May River Iwam | |
---|---|
Region | East Sepik Province |
Native speakers | (3,000 cited 1998) [1] |
Sepik
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | iwm |
Glottolog | iwam1256 |
ELP | May River Iwam |
May River Iwam, often simply referred to as Iwam, is a language of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
It is spoken in Iyomempwi ( 4°14′28″S141°53′34″E / 4.24117°S 141.89271°E ), Mowi ( 4°17′42″S141°55′45″E / 4.294971°S 141.929199°E ), and Premai villages of Tunap/Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, and other villages on the May River. [1] [2]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Open | a |
In non-final positions, /u//o/, /i/, and /e/ are [ ʊ ][ ɔ ], [ ɪ ], and [ ɛ ], respectively. /ə/ appears only in nonfinal syllables. When adjacent to nasal consonants, vowels are nasalized; nasalization may also occur when adjacent to word boundaries. [3]
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Plosive | p | t | k | ||
Fricative | s | h | |||
Flap | r | ||||
Semivowel | j | w |
/p/ and /k/ are voiced fricatives ([ β ] and [ ɣ ]) respectively) when intervocalic and unreleased when final (/t/ is also unreleased when final). /ŋ/ is a nasal flap ([ ɾ̃ ]) word-initially and between vowels. /s/ is [ ts ] initially and may otherwise be palatalized [ sʲ ]. [3] Sequences of any consonant and /w/ are neutralized before /u/ where an offglide is always heard.
Bilabial and velar consonants and /n/ may be followed by /w/ when initial. Other initial clusters include /pr/, /kr/, /hr/, /hw/, and /hn/ and final clusters are /w/ or /j/ followed by any consonant except for /h/ or /ŋ/. [3]
May River Iwam pronouns: [4] : 282
sg | du | pl | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ka/ani | kərər | kərəm |
2 | ki | kor | kom |
3m | si | sor | səm |
3f | sa |
Like the Wogamus languages, May River Iwam has five noun classes: [4]
class | semantic category | prefix | example |
---|---|---|---|
class 1 | male human referents | nu- (adult males); ru- (uninitiated or immature males) | yenkam nu-t man class.1-one ‘one man’ |
class 2 | female human, children, or other animate referents | a(o)- | owi a-ois duck class.2-two ‘two ducks’ |
class 3 | large objects | kwu- | ana kwu-(o)t hand class.3-one ‘a big hand’ |
class 4 | small objects | ha- | ana ha-(o)t hand class.4-one ‘a small hand’ |
class 5 | long objects | hwu- | ana hwu-(o)t hand class.5-one ‘a long hand’ |
As shown by the example above for ana ‘hand’, a noun can take on different classes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized.
May river Iwam has four periodic tense suffixes: matutinal -yok, diurnal -harok, postmeridial -tep and nocturnal -wae. [5]
The following basic vocabulary words of Iwam are from Foley (2005) [6] and Laycock (1968), [7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: [8]
gloss | Iwam |
---|---|
head | mu |
ear | wun |
eye | nu |
nose | nomwos |
tooth | piknu |
tongue | kwane |
leg | wərku; wɨrku |
louse | ŋən; nɨn |
dog | nwa |
pig | hu |
bird | owit |
egg | yen |
blood | ni |
bone | keew; kew |
skin | pəw |
breast | muy |
tree | pae(kap); paykap |
man | kam; yen-kam |
woman | wik |
sun | pi |
moon | pwan |
water | op; o(p) |
fire | pay |
stone | siya |
eat | (n)ai; (nd)ai |
one | oe; ruk; su |
two | ŋwis |
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