Massep language
| Massep | |
|---|---|
| Wotaf | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Papua: Sarmi Regency, West Pantai District, north coast (Masep village); also west of Sarmi near Apauwer River |
| Ethnicity | 85 (2000)[1] |
Native speakers | (25 cited 2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mvs |
| Glottolog | mass1263 |
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Massep (Masep, Potafa, Wotaf) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by fewer than 50 people in the single village of Masep in West Pantai District, Sarmi Regency, Papua. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous. It is surrounded by the Kwerba languages Airoran and Samarokena.[2]
Classification
[edit | edit source]Clouse, Donohue, and Ma (2002) did not notice connections to any other language family.[3] Ethnologue, Glottolog, and Foley (2018)[2] list it as a language isolate.[1][4] Usher classifies it as Greater Kwerbic.[5] The pronouns are not dissimilar from those of Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Consonants:[2]
t c k kʷ ᵑɡ ɸ s ʃ β ɣ m n ɲ r w j
Some probable consonant leniting sound changes from pre-Massep proposed by Foley (2018):
- *p > ɸ
- *b > β
- *d > r
- *k > ɣ (perhaps partially)
Vowels:[2]
i u e o a
Pronouns
[edit | edit source]Pronouns are:[2]
sg pl 1 ka nyi 2 gu je 3 evi ive
Morphology
[edit | edit source]Massep case suffixes as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[2][3]
suffix case -o ~ -u ~ -a accusative -ɣoke dative -aveno instrumental -meno associative -(a)vri locative -ni allative -a temporal
Sentences
[edit | edit source]Massep sentences as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[2]
ka
1SG
icin-o
stone-ACC
fartasi
throw
unu-ɣoke
dog-DAT
‘I threw a stone at the dog.’
je
2PL
saremna
sit
yaf-avri
house-LOC
‘You (pl.) sat in the house.’
gu
2SG
ko-war-emon
1SG.OBJ-see-SG.TNS
‘You see me.’
Word order is SOV.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c Massep at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
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- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Usher, Timothy. West Foja Range. New Guinea World.
External links
[edit | edit source]
- Timothy Usher & Mark Donohue, Masep, New Guinea World