Tauya language

Last updated
Tauya
Fo'upo
PronunciationFoʔu Po
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Madang Province
Native speakers
(350 cited 1981) [1]
Trans–New Guinea
Language codes
ISO 639-3 tya
Glottolog tauy1241

Tauya (also Inafosa) is a Rai Coast language spoken in the Ramu River valley, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea by approximately 350 people. [2] The Linguistics Department at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, has Tauya language resources.

Contents

Classification

Tauya is closely genetically related to the Biyom Language and is grouped with Tauya in the Rai Coast subgroup. [3] The two languages relate although Biyom is spoken higher up the mountains as they border close to each other and have been found to have some similarities in diction such as the word kaŋgora meaning initiate which was directly borrowed from the Biyom Language. [4] [2] From this it is known that the two languages have had frequent communication as well as intermarriage between the societies. [4]

Phonology

Consonants

Tauya Language Consonants [2]
Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p(b)t(d)k (g)ʔ
Nasal mn
Trill r
Fricative fs
Approximant j
Notes:
  1. b, d, g are considered marginal phonemes and are denoted by parentheses.
  2. kʷ is a labialized- velar consonant in the language
  3. ʔʷ is a labialized glottal stop consonant in the language
  4. w is a voiced labialized-velar approximant consonant in the language

In Tauya, four of the consonants r, k, kʷ,ʔʷ have restrictions to specific parts of word structure. r occurs in the word-medial position of words in the language and k, kʷ occur mostly in the word-initial position. ʔʷ is restricted to the morpheme- initial position. [2]

Vowels

Tauya has five vowels similar to most languages in Papua New Guinea.

Front Central Back
Close iu
Close-mid eo
Open a

e vowel follows many linguistic rules of increasing argument from a lesser clause to a main one. The vowel may change in sound to a sound that is near by, and rounds the lips when in a word. [4] [2]

  1. yate -> yati [2]
    • go

Tauya allows for the diphthongs ai, au, ae, ao, ou, oi (although oi is rare). [5] :87

Grammar

Typology

Tauya is considered a SOV order language as sentences end strictly with a verb. [2]

  1. Niʔisana safe-ra sai ni-pe-i-na [2]
    • Long ago ancestor snake eat
    • Long ago the ancestors ate snakes
  2. Ai ne-pi-ʔa-ra pofa oʔo ʔamai-oʔonou-te-i-na... [2]
    • Sibling firewood pick up-collect get
    • All of her older sisters picked up and collected firewood...

Some exceptions do exist as some are derivative to the SOV and use the verb to carry the meaning.

  1. Pu-pa pu-pa yate ʔatou-ti-a-na... [2]
    • Run run go arrive
    • He ran and ran and went and arrived...

The Tauya language is a suffixing one and in arguments it is verb agreement is primarily used and case marking is secondarily used. Verb agreement is used to mark singular or plural in arguments.

Medial verbs are used to mark subject of a medial clause that is different or the same from verbs in a clause with a relationship to a following clause. [2]

Syllables

Tauya syllable structure consists of an onset consonant of (C)V(V). In plural forms of personal pronouns consonants are the final in morphemes, these ones all have a consonant ending of n as seen in sen. [2] The use of consonant in the ending word is followed by a vowel initial in transitive verbs, impersonal verbs and inalienable nouns. Using them to mark objects, experiencers, and possessors inflecting with ~pi suffix. [2]

Nouns

Consist of personal pronouns, deictic pronouns and full nouns as classes of nouns.

  1. These are determined as classes based on suffixing as personal pronouns within Tauya language with ~na, emphatic, ~nasi, restrictive, and ~ʔunama, too. [2] Deictic pronouns do not use these but full nouns are marked as an inflected pronoun. [2]
  2. Tauya uses 5 dependent locative roots afa~, above, pise~, uphill, ofe~, below, tofe~, downhill, and ma~ are combined with deictic pronouns; but do not work with personal pronouns and full nouns. [2]

Personal pronouns

Differentiated by person and only two numbers occurring in various cases, such as the unmarked absolutive case. Using third person singular, ne personal pronouns can occur with proclitics on transitive or impersonal verbs for marking objects or experiencers and inalienable nouns for possessors. [4]

Personal Pronoun Roots of Tauya
SingularPlural
1st personyasen
2nd Personnaten
3rd Personnenen

Third person singular is used independently while in inalienable nouns third person objects, experiencers, and possessors are unmarked. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madí language</span> Arawan language spoken in Brazil

Madí—also known as Jamamadí after one of its dialects, and also Kapaná or Kanamanti (Canamanti)—is an Arawan language spoken by about 1,000 Jamamadi, Banawá, and Jarawara people scattered over Amazonas, Brazil.

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.

Isaka (I’saka) is the language spoken by the people of the villages of Krisa and Pasi in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It has also been referred to as Krisa, after the village, although this name is not actually a possible word in the language itself. The sole published source for the language is Donohue and San Roque (2004), although the authors of this have also Identified I’saka material in Donald Laycock's unpublished fieldnotes.

The Yimas language is spoken by the Yimas people, who populate the Sepik River Basin region of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken primarily in Yimas village, Karawari Rural LLG, East Sepik Province. It is a member of the Lower-Sepik language family. All 250-300 speakers of Yimas live in two villages along the lower reaches of the Arafundi River, which stems from a tributary of the Sepik River known as the Karawari River.

Numbami is an Austronesian language spoken by about 200 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Siboma village, Paiawa ward, Morobe Rural LLG.

The Wuvulu-Aua language is an Austronesian language which is spoken on the Wuvulu and Aua Islands and in the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea.

Bororo (Borôro), also known as Boe, is the sole surviving language of a small family believed to be part of the Macro-Jê languages. It is spoken by the Bororo, hunters and gatherers in the central Mato Grosso region of Brazil.

Lau, also known as Mala, is an Oceanic language spoken on northeast Malaita, in the Solomon Islands. In 1999, Lau had about 16,937 first-language speakers, with many second-language speakers through Malaitan communities in the Solomon Islands, especially in Honiara.

Abui is a non-Austronesian language of the Alor Archipelago. It is spoken in the central part of Alor Island in Eastern Indonesia, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province by the Abui people. The native name in the Takalelang dialect is Abui tanga which literally translates as 'mountain language'.

Kâte is a Papuan language spoken by about 6,000 people in the Finschhafen District of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is part of the Finisterre–Huon branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family. It was adopted for teaching and mission work among speakers of Papuan languages by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea in the early 1900s and at one time had as many as 80,000 second-language speakers.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duna language</span> Language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Duna is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It may belong to the Trans New Guinea language family and is often further classified as a Duna-Pogaya language, for Bogaya appears to be Duna's closest relative, as evidenced by the similar development of the personal pronouns. Estimates for number of speakers range from 11,000 (1991) to 25,000 (2002).

Maia is a Papuan language spoken in the Madang Province of Papua New Guinea, and is a member of the Trans-New Guinea language family. It has a language endangerment status of 6a, which means that it is a vigorous and sustainable language spoken by all generations. According to a 2000 census, there are approximately 4,500 living speakers of the language, who are split between twenty-two villages in the Almani district of the Bogia sub-district.

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.

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.

Neveʻei, also known as Vinmavis, is an Oceanic language of central Malekula, Vanuatu. There are around 500 primary speakers of Neveʻei and about 750 speakers in total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daakaka language</span> Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu

Daakaka is a native language of Ambrym, Vanuatu. It is spoken by about one thousand speakers in the south-western corner of the island.

Longgu (Logu) is a Southeast Solomonic language of Guadalcanal, but originally from Malaita.

Saliba is an Oceanic language spoken on the islets off the southeastern tip of Papua New Guinea. There are approximately 2,500 speakers of Saliba. Significant documentation of the language was undertaken by the Saliba-Logea documentation project, and hundreds of audio-video resources can be found in the project archive.

References

  1. Tauya at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 MacDonald, Lorna, 1953- (26 June 2013). A dictionary of Tauya. Berlin. ISBN   9781614513360. OCLC   865846762.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. Terrill, A.H. (2007). A. Pawley,Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories off Papuan-speaking peoples Canberra:Pacific Linguistics ,2005 0-85883-562-2. OCLC   1106396784.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 MacDonald, Lorna, 1953- (c. 1990). A grammar of Tauya. Berlin: M. de Gruyter. ISBN   0899257607. OCLC   22422671.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.