Numbami language
Encyclopedia
Numbami is an Austronesian language
spoken by about 300 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province
, Papua New Guinea
. Numbami is a phonologically conservative isolate within the Huon Gulf languages
, and is the last Austronesian language on the south coast of the Huon Gulf
. Its nearest relatives along the coast to the southeast are 270 km away, Maisin
and Arifama-Miniafia in Oro Province
(Northern Province in the former colony of Papua).
The word order
typology of Numbami and the Huon Gulf languages is subject–verb–object (SVO), which is typical of Austronesian languages; while that of Arifama-Miniafia and most of the Papuan Tip languages
is subject–object–verb (SOV), which is typical of Papuan languages
. Maisin has been characterized as a mixed language
, with both Austronesian and Papuan features that obscure its primary heritage, and it is likely (but unprovable) that settlements of Austronesian speakers along the 270 km of coast were gradually absorbed into inland communities speaking Papuan languages.
distinction in the first person) and four numbers (Bradshaw 1982a).
) and four numbers (Bradshaw 1982).
) and two tenses, Nonfuture and Future. (The latter distinction is often characterized as one between Realis and Irrealis mode; see Bradshaw 1993, 1999.)
In most cases, subject prefixes are easily segmentable from verb stems, but in a few very high frequency cases, prefix-final vowels merge with verb-initial vowels to yield irregularly inflected forms, as in the following paradigm: wani (< wa-ani) '1SG-eat', woni (< u-ani) '2SG-eat', weni (< i-ani) '3SG-eat', tani (< ta-ani) '1PLINCL-eat', mani (< ma-ani) '1PLEXCL-eat', moni (< mu-ani) '2PL-eat', teni (< ti-ani) '3PL-eat'.
, the short form of the numeral 'one' functions as an indefinite article.
, Numbami has a system of birth-order names. The seventh son and sixth daughter are called "No Name": Ase Mou 'name none'.
s with distinctive phonology, Numbami is unusual in having a morphological marker for such a class. The suffix -a(n)dala is unique to ideophones but is clearly related to the word andalowa 'path, way, road' (POc *jalan). (See Bradshaw 2006.) In the following examples, acute accents show the placement of word stress.
in Numbami is SVO, with prepositions, preposed genitives, postposed adjectives and relative clauses. Relative clause
s are marked at both ends, and so are some prepositional phrases. Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate. There is also a class of deverbal resultatives that follow the main verb (and its object, if any).
. Subject choice in successive verbs is severely constrained. Noninitial subjects can only refer to preceding subjects, preceding objects, or preceding events or conditions, and only in that order (Bradshaw 1993). Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate.
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
spoken by about 300 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province
Morobe Province
Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital, and largest city, is Lae. The province covers 34,500 km², including 719 km² maritime area, with a population of 539,725...
, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. Numbami is a phonologically conservative isolate within the Huon Gulf languages
Huon Gulf languages
The thirty Huon Gulf languages of Papua New Guinea may form a group of the North New Guinea languages, perhaps within the Ngero–Vitiaz branch of that family.-Classification:...
, and is the last Austronesian language on the south coast of the Huon Gulf
Huon Gulf
Huon Gulf is a large gulf in eastern Papua New Guinea, at . It is bordered by Huon Peninsula in the north. Both are named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. Huon Gulf is a part of the Solomon Sea. Lae, capital of the Morobe Province is located on the northern coast of the...
. Its nearest relatives along the coast to the southeast are 270 km away, Maisin
Maisin language
Maisin is a language of Papua New Guinea with both Austronesian and Papuan features. The Austronesian elements are those of the Nuclear Papuan Tip languages. The Papuan element is Binanderean or Dagan...
and Arifama-Miniafia in Oro Province
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly Northern Province, is a coastal province of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The province covers 22,800 km², and has 133,065 inhabitants ....
(Northern Province in the former colony of Papua).
The word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
typology of Numbami and the Huon Gulf languages is subject–verb–object (SVO), which is typical of Austronesian languages; while that of Arifama-Miniafia and most of the Papuan Tip languages
Papuan Tip languages
-Languages:A 2008 analysis of the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database fully supported the unity of the Papuan Tip languages.The analysis included the Central Papuan Tip languages Magori, Motu, and Mekeo; Kilivila; and several "Nuclear Papuan Tip" languages. Neither traditional Nuclear Papuan Tip...
is subject–object–verb (SOV), which is typical of Papuan languages
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...
. Maisin has been characterized as a mixed language
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
, with both Austronesian and Papuan features that obscure its primary heritage, and it is likely (but unprovable) that settlements of Austronesian speakers along the 270 km of coast were gradually absorbed into inland communities speaking Papuan languages.
Phonology
Numbami distinguishes 5 vowels and 18 consonants. Voiceless /s/ is a fricative, but its voiced and prenasalized equivalents are affricated, varying between more alveolar [(n)dz] and more palatalized [(n)dʒ]. The liquid /l/ is usually rendered as a flap [ɾ]. The labial approximant is slightly fricative, tending toward [β], when followed by front vowels.Vowels (orthographic)
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e | o | |
| Low | a |
Consonants (orthographic)
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Alveopalatal | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | p | t | s | k |
| Voiced | b | d | z | g |
| Prenasalized Prenasalized consonant Prenasalized consonants are phonetic sequences of a nasal and an obstruent that behave phonologically like single consonants. The reasons for considering these sequences to be single consonants is in their behavior, not in their actual composition... |
-mb- | -nd- | -nz- | -ŋg- |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ŋ | |
| Liquid Liquid consonant In phonetics, liquids or liquid consonants are a class of consonants consisting of lateral consonants together with rhotics.-Description:... |
l | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | y | ||
Obstruent harmony
Prenasalized obstruents only occur in medial position, where the distinction between oral and prenasalized voiced obstruents is somewhat predictable. Medial voiced obstruents are statistically far more likely to be oral in words beginning with oral voiced obstruents, while they are far more likely to be prenasalized in words beginning with anything else. If denasalization of voiced obstruents is an ongoing change, one can track its progress through different lexical environments: it is 100% complete in word-initial position (as in bola 'pig' and buwa 'areca nut'), 80% complete in the middle of words beginning with voiced obstruents (as in bada 'market' and dabola 'head' vs. zanzami 'driftwood'), 35% complete in the middle of words beginning with approximants or vowels (as in ababa 'crosswise' vs. ambamba 'handdrum' and waŋga 'canoe'), not quite 20% complete in words beginning with voiceless obstruents (as in kaze 'left side' vs. kaimbombo 'butterfly' and pindipanda 'flea'), not quite 5% complete in words beginning with nasals (as in nomba 'thing' and -mande 'to die'), and not attested at all in words beginning with liquids (as in lenda 'nit' and lindami 'lime spatula'). (See Bradshaw 1978a.)Morphology
Although Numbami is phonologically conservative, it retains very little productive morphology, most of it related to person and number marking.Free pronouns
Free pronouns occur in the same positions as subject or object nouns. They distinguish three persons (with a clusivityClusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
distinction in the first person) and four numbers (Bradshaw 1982a).
| Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
Singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Paucal Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | aita | atuwa | aito | |
| 1st person exclusive | woya | i | ilu(wa) | ito |
| 2nd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
aiya | amu | amula | amuto |
| 3rd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
e | ai | alu(wa) | aito |
Genitive pronouns
Genitive pronouns also distinguish three persons (plus clusivityClusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
) and four numbers (Bradshaw 1982).
| Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
Singular Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Plural Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Dual Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
Paucal Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | aita-ndi | atuwa-ndi | aito-tandi | |
| 1st person exclusive | na-ŋgi | i-na-mi | ilu(wa)-mandi | ito-mandi |
| 2nd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
a-na-mi | amu-ndi | amula-mundi | amuto-mundi |
| 3rd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
e-na | ai-ndi | aluwa-ndi | aito-ndi |
Subject prefixes
Verbs are marked with subject prefixes that distinguish three persons (plus clusivityClusivity
In linguistics, clusivity is a distinction between inclusive and exclusive first-person pronouns and verbal morphology, also called inclusive "we" and exclusive "we"...
) and two tenses, Nonfuture and Future. (The latter distinction is often characterized as one between Realis and Irrealis mode; see Bradshaw 1993, 1999.)
| Person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
Sing. Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... Nonf. Grammatical tense A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:... |
Plur. Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... Nonf. Grammatical tense A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:... |
Sing. Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... Fut. Grammatical tense A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:... |
Plur. Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... Fut. Grammatical tense A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:... |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | ta- | tana- | ||
| 1st person exclusive | wa- | ma- | na- | mana- |
| 2nd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
u- | mu- | nu- | muna- |
| 3rd person Grammatical person Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns... |
i- | ti- | ni- | ina- |
In most cases, subject prefixes are easily segmentable from verb stems, but in a few very high frequency cases, prefix-final vowels merge with verb-initial vowels to yield irregularly inflected forms, as in the following paradigm: wani (< wa-ani) '1SG-eat', woni (< u-ani) '2SG-eat', weni (< i-ani) '3SG-eat', tani (< ta-ani) '1PLINCL-eat', mani (< ma-ani) '1PLEXCL-eat', moni (< mu-ani) '2PL-eat', teni (< ti-ani) '3PL-eat'.
Numerals
Traditional Numbami counting practices started with the digits of the left hand, then continued on the right hand and then the feet, to reach '20', which translates as 'one person'. Higher numbers are multiples of 'one person'. Nowadays, most counting above '5' is done in Tok Pisin. As in other Huon Gulf languagesHuon Gulf languages
The thirty Huon Gulf languages of Papua New Guinea may form a group of the North New Guinea languages, perhaps within the Ngero–Vitiaz branch of that family.-Classification:...
, the short form of the numeral 'one' functions as an indefinite article.
| Numeral Numeral system A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numbers, that is a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner.... |
Term | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | sesemi / te | 'one' |
| 2 | luwa | 'two' |
| 3 | toli | 'three' |
| 4 | wata | 'four' |
| 5 | nima teula | 'hands half/part' |
| 6 | nima teula ano sesemi | 'hands half right one' |
| 7 | nima teula ano luwa | 'hands half right two' |
| 8 | nima teula ano toli | 'hands half right three' |
| 9 | nima teula ano wata | 'hands half right four' |
| 10 | nima besuwa | 'hands both/pair' |
| 20 | tamota te | 'person one' |
Names
Like many other Huon Gulf languagesHuon Gulf languages
The thirty Huon Gulf languages of Papua New Guinea may form a group of the North New Guinea languages, perhaps within the Ngero–Vitiaz branch of that family.-Classification:...
, Numbami has a system of birth-order names. The seventh son and sixth daughter are called "No Name": Ase Mou 'name none'.
| Birth order | Sons | Daughters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alisa | Kale |
| 2 | Aliŋa | Aga |
| 3 | Gae | Aya |
| 4 | Alu | Damiya |
| 5 | Sele | Owiya |
| 6 | Dei | Ase Mou |
| 7 | Ase Mou |
Ideophones
Although many languages have a class of ideophoneIdeophone
Ideophones are words used by speakers to evoke a vivid impression of certain sensation or sensory perceptions, e.g. smell, color, shape, sound, action, or movement. Ideophones are attested in all languages of the world, however, languages differ in the extent to which they make use of them...
s with distinctive phonology, Numbami is unusual in having a morphological marker for such a class. The suffix -a(n)dala is unique to ideophones but is clearly related to the word andalowa 'path, way, road' (POc *jalan). (See Bradshaw 2006.) In the following examples, acute accents show the placement of word stress.
- bái-andala 'overcast, clouded over'
- dendende-ándala 'shivering'
- golópu-adala 'slipping or dripping through'
- kí-andala 'scorching, parched'
- paká-adala 'getting light, flashing on, popping'
- pilipíli-adala 'flapping, fluttering'
- sí-andala 'shooting up, springing away'
- sulúku-adala 'sucking, slurping'
- taká-adala 'stuck fast, planted firmly'
- tíki-adala 'going dark'
Word order
The basic word orderWord order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
in Numbami is SVO, with prepositions, preposed genitives, postposed adjectives and relative clauses. Relative clause
Relative clause
A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the man who wasn't there" contains the noun man, which is modified by the relative clause who wasn't there...
s are marked at both ends, and so are some prepositional phrases. Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate. There is also a class of deverbal resultatives that follow the main verb (and its object, if any).
| alu | ti- | lapa | bola | uni | |
| 3DU | 3PL | hit | pig | dead |
- 'The two of them killed a pig.'
| naŋgi | gode | i- | loŋoni | biŋa | Numbami | kote | |
| GEN1SG | cousin | 3SG | hear | talk | Numbami | not |
- 'My cross-cousin doesn't understand Numbami.'
| ma- | ki | bani | manu | ma- | yaki | na | su | ulaŋa | |
| 1PLEXCL | put | food | which | 1PLEXCL | pare | REL | into | pot |
- 'We (excl.) put the food we've pared into the pot.'
Possessive vs. attributive genitives
Two kinds of genitive modifiers precede their heads while one type follows its head noun (Bradshaw 1982a).Whole-part genitives
Noun-noun phrases denoting wholes and parts occur in the order stated, with the latter serving as head of the phrase: wuwu lau 'betel pepper leaf', tina daba 'headwater', nima daba (lit. 'hand head') 'thumb', kapala lalo (lit. 'house inside') 'indoors', Buzina bubusu 'Buzina (Salamaua) point'.Possessive genitives
Genitive possessor nouns precede their head nouns, with an intervening possessive marker that distinguishes singular (na) from plural (ndi) possessors: wuwu na lau 'the leaves of the (generic) betel pepper plant; particular betel pepper plant's leaf'; kapala na lalo 'the insides of (generic) houses; the inside of a particular house'; Siasi ndi gutu 'the Siassi Islands; islands belonging to a particular group of Siassi people'; bumewe ndi bani 'food typically eaten by whites; food belonging to a particular group of whites'.Attributive genitives
Attributive genitives resemble possessive genitives except that (1) the modifiers follow their heads, and (2) the "possessors" are nonreferential except in a generic sense, that is, they "never refer to a particular subset of the set they name" (Bradshaw 1982a:128): wuwu weni na 'forest (wild) betel pepper', wuwu Buzina ndi 'type of betel pepper associated with the Buzina people at Salamaua', walabeŋa tamtamoŋa na 'fish poison, native means of stunning fish', walabeŋa bumewe na 'explosives, European means of stunning fish'.Verb serialization
Verb serialization is very common in Numbami. Within a serial verb construction, all verbs must agree in tenseGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
. Subject choice in successive verbs is severely constrained. Noninitial subjects can only refer to preceding subjects, preceding objects, or preceding events or conditions, and only in that order (Bradshaw 1993). Negatives come at the ends of the clauses they negate.
| tako, | ma- | woti | ma- | ma | ma- | ŋgewe | bani | |
| enough | 1PLEXCL | descend | 1PLEXCL | come | 1PLEXCL | carry | food |
- 'Okay, we come back down carrying food.'
| aiya | nu- | kole | nu- | ŋgo | biŋa | de | woya | kote | |
| 2SG | FUT2SG | turn | FUT2SG | say | word | to | 1SG | not |
- 'Don't you turn around and talk to me.'
| ina- | ki | damu | ni- | nzeka | kundu | |
| FUT3PL | put | dry.frond | FUT3SG | lie.upon | sago.starch |
- 'They'll put dry fronds on top of the sago starch.'
| wa | aiya | nu- | ki | yawi | ni- | soloŋa | |
| and | 2SG | FUT2SG | put | fire | FUT3SG | enter |
- 'And you'll set it afire.'
| woya | wa- | yoŋgo | aiya | i- | muŋga | ||
| 1SG | 1SG | see | 2SG | 3SG | precede |
- 'I saw you first.'
| takalama | iluwa | ma- | yoŋgo | ata | i- | wete | -ma | kote | |
| today | 1DUEXCL | 1PLEXCL | see | self | 3SG | count | ADV | not |
- 'Nowadays, we two don't see each other very regularly.'