Mekeo language

Mekeo
Spoken in Papua New Guinea
Region Central Province
Native speakers 19,000  (2003)
Language family
Language codes
ISO 639-3 mek
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Mekeo is a language spoken in Papua New Guinea and had 19,000 speakers in 2003. It is an Oceanic language of the Papuan Tip Linkage.[1] The two major villages that the language is spoken in are located in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. These are named Ongofoina and Inauaisa.[2] The language is also broken up into four dialects: East Mekeo; North West Mekeo; West Mekeo and North Mekeo. The standard dialect is East Mekeo.[3] This main dialect is addressed throughout the article.

Contents

Phonology

Mekeo employs a relatively simple system of phonology which consists of 10 consonants and 5 vowels. The following tables identify both the consonants and vowels present in Mekeo.

Consonants

Bilabial Linguolabial Alveolar Velar Glottal
Plosive p t k Ɂ
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative f s
Lateral l

Note that the table above displays the range of consonants used in East Mekeo which is classified as the standard dialect. North West Mekeo, West Mekeo and North Mekeo each have slightly different consonants included in their dialects.[4][5]

Vowels

Mekeo has five vowels, shown on the table below:

Front, Unrounded Central, Unrounded Back, Rounded
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Morphology

Pronoun and Person Markers

In Mekeo, personal pronouns primarily refer to humans, however the third person forms can also be used for animals and other objects as well. Mekeo uses a range of different pronouns for different situations. The following table shows all the main personal pronouns for East Mekeo. This includes unmarked, emphatic and reflexive personal pronouns. Note, that the emphatic pronouns are not common in East Mekeo as they compete with another more common topicaliser, au-ŋa. For example, the preferred form for the first person singular would be lau- au-ŋa.[6] In the following table, 1, 2 and 3 indicate the person, SG and PL indicate whether the example is singular or plural and I and E stand for inclusive and exclusive.

Unmarked Emphatic Reflexive
1SG lau lau-ŋa Ɂifo-u
2SG oi oi-ŋa Ɂifo-mu/Ɂifō
3SG isa isa-ŋa Ɂifo-ŋa/Ɂifo-ŋa-mo
1PL.I iɁa/isa iɁ-ŋa/isa-ŋa Ɂifo-Ɂa
1PL.E lai lai-ŋa Ɂifo-mai
2PL oi oi-ŋa Ɂifo-mi
3PL isa isa-ŋa Ɂifo-i/Ɂifo-Ɂi

Examples:[7] The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

E-Ɂifo
3SG-self
S/he is one of a kind.
Maa-mu umu koà lopia-ŋa
Eye-2SG charcoal likeness beautiful
"Your eyes are beautiful, like charcoal."
Oi, nao koa, ioi-mu
2SG European likeness same-2SG
"You are like a European."
ia 'e-lao afu ioi-na e-lao
elsewhere 3SG-go place different-3SG 3SG-go
"He has gone elsewhere."

Footnotes

  1. ^ Lewis 2009
  2. ^ SIL 2004
  3. ^ Chung 1995
  4. ^ Jones 1998: p. 559
  5. ^ Chung 1995, p. 9
  6. ^ Jones 1998, p. 148
  7. ^ Jones 1998, p. 149, 155

References

Chung, J.-S. (1995). Orthography paper for Mekeo Language. SIL international , 1-21.
Jones, A. A. (1998). Towards a lexicogrammar of mekeo. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Lewis, M. P. (2009). Mekeo. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from Ethnologue: Languages of the world: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mek
Organised Phonology Data: Mekeo Language. (2004). SIL International , 1-3.