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| Melpa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Mount Hagen District,Western Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (130,000 cited 1991)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | med |
| Glottolog | melp1238 |
Melpa (Meldpa,Mbowamb) is aPapuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly inMount Hagen and the surroundingdistrict ofWestern Highlands Province,Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by theKawelka people[2] and other related tribes.
Melpa is apandanus language used duringkaruka harvests.[3] Melpa has a velar lateral, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for itsbinary counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011).[4]
Note: the descriptions of these sounds[5] is not clear, so the conversion to IPA below may not be accurate.
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ | n | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t̪ | t | k | |
| prenasalized | mb | n̪d̪ | nd | ŋɡ | ||
| Rhotic | ɾ | |||||
| Lateral | ɮ̪⟨l⟩ | ɺd?⟨ld⟩ | ʟ̝⟨gl, ⱡ⟩ | |||
| Semivowel | w | j | ||||
Ladefoged analyzes the laterals instead as/l̪t̪/,/l/,/ʟ/, and the rhotic as/ɹ/.[6]
Plosives and laterals are voiceless in word-final position.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɯ⟨ʉ⟩,u | |
| Near-high | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
| Numeral | Melpa | Literal meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tenda | "one" |
| 2 | ragl | "two" |
| 3 | ragltika | "two-one" |
| 4 | tembokak | "four" |
| 5 | pemp ti gul | "one past four" |
| 6 | pemp ragl gul | "two past four" |
| 7 | pemp ragltika gul | "two-one past four" |
| 8 | engakl | "eight" |
| 9 | pemp ti pip | "one past eight" |
| 10 | pemp ragl pip | "two past eight" |
Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe,[7] who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries byRobin Anderson andBob Connolly (First Contact,Joe Leahy's Neighbours, andBlack Harvest).
The documentaryOngka's Big Moka also has Melpa dialogue.