Namia language
| Namia | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Namea Rural LLG in Sandaun Province; East Sepik Province |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2007) |
Sepik
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nnm |
| Glottolog | nami1256 |
| ELP | Namia |
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 (3°58′54″S 141°45′58″E / 3.981559°S 141.766186°E), Edwaki, Iwane (3°54′24″S 141°45′20″E / 3.906643°S 141.755439°E), Lawo, Pabei (3°55′37″S 141°46′35″E / 3.927006°S 141.776325°E), 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.
Dialects
Namie dialect groups are:
- Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (3°52′14″S 141°48′02″E / 3.870583°S 141.800527°E), Yaru (3°51′18″S 141°48′09″E / 3.85512°S 141.802378°E), and Norambalip (3°48′51″S 141°49′42″E / 3.814045°S 141.828438°E) villages
- Amani: spoken in Augwom (3°59′34″S 141°43′01″E / 3.99286°S 141.716817°E), Iwani (3°54′24″S 141°45′20″E / 3.906643°S 141.755439°E), Pabei (3°55′37″S 141°46′35″E / 3.927006°S 141.776325°E), Panewai, and Tipas (3°58′54″S 141°45′58″E / 3.981559°S 141.766186°E) villages
- Wiari: spoken in Alai (3°54′39″S 141°47′49″E / 3.910948°S 141.797074°E), Nami (3°53′48″S 141°52′46″E / 3.896557°S 141.879322°E), Worikori (3°55′25″S 141°52′45″E / 3.923558°S 141.879066°E), Akwom (3°56′19″S 141°49′59″E / 3.938724°S 141.833174°E), and Naum (3°55′25″S 141°50′00″E / 3.923731°S 141.833466°E) villages
- Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (3°51′31″S 141°44′39″E / 3.858705°S 141.744059°E), Mantopai (3°42′31″S 141°41′55″E / 3.708668°S 141.698706°E), Yawari (3°40′34″S 141°43′45″E / 3.676068°S 141.729295°E), and Aiendami (3°56′40″S 141°48′24″E / 3.944326°S 141.806744°E) villages
Phonology
Namia has only 7 phonemic consonants:
Some analyses present /tʃ/ as an eighth phoneme, although its distribution is predictable. [tʃ] and in some cases /r/ are positional variants of /t/, as described in the table below.
| 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:
The glides [j w] occur as allophones of /i u/, e.g. /iapu/ [japu] 'Sepik river', /uəla/ → [wəla] 'house'.
Grammar
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. Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005) and Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
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
- ↑ Namia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ↑ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- ↑ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ↑ Steer, Martin (2005). Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-10-22. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
- 1 2 3 Feldpausch, Becky; Feldpausch, Tom (2009). Phonology essentials of the Namia language. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- 1 2 3 Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
| Authority control databases: National |
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