Namia language
| Namia | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Namea Rural LLG in Sandaun Province; East Sepik Province |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2007)[1] |
Sepik
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nnm |
| Glottolog | nami1256 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
Namia (Namie, Nemia) is a Sepik language spoken in Namea Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It goes by various names, such as Edawapi, Lujere, Yellow River. Language use is "vigorous" (Ethnologue).
In Sandaun Province, it is spoken in Ameni (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Edwaki, Iwane (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Lawo, Pabei (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), and Panewai villages in Namea Rural LLG, and in the Wiyari area. It is also spoken in 19 villages of Yellow River District in East Sepik Province.[2][3]
Dialects
[edit | edit source]Namie dialect groups are:[4]
- Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Yaru (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), and Norambalip (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.) villages
- Amani: spoken in Augwom (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Iwani (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Pabei (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Panewai, and Tipas (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.) villages
- Wiari: spoken in Alai (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Nami (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Worikori (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Akwom (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), and Naum (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.) villages
- Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Mantopai (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), Yawari (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.), and Aiendami (Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.) villages
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Namia has only 7 phonemic consonants:[5]
Some analyses present /tʃ/ as an eighth phoneme,[6] although its distribution is predictable. [tʃ] and in some cases /r/ are positional variants of /t/, as described in the table below.[5]
| Environment | Phones | Examples | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attested | In variation | Unattested | ||
| # _ | [t], [l] | [t~r] | *[tʃ] | [tip] 'basket', [lip] 'ditch' |
| _ # | [r], [l] | *[t], *[tʃ] | [er] 'we two', [el] 'woman' | |
| [i u] _ | [tʃ], [r], [l] | *[t] | [titʃei] 'stone', [irei] 'digging stick', [ilei] 'name' | |
| [e ə o a] _ | [r], [l] | *[tʃ], *[t] | [ari] 'already', [alu] 'branch' | |
| V _ C V | [r], [l] | *[tʃ], *[t] | [irno] 'face', [ilpok] 'storm front' | |
| V C _ V | [r], [l], [t] | *[tʃ] | [amral] 'width', [amtou] 'red pandanus', [emomle] 'awaken' | |
Word-initially [r] may be heard in place of expected [t] in rapid speech if the previous word ends in a vowel. In no environment do more than three phonemes contrast, meaning that a fourth oral coronal /tʃ/ is not required. [tʃ] only occurs following high vowels /i/ or /u/ (e.g. [putʃwapu] 'lazy') where it can be seen as an allophone of /t/. In most environments only two phonemes contrast, suggesting that /r/ only recently diverged from /t/.
There are 6 vowels in Namia:[6]
The glides [j w] occur as allophones of /i u/, e.g. /iapu/ [japu] 'Sepik river', /uəla/ → [wəla] 'house'.[5]
Grammar
[edit | edit source]Unlike other Sepik languages, Namia has an inclusive-exclusive distinction for the first-person pronoun, which could possibly be due to diffusion from Torricelli languages.[6] Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.
Vocabulary
[edit | edit source]The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005)[7] and Laycock (1968),[8] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[9]
gloss Namia head magu ear mak eye eno nose nəmala; nɨmala tooth pinarɨ; pinarə tongue lar leg liː; lipala louse nanpeu dog ar; ara pig lwae bird eyu egg puna blood norə bone lak skin urarə breast mu tree mi man lu woman ere sun wuluwa moon yem water ijo; ito fire ipi stone lijei name ilei eat (t) one tipia two pəli
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Namia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
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- ^ Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
- ^ Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66.
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