Numbami language
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| Numbami | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Papua New Guinea | |
| Region: | coastal villiage in Morobe Province | |
| Total speakers: | 270 (1978 McElhanon) | |
| Language family: | Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Central-Eastern MP Eastern MP Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea Huon Gulf Numbami |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ||
| ISO 639-3: | sij | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Numbami (also known as Siboma or Sipoma) 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] Vowels (orthographic)
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
[edit] Consonants (orthographic)
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveopalatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | p | t | s | k |
| Voiced | b | d | z | g |
| Prenasalized | -mb- | -nd- | -nz- | -ngg- |
| Nasal | m | n | ng | |
| Liquid | l | |||
| Approximant | w | y |
[edit] 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, 80% complete in the middle of words beginning with voiced obstruents, 35% complete in the middle of words beginning with approximants or vowels, not quite 20% complete in words beginning with voiceless obstruents, not quite 5% complete in words beginning with nasals, and not attested at all in words beginning with liquids. (See Bradshaw 1978a.)
[edit] Morphology
Although Numbami is phonologically conservative, it retains very little productive morphology, most of it related to person and number marking.
[edit] Pronouns and person markers
[edit] Free pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural | Dual | Paucal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | aita | ailu | aito | |
| 1st person exclusive | woya | i | ilu(wa) | ito |
| 2nd person | aiya | amu | amula | amuto |
| 3rd person | e | ai | alu(wa) | aito |
[edit] Genitive pronouns
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person inclusive | aita-ndi | |
| 1st person exclusive | na-nggi | i-na-mi |
| 2nd person | a-na-mi | amu-ndi |
| 3rd person | e-na | ai-ndi |
[edit] 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.
| Numeral | 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' |
[edit] Names
Like most of the coastal languages around the Huon Gulf, Numbami has a system of birth-order names. The seventh son and fifth daughter are called "No Name": Ase Mou 'name none'.
| Birth order | Sons | Daughters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alisa | Kale |
| 2 | Alinga | Aga |
| 3 | Gae | Aya |
| 4 | Alu | Damiya |
| 5 | Sele | Ase Mou |
| 6 | Dei | |
| 7 | Ase Mou |
[edit] Ideophones
Although many languages have a class of ideophones 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'
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Bradshaw, Joel (2006). Grammatically marked ideophones in Numbami and Jabêm. Oceanic Linguistics 45:53–63.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1999). Null subjects, switch-reference, and serialization in Jabêm and Numbami. Oceanic Linguistics 38:270–296.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1997). The population kaleidoscope: Another factor in the Melanesian diversity v. Polynesian homogeneity debate. Journal of the Polynesian Society 106:222-249.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1993). Subject relationships within serial verb constructions in Numbami and Jabêm. Oceanic Linguistics 32:133–161.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1982). Genitives and relatives in Numbami, a New Guinea Austronesian language. In Gava‘: Studies in Austronesian languages and cultures dedicated to Hans Kähler, ed. by Rainer Carle, Martina Heinschke, Peter W. Pink, Christel Rost, and Karen Stadtlander, pp. 123–139. Veröffentlichungen des Seminars für Indonesische und Südseesprachen der Universität Hamburg, vol. 17. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1978a). The development of an extra series of obstruents in Numbami. Oceanic Linguistics 17:39–76.
- Bradshaw, Joel (1978b). Multilingualism and language mixture among the Numbami. Kivung: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea 11:26-49.
- Ross, Malcolm (1988). Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
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