Gumawana | |
---|---|
Gumasi | |
Native to | Papua New Guinea |
Region | Amphlett Islands, Milne Bay Province |
Native speakers | 470 (2000 census) [1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | gvs |
Glottolog | guma1254 |
Gumawana (sometimes also referred to by the exonym Gumasi) is an Austronesian language spoken by people living on the Amphlett Islands of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
Gumawana is an Austronesian language of the North Papuan Mainland-D'Entrecasteaux branch.
Gumawana is spoken by some 470 people in the small Amphlett Islands of Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. The language is spoken on the four inhabited islands of the archipelago: Nubogeta, Gumawana, Omea, and Bituma. [2] Gumawama has been influenced by the nearby Dobu language, and speakers of Gumawana often have knowledge of other neighboring Papuan Tip languages. [2]
Gumawana had three dialects: Nubogeta, Omea, and Bituma. The last speaker of the Omea dialect died in April 1988. The Bituma dialect is very different from the Nubogeta dialect of Nubogeta and Gumawana islands in both syntax and lexicon. [2]
Gumawana has 11 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes. [2]
Bilabial | Labio-Dental | Alveolar | Velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |
Fricative | v | s | ||
Nasal | m | n | ||
Lateral | l |
Olson represents the labio-dental consonant [v] as bilabial [β] in later works, and also includes the palatal approximant [j]. [3]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Syllables have a (C)V structure.
Clauses in Gumawana have a basic order of SOV. Oblique noun phrases occur between the direct object and the verb. [2]
Koloto-ya-di
man-REF-3PL
weniya
dog
si-duduwe
3PL-call.TR
'The men called the dog.'
Mbula is an Austronesian language spoken by around 2,500 people on Umboi Island and Sakar Island in the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. Its basic word order is subject–verb–object; it has a nominative–accusative case-marking strategy.
Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province. Villages include Guma in East Pomio Rural LLG. With such a low population of speakers, this language is considered to be endangered. Sulka speakers had originally migrated to East New Britain from New Ireland.
ʼAuhelawa is an Austronesian language found in Nuakata Island and the southeastern tip of Normanby Island in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It was spoken by about 1,200 people in 1998, 30% of whom were monolingual in the language.
There are three languages spoken in the Torres Strait Islands: two indigenous languages and an English-based creole. The indigenous language spoken mainly in the western and central islands is Kalaw Lagaw Ya, belonging to the Pama–Nyungan languages of the Australian mainland. The other indigenous language spoken mainly in the eastern islands is Meriam Mir: a member of the Trans-Fly languages spoken on the nearby south coast of New Guinea and the only Papuan language spoken on Australian territory. Both languages are agglutinative; however Kalaw Lagaw Ya appears to be undergoing a transition into a declensional language while Meriam Mìr is more clearly agglutinative. Yumplatok, or Torres Strait Creole, the third language, is a non-typical Pacific English Creole and is the main language of communication on the islands.
Bukawa is an Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea.
Biak, also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup of the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.
The Nias language is an Austronesian language spoken on Nias Island and the Batu Islands off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. It is known as Li Niha by its native speakers. It belongs to the Northwest Sumatra–Barrier Islands subgroup which also includes Mentawai and the Batak languages. It had about 770,000 speakers in 2000. There are three main dialects: northern, central and southern. It is an open-syllable language, which means there are no syllable-final consonants.
The Anuki language is an Austronesian language spoken by the Gabobora people along Cape Vogel in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The language was named after a highly respected deity of the people, whose sacred remains now rest in Australia.
Maʼya is an Austronesian language of the Raja Ampat islands in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. It is part of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) subgroup and is spoken by about 6,000 people in coastal villages on the islands Misool, Salawati, and Waigeo, on the boundary between Austronesian and Papuan languages.
Papuan Malay or Irian Malay is a Malay-based creole language spoken in the Indonesian part of New Guinea. It emerged as a contact language among tribes in Indonesian New Guinea for trading and daily communication. Nowadays, it has a growing number of native speakers. More recently, the vernacular of Indonesian Papuans has been influenced by Standard Indonesian, the national standard dialect. It is spoken in Indonesian New Guinea alongside 274 other languages and functions as a lingua franca.
Kei is an Austronesian language spoken in a small region of the Moluccas, a province of Indonesia.
Daga is a non-Austronesian language of Papua New Guinea. Daga is spoken by about 9,000 people as of 2007. The peoples that speak Daga are located in the Rabaraba subdistrict of Milne Bay district, and in the Abau subdistrict of the Central district of Papua New Guinea.
Qaqet, or Baining, is a non-Austronesian language from the Baining family spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Kwoma is a Sepik language of Papua New Guinea also known as Washkuk. The word 'Kwoma' means "hill people". Washkuk is a government name for the people of Kwoma. Linguists have the given the name 'Kwoma' as the primary name of the language, but 'Nukuma' is the specific name for the Northern dialect. Nukuma means people who live along the upper reaches of the Sanchi River. The speakers of Kwoma are located in the Ambunti district of the Sepik River region. There are two dialects known as Kwoma (Washkuk) and Nukuma. The Kwoma dialect or "hill people" is located in the Washkuk Hills which is a range of mountains on the north side of the Sepik. The Nukuma dialect or "headwater people" live to the north and west of the Washkuk range along the Sepik River. Kwoma is considered an endangered language with an estimated 2,925 native speakers worldwide.
Tawala is an Oceanic language of the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by 20,000 people who live in hamlets and small villages on the East Cape peninsula, on the shores of Milne Bay and on areas of the islands of Sideia and Basilaki. There are approximately 40 main centres of population each speaking the same dialect, although through the process of colonisation some centres have gained more prominence than others.
Dobu or Dobuan is an Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It is a lingua franca for 100,000 people in D'Entrecasteaux Islands.
Siar, also known as Lak, Lamassa, or Likkilikki, is an Austronesian language spoken in New Ireland Province in the southern island point of Papua New Guinea. Lak is in the Patpatar-Tolai sub-group, which then falls under the New Ireland-Tolai group in the Western Oceanic language, a sub-group within the Austronesian family. The Siar people keep themselves sustained and nourished by fishing and gardening. The native people call their language ep warwar anun dat, which means 'our language'.
Kakabai is an Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
Iduna is an Austronesian language spoken on Goodenough Island of Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
Sewa Bay, or Duau Pwata, is a dialectically diverse Austronesian language spoken in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands of Papua New Guinea. Its dialects are Miadeba, Bwakera, Maiabare, Darubia, Sewataitai, Sibonai and Central Sewa Bay. It is spoken in Milne Bay province: center of Normanby island, Sewa Bay area.