| Abun | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Southwest Papua |
| Region | Tambrauw Regency,Bird's Head Peninsula: Ayamaru, Moraid, and Sausapor sub-districts - about 20 villages |
Native speakers | (3,000 cited 1995)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kgr |
| Glottolog | abun1252 |
| ELP | Abun |
  Abun  Abun | |
| Coordinates:0°34′S132°25′E / 0.57°S 132.42°E /-0.57; 132.42 | |
Abun, also known asYimbun,Anden,Manif, orKaron Pantai, is aPapuan language spoken by theAbun people along the northern coast of theBird's Head Peninsula inSausapor District,Tambrauw Regency. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) assigned it to theWest Papuan family, based on similarities in pronouns,[2] Palmer (2018),Ethnologue, andGlottolog list it as alanguage isolate.[1][3][4]
Abun used to have three lexical tones, but only two are distinguished now asminimal pairs and even these are found in limited vocabulary. Therefore, Abun is said to be losing its tonality due tolinguistic change.[5]
Being spoken along the coast of northwestern New Guinea, Abun is in contact with Austronesian languages; maritime vocabulary in Abun has been borrowed fromBiak.[6]
The speakers number about 3,000 spread across 18 villages and several isolated hamlets. The Abun area occupies a stretch of the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula. The neighbouring languages areMoi to the southwest along the coast,Moraid and Karon Dori to the south (the latter is a dialect ofMaybrat), andMpur to the east.[7]
The Abun speakers refer to their language as eitherAbun orAnden. Several other names are in use by neighbouring groups: the Moi call itMadik, the Mpur refer to it asYimbun orYembun, while among theBiak people it is known asKaron Pantai, a term with derogatory connotations.[8]
Abun has four distinct dialects: Abun Tat, Abun Ye, and the two dialects of Abun Ji. The two Abun Ji dialects are differentiated by their use of /r/ or /l/. Abun exists on a dialect continuum from Abun Tat to Abun Ji /l/: speakers of Abun Tat are less able to understand Abun Ji than Abun Ye.[9]
Abun has 5 vowels: /i, e, ɑ, o, u/.[9]
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar\ Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | g | |
| prenasal. | ᵐb | ⁿd | ⁿd͡ʒ | ᵑɡ | |
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||
| Trill | r | ||||
Abun has three lexical tones, which are high, mid, and low. A minimal set showing all three tones:[6]
ʃúr
water
ʃè
flow
ʃúrʃè
waterflow
'the water flows'
ʃúr
water
ʃé
flood
ʃúrʃé
waterflood
'a big flood'
ʃúr
water
ʃe
big
ʃúrʃe
waterbig
'a big river'
High/rising tones can also be used to mark plurals (Berry & Berry 1999:21).
Abun has bipartite negation like French, using the pre-predicate negatoryo and post-predicate negatornde. Both are obligatory.[6]: 608–609 Example:
Án
yo
ma
come
mo
to
nu
house
nde.
Ányo ma mo nunde.
3PLNEG come to houseNEG
'They didn't come to the house.'
Like the other language isolates of the northernBird's Head Peninsula, Abun is a heavily isolating language, with many one-to-one word-morpheme correspondences, as shown in the example sentence below.[6]
Men
ben
do
suk
thing
mo
nggwe
garden
yo,
then
men
ben
do
suk
thing
sino.
together
Men ben suk mo nggwe yo, men ben suk sino.
1PL do thing LOC garden then 1PL do thing together
'If we do things at the garden, then we do them together.'
The following basic vocabulary words are from Miedema & Welling (1985)[10] and Voorhoeve (1975),[11] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[12]
| gloss | Abun (Karon Pantai dialect) | Abun (Senopi dialect) | Abun (Jembun dialect) |
|---|---|---|---|
| head | məsu | tana | mesu |
| hair | go | mauwyan | usugo |
| eye | ŋgro | tasu | da |
| tooth | sios | jasièm | mesos |
| leg | kwes | taow | mengwès |
| louse | mim | xatè | |
| dog | ndar | (n)dax | dar |
| pig | yot | fani | nox; yot |
| bird | namgau | eruː | daːm |
| egg | bem | yayuf | beːm |
| blood | nde | mès | dè |
| bone | dini | tey | diniéː |
| skin | da | tarak | menda |
| tree | kew | ara | key |
| man | bris | raysmiː | yeːtu |
| sun | kam | ayom | kaːm |
| water | sur | aya | sur |
| fire | bot | tafox | boːt |
| stone | jok | fra | yok |
| name | gum | tasom | tagum |
| eat | git | téyt | mengi |
| one | dik | sow | dik |
| two | we | ai | wè |
