Minigir language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Minigir Vinitiri |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Papua New Guinea | |
| Region: | Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province | |
| Total speakers: | ~100,000 | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Eastern Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Meso-Melanesian New Ireland/Northwest Solomonic St George Patpatar-Tolai Minigir |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | none | |
| ISO/FDIS 639-3: | vmg | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Minigir is spoken by a small number of the Tolai people of Papua New Guinea, who live on the Gazelle Peninsula in East New Britain Province. It is often referred to in the linguistics literature as the Tolai dialect/language with an /s/.
Contents |
[edit] Classification
Minigir belongs to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family. The most immediate subgroup is the Patpatar-Tolai group of languages which also includes Kuanua (also spoken on the Gazelle Peninsula) and Patpatar (spoken on New Ireland).
[edit] Geographic distribution
Minigir is spoken on Ataliklikun Bay, in the villages of Lungalunga, Kabaira and Vunamarita, located on the Gazelle Peninsula in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea.
[edit] Grammar
[edit] Independent Pronouns
Minigir pronouns have four number distinctions (singular number, dual number, trial number and plural number) and three person distinctions (first person, second person and third person) as well as an inclusive/exclusive distinction. There are no gender distinctions.
| Singular | Dual | Trial | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st exclusive | iau (I) |
iamiru (he/she and I) |
iamitalu (both of them, and I) |
iamamami (all of them, and I) |
| 1st inclusive | - | iadori (thou and I) |
iadatalu (both of you, and I) |
iada (all of you, and I) |
| 2nd | iavau (thou) |
iamuru (you two) |
iamutalu (you three) |
iamui (you guys) |
| 3rd | ia (he/she) |
idiru (they two) |
iditalu (they three) |
idi (they) |
[edit] Syntax
The usual word order of Minigir is SVO.
[edit] References
Lynch, John, Malcolm Ross & Terry Crowley. (2002). The Oceanic languages. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press.
Ross, Malcolm. (1988). Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
