Iwam language
May River Iwam | |
---|---|
Region | East Sepik Province |
Native speakers | (3,000 cited 1998)[1] |
Sepik
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | iwm |
Glottolog | iwam1256 |
ELP | May River Iwam |
May River Iwam, or just Iwam, is a language of Papua New Guinea.
It is spoken in Iyomempwi (4°14′28″S 141°53′34″E / 4.24117°S 141.89271°E), Mowi (4°17′42″S 141°55′45″E / 4.294971°S 141.929199°E), and Premai villages of Tunap-Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, and other villages on the May River.[2][3]
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | o |
Open | a |
In non-final positions, /u/ /o/, /i/, and /e/ are [ʊ] [ɔ], [ɪ], and [ɛ], respectively. /ə/ appears only in nonfinal syllables. When adjacent to nasal consonants, vowels are nasalized; nasalization may also occur when adjacent to word boundaries.[4]
Consonants
Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
Stop | p | t | k | ||
Fricative | s | h | |||
Flap | r | ||||
Approximant | j | w |
/p/ and /k/ are voiced fricatives ([β] and [ɣ]) respectively) when intervocalic and unreleased when final (/t/ is also unreleased when final). /ŋ/ is a nasal flap ([ɾ̃]) word-initially and between vowels. /s/ is [ts] initially and may otherwise be palatalized [sʲ].[4] Sequences of any consonant and /w/ are neutralized before /u/ where an offglide is always heard.
Phonotactics
Bilabial and velar consonants and /n/ may be followed by /w/ when initial. Other initial clusters include /pr/, /kr/, /hr/, /hw/, and /hn/ and final clusters are /w/ or /j/ followed by any consonant except for /h/ or /ŋ/.[4]
Pronouns
May River Iwam pronouns:[5]: 282
sg du pl 1 ka/ani kərər kərəm 2 ki kor kom 3m si sor səm 3f sa
Noun classes
Like the Wogamus languages, May River Iwam has five noun classes:[5]
class semantic category prefix example class 1 male human referents nu- (adult males);
ru- (uninitiated or immature males)yenkam nu-t
man class.1-one
‘one man’class 2 female human, children,
or other animate referentsa(o)- owi a-ois
duck class.2-two
‘two ducks’class 3 large objects kwu- ana kwu-(o)t
hand class.3-one
‘a big hand’class 4 small objects ha- ana ha-(o)t
hand class.4-one
‘a small hand’class 5 long objects hwu- ana hwu-(o)t
hand class.5-one
‘a long hand’
As shown by the example above for ana ‘hand’, a noun can take on different classes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized.
External links
- Materials on Sepic Iwam are included in the open access Arthur Capell collections (AC1) held by Paradisec.
Notes
- ^ May River Iwam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ a b c d e Laycock (1965:115)
- ^ a b Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
References
- Laycock, D.C. (1965). "Three Upper Sepik phonologies". Oceanic Linguistics. 4 (1/2). University of Hawai'i Press: 113–118. doi:10.2307/3622917. JSTOR 3622917.
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