Mpur language
| Amberbaken | |
|---|---|
| Mpur | |
| Native to | Papua |
| Region | North coast of Bird's Head |
Native speakers | 5,000 (2002)[1] |
West Papuan
| |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | akc |
| Glottolog | mpur1239 |
| ELP | Mpur |
Amberbaken, or Mpur (also known as Kebar, Ekware, and Dekwambre), is a divergent language of New Guinea. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the West Papuan languages, based on similarities in pronouns, Ethnologue and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.[2][3] Amberbaken or Mpur has a complex tonal system with 4 lexical tones and an additional contour tone, a compound of two of the lexicals. Its tonal system is somewhat similar to the nearby Austronesian languages of Mor and Ma'ya.[4]
Phonology
Mpur has five vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/.[1]
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
| voiced | b | d | ||||
| Affricate | t͡ʃ | |||||
| Fricative | ɸ | s | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Approximant | j | w | ||||
References
- ^ a b "WALS Online -". wals.info. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
- ^ Amberbaken at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Glottologwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Muysken, Pieter. From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 134. ISBN 9789027231000.
External links
Further reading
- Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
