| Pouye | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Sandaun Province |
Native speakers | 960 (2003) [1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | bye |
| Glottolog | pouy1238 |
| ELP | Pouye |
Pouye (Bouye) is a language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, by a thousand people, and growing. It is spoken in the seven villages of Bulawa ( 3°39′57″S142°00′52″E / 3.665801°S 142.014408°E ), Kiliauto, Komtin, Maurom ( 3°40′59″S141°50′50″E / 3.683154°S 141.847269°E ), Wokien ( 3°41′52″S141°57′28″E / 3.697824°S 141.957815°E ), Wulme, and Yukilau ( 3°40′42″S141°55′32″E / 3.678344°S 141.925477°E ), which are mostly located within East Wapei Rural LLG. [1] [2]
A grammar of the Pouye language is published here: https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/62023
This description follows Dede & Reuter (2011). [3]
Pouye has 12 consonants, of which three have constrastive secondary articulations (labialisation or palatalisation).
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| labialised | plain | palatalised | labialised | plain | |||
| Plosive | /p/ | /tʷ/ | /t/ | /tʲ/ | /kʷ/ | /k/ | |
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | |||||
| Trill | /r/ | ||||||
| Approximant | /l/ | /j/ | /w/ | ||||
A fairly large nine-vowel inventory is also seen:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ | /ɨ/ | /u/ |
| Near-close | /ɪ/ | ||
| Close-mid | /e/ | /o/ | |
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ | /ə/ | |
| Open | /a/ |
In addition there are seven diphthongs /au̯ əu̯ ou̯ ai̯ əi̯ ei̯ ɪi̯/ which act as discrete vowel units.
The trial orthography is as in the IPA except for /tʷ tʲ kʷ j/ which are tw ty kw y and the vowels /ɨ ɪ ɛ ə/ which are i i e a. This causes ambiguity between /i ɨ ɪ/, /e ɛ/ or /a ə/ although the functional load on these contrasts is low.
Pouye allows maximally two consonants in a syllable onset and one consonant in the coda. The nucleus may be a single vowel or diphthong, but although CVVC and CCVC syllables are permitted, CCVVC syllables are unattested. Complex onsets may be maximally a plosive plus a trill or approximant, or the sequence /kt/, for instance in /kin.kti/ "small" (no other two-plosive sequences occur).
Stress is generally placed on the penultimate syllable, although exceptions do occur (/wɨlˈou̯k/ "snake") and if the penult is /wɨ/ or /wo/ the stress is pushed leftwards (/ˈka.wo.wi/ "white").
Several morphophonemic alternations occur in Pouye, both within phonological words and across word boundaries.
The nominal object marker -rɨ loses its initial consonant following /r/ or /l/ or a monosyllable ending in /n/:
/jar-rɨ/ → [jarɨ] who-OBJ "whom"
/pol-rɨ/ → [polɨ] Paul-OBJ "Paul"
/wan-rɨ/ → [wanɨ] 1SG-OBJ "me"
Compare /wəlou̯k-rɨ/ → [wəlou̯krɨ] snake-OBJ. Similarly, the locative marker -ru is realised as [u] in fast speech following any plain alveolar consonant (/n l r t/).
/tɨlpan-ru/ → [tɨlpanu] palm.floor-LOC "on the floor"
/tau̯ wai̯l-ru/ → [tau̯ wai̯lu] tree tree.keel-LOC "on the tree keel"
/jɪprar-ru/ → [jɪpraru] chicken-LOC "on the chicken"
/pɨrɨt-ru/ → [pɨrɨtu] ground-LOC "on the ground"
Compare /ləu̯-ru/ → [ləu̯ru] house-LOC "to the house/village".
When concatenation of morphemes would produce a sequence of two identical plosives, /ɨ/ is inserted between them epenthetically.
/t-tɪnri-ke-nɨn-a/ → [tɨtInrikenɨn]
R-revenge-PRF-PAS-awhile
"Had had revenge"
Likewise /ɨ/ is inserted to prevent the formation of non-permissible consonant sequences, i.e. sequences of three consonants where the last two do not form a valid onset as described above, or two such consonants word-initially.
/wilau̯k-mta/ → [wilau̯kɨmta] good-INT "great" /n-kɨ/ → [nɨkɨ] IMP-get "get it!"
Compare for instance /nam-ki/ → [namki] 1P-ACP "with us", where the sequence /mk/ appears intervocalically and can be syllabified to two distinct syllables without requiring epenthesis.
Two identical nasals, trills or laterals (/mm nn rr ll/) degeminate when brought together.
/t-ətɨn-nɨn/ → [tətɨnɨn] R-sew-PAS "has sewn" /t-ɪl-lai̯/ → [tɪlai̯] R-weave-CONT "weaving"
With the imperative prefix n-, epenthesis occurs prior to this rule, meaning that imperatives remain distinct.
/n-nək/ → [nɨnək] IMP-hold "hold!" *[nək]
Between two vowels at morpheme boundaries, a non-lateral approximant is inserted. Following /i ɨ ɪ e ɛ/, /j/ is inserted, and following /u o ə a/, /w/ is inserted.
/t-ake-ɨr/ → [takejɨr] R-see-around "look round" /ra-lə-atʲɨ/ → [raləwatʲɨ] REP-down-come "come down again"
In exception to this rule, the hortative prefix pa- inserts /l/ before a vowel.
/pa-i-nɨm/ → [palinɨm] HRT-go-P "let's go" *[pawinɨm]
Note also the exception described below.
The low vowel /a/ is deleted before /e/ or /ɛ/ over morpheme boundaries.
/t-ja-ɛj-ɨr-wɨt/ → [tʲejɨrwɨt]
R-up-COM-with-stand
"Come up and stand with"
The suffix -wo "only" is reduced to -o in penultimate position, i.e. when followed by another single monosyllabic suffix. This prevents stress shifting leftwards.
/wan-wo-kʷɨ/ → [waˈnokʷɨ] 1S-only-POS "my/mine only"
Compare /wan-wo/ → [ˈwanwo] 1SG-only "I only" or /kʷ-atu-wo-ke-nɨn/ → [kʷatuwoˈkenɨn] QCK-hang.up-up-PRF-PAS "quickly hung up (sth.) and left", in which cases wo would not be stressed normally anyway.
When the prefixes na- (potential) or ya- (negative) precede the realis prefix t-, and this sequence precedes a morpheme beginning with a plosive, the realis prefix becomes r- via dissimilation of manner with the following plosive.
/ya-t-patɨ-tamu/ → [yarpatɨtamu]
NEG-R-twist-break
"Didn‘t break"
With compound words, vowel harmony causes the open vowel /a/ in the first element to raise to /ə/ in the second element.
/mau̯-ləu̯/ → [məu̯ləu̯] bush-house "bush-house"
The alveolar plosive /t/ is inserted at the end of a word when the following word begins with /m/. If the first word already ends in /t/, then additional epenthesis of /ɨ/ occurs.
/pa-ki me/ → [pakit me] FCS-TMP say "then said" /lot mei̯pɨr-ke/ → [lotɨt mei̯pɨrke] Lot laugh-PRF "Lot laughed"
This and the following rule occur over word boundaries, as opposed to the previous rules which are all word-internal processes.
The trill /r/ is also deleted in fast speech in the word riyɨ "now" when the previous word ends in /n/.
/ja-t-i-nɨn rijɨ/ → [jatinɨn ͜ ijɨ] NEG-R-go-PAS now "still has not gone"
Pouye has borrowed a number of words from the lingua franca Tok Pisin. In these words the phonemes /b d ɡ v s/ can be retained, e.g. /sevenpela/ "seven" (cf. native /jilɨkalikir/). Morphophonemic rules generally apply to these words, and the trill deletion rule described above extends its environment to following /s/ as well:
/barnabas-rɨ/ → [barnabasɨ] Barnabas-OBJ "Barnabas"
Note the loan phonemes /b/ and /s/.
