| Kunimaipa | |
|---|---|
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
| Ethnicity | incl. Biangai |
Native speakers | (14,000 cited 1978–2000)[1] |
Trans-New Guinea
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:kup – Kunimaipawer – Weri + Amambig – Biangai |
| Glottolog | kuni1267 Kunimaipaweri1254 Wericbian1252 Biangai |
Kunimaipa is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. The varieties are divergent, on the verge of being distinct languages, and have separate literary traditions.
Phonemes
[edit]| Bilabial | Coronal | Retroflex | Velar | Uvular | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | |||
| Occlusive | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | d̪ ⟨d⟩ | ɡ ⟨g⟩ | ɢ ⟨h⟩ | ||
| Continuant | voiceless | s | ||||
| voiced | β̞ ⟨v⟩ | z | ||||
| Liquid | l | ɽ ⟨r⟩ | ||||
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| High | i | u |
| Mid | e | ʊ ⟨o⟩ |
| Low | a ⟨a⟩ |
Morphophonemics
[edit]Each stem that ends with has three kinds of allomorphs: , , and . Allomorphs end with in a word finally or before a syllable with . It is the most common ending. ending appears before syllables with , , or . ending appears before syllable with or . All of above holds true, except the ending syllable before . In the general morphophonemic rule, ending an appears before syllable with a. In the case of , o appears before the syllable with a. For example, the sentence so-ma, meaning ‘I will go.’[2]
Words
[edit]Source:[2]
Word classes that are usually not suffixed are responses, exclamations, attention particles, vocative particles, conjunctions, names, and particles. Responses are short replies on a conversation; such as, 'okay', 'yes', 'yes', 'no'. Exclamations is usually occurs on sentence boundary; such as, 'surprise', 'mistake', 'regret', and 'dislike'. Attention particles are only used on reported speech; such as, 'call to come', 'attention getter', and 'attention getter -close'. Vocative particles are beginning of addresses in sentence boundary; such as, 'hey, woman', 'hey, man', 'hey, children', and 'uncle'. Conjunctions are links in "phrases, clauses, and sentences"; such as, 'and, but, then', 'or, and', 'therefore', and 'but, then'. Names label person, place, days, and months; such as, , 'on Monday', and on Thursday'. Lastly, one particles that is used in introducing a quote is never suffixed, meaning 'reply'.
Suffixed or non-suffixed
[edit]Word classes including adjectives, pronouns, interrogative words, nouns, and verbs can be suffixed or non-suffixed depending on the meaning and usage. Some example of adjectives in Kunimaipa are 'good', 'small', and 'bad'. The Kunimaipa language has 7 pronouns, including , , , , , and . Example of od interrogative words are and meaning 'what'. Noun is a large word class including words such as 'men', 'young men', 'everything', and 'all'.
Not Classified According to suffixation
[edit]The word classes that cannot be classified by suffixation are locations, temporals, adverbs, and auxiliaries.
References
[edit]- ^ Kunimaipa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Weri + Amam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Biangai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) - ^ a b c Geary, Elaine (1977). "Kunimaipa grammar: morphonemics to discourse". Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- ^ Alan Pence (1966). "Kunimaipa Phonology: Hierarchical Levels" (PDF). Papers in New Guinea Linguistics. 5 (A-7): 49–68. doi:10.15144/PL-A7.49. ISSN 0078-9135. Wikidata Q137796789.
Further reading
[edit]- Aki, Mambu; Pennington, Ryan (2013). "Tentative Grammar Description".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Boxwel, Maurice (1992). "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Dobrin, Lisa. n.d. Noun classification in Weri. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia.