| Kunimaipa | |
|---|---|
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
| Ethnicity | incl.Biangai |
Native speakers | (14,000 cited 1978–2000)[1] |
Trans-New Guinea
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:kup – Kunimaipawer – Weri + Amambig – Biangai |
| Glottolog | kuni1267 Kunimaipaweri1254 Wericbian1252 Biangai |
Kunimaipa is aPapuan language of New Guinea. The varieties are divergent, on the verge of being distinct languages, and have separate literary traditions.
Source:[2]
Below is a chart of Kunimaipa consonants.
| Labial | Coronal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |
| Fricative | v | s | h | |
| Lateral approximant | l | |||
| Trill | r |
Each stem that ends witha has three kinds ofallomorphs:a,o, ande. Allomorphs end witha in a word finally or before a syllable witha. It is the most common ending.O ending appears before syllables witho,u, orai.E ending appears before syllable withe ori. All of above holds true, except the ending syllable before-ma. In the general morphophonemic rule, ending an appears before syllable with a. In the case of-ma, o appears before the syllable with a. For example, the sentence so-ma, meaning ‘I will go.’[3]
Source:[4]
Word classes that are usually not suffixed are responses, exclamations, attention particles, vocative particles, conjunctions, names, and particles. Responses are short replies on a conversation; such as,kara 'okay',ee 'yes',gu 'yes',ev 'no'. Exclamations is usually occurs on sentence boundary; such as,auma 'surprise',au 'mistake',maize 'regret', andaip 'dislike'. Attention particles are only used on reported speech; such as,gui 'call to come',ae 'attention getter', andsiu 'attention getter -close'. Vocative particles are beginning of addresses in sentence boundary; such as,engarim 'hey, woman',erom 'hey, man',engarohol 'hey, children', andguai 'uncle'. Conjunctions are links in "phrases, clauses, and sentences"; such as,mete 'and, but, then',ma 'or, and',povoza 'therefore', andong 'but, then'. Names label person, place, days, and months; such as,made-ta-ka, 'on Monday', andpode-ta-ka, 'on Thursday'. Lastly, one particles that is used in introducing a quote is never suffixed,pata meaning 'reply'.
Word classes including adjectives, pronouns, interrogative words, nouns, and verbs can be suffixed or non-suffixed depending on the meaning and usage. Some example of adjectives in Kunimaipa aretina 'good',goe 'small', andhori 'bad'. The Kunimaipa language has 7 pronouns, includingne,ni,pi,rei,rari,aru, andparu. Example of od interrogative words aretaira andtai meaning 'what'. Noun is a large word class including words such asabana 'men',abanaro 'young men',no nai nai 'everything', andmapo 'all'.
The word classes that cannot be classified by suffixation are locations, temporals, adverbs, and auxiliaries.
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