology. The Arapesh languages are known for their complex noun-phrase agreement system.

Mufian, or Southern Arapesh, is an Arapesh language (Torricelli) of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Supari, Balif, Filifita (Ilahita), Iwam-Nagalemb, Nagipaem; Filifita speakers are half the population, at 6,000 in 1999. It is spoken in 36 villages, most of which are located within Bumbita-Muhian Rural LLG, East Sepik Province. It is also spoken in Supari ward of Albiges-Mablep Rural LLG.

Grass Koiari (Koiali) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the inland Port Moresby area. It is not very close to the other language which shares its name, Mountain Koiali. It is considered a threatened language.

The Wogamus languages are a pair of closely related languages,

References

  1. Alungum, John; Conrad, Robert J.; Lukas, Joshua (1978). "Some Muhiang Grammatical Notes". In Loving, Richard (ed.). Miscellaneous Papers on Dobu and Arapesh. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 89–130.
  2. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "Language Family: Torricelli". TransNewGuinea.org. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  4. Summer Institute of Linguistics Language Survey of Abu, 1975.
  5. Laycock, D. C. (1968). "Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea". Oceanic Linguistics. 7 (1): 36–66. doi:10.2307/3622846. JSTOR   3622846.

Further reading