| Moi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Southwest Papua |
| Ethnicity | Moi |
Native speakers | (4,600 cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mxn |
| Glottolog | moii1235 |
Moi is aWest Papuan language of theBird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | (ʔ) | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
[ʔ] is in free variation with /k/ in word-final position.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a | ɑ |
/i, u/ can also be heard as [ɪ, ʊ].[2]
Verbs agree with the grammatical subject for person, number and, in the third-person, for gender. There are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and non-human. For the third person plural, the gender distinction applies only for human vs. non-human. For the first person plural, there exists a two way clusivity distinction. The agreement markers are prefixes on the main verb.[3]
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1p. | t- | Incl. | Excl. | |
| w- | m- | |||
| 2p. | n- | |||
| 3p. | Masculine | w- | y- | |
| Feminine | m- | |||
| Non-human | p- | n- | ||
Along with agreement prefixes cross-referencing the grammatical number of the subject, the verb stem itself can reflect number too: there may be one stem allomorph with front vowels (singular agreement) and one with back vowels (plural agreement).
H:humanPROX:proximal
ne-dala
person-man
we-ben
ne-laagi
person-woman
ne-dala we-ben ne-laagi
person-man 3MSG-hit person-woman
'A man hit a woman'[4]
ne-laagi
person-woman
me-ben
ne-dala
person-man
ne-laagi me-ben ne-dala
person-woman 3FSG-hit person-man
'A woman hit a man'[4]
n-auk
kamaser
place.mat
n-auk p-au kamaser
2SG-place 3SG.NH-at.SG place.mat
'You put it on a place mat'[5]
ne-Moi
person-Moi
yawa
sago.tree
ne-Moi y-eek yawa k-ow
person-Moi 3PL.H-know sago.tree PROX.DEM
'Moi people knew this sago tree'[6]
kawak
stone
ow
aa-ya-faagu kawak n-uu-s ow
DU-3PL.H-collect stone 3PL.NH-at.PL-PERF DEM
'They both collected stones there'[7]
aa-m-oka
aa-m-oka aa-n-ankar mam
DU-1PL.EXCL-assume DU-2PL-cheat 1PL.EXCL
'We both thought that the two of you cheated us'[7]
ara
breadfruit.tree
aali
below
ara n-eesin n-oolok n-osu aali
breadfruit.tree 3PL.NH-fruit 3PL.NH-fall 3PL.NH-to below
'Fruits of the breadfruit tree fell down'
As can be seen in the examples (1d) and (1f) and elaborated on by Menick, elements corresponding to prepositions in English share characteristics with verbs, which is why the conclusion can be made that the lexical category of adpositions is absent in Moi.[6]
Inalienable nouns are obligatorily marked by prefixes for the possessor agreement (see example (1h)aran-eesin 'breadfruit fruits', literally 'breadfruit tree its fruits')
To negate a clause, the particledau following the verb is used:
ne-Moi
person-Moi
dau
yawa
sago.tree
ne-Moi y-eek dau yawa k-ow
person-Moi 3PL.H-know NEG sago.tree PROX.DEM
'Moi people did not know this sago tree'[6]
The same particle can also negate a noun phrase:
ne-Moi
person-Moi
dau
yawa
sago.tree
ne-Moi dau y-eek yawa k-ow
person-Moi NEG 3PL.H-know sago.tree PROX.DEM
'not the Moi people knew this sago tree'[6]
ne-Moi
person-Moi
yawa
sago.tree
dau
ne-Moi y-eek yawa k-ow dau
person-Moi 3PL.H-know sago.tree PROX.DEM NEG
'the Moi people knew not this sago tree'[6]
The verb-ein indicatesperfective aspect. It can also be indicated by the means of the suffix -s appended to the verb, cf ex. (1f) above.
Kalasowo
river.name
aali-ow
below-DEM
ya-sak Kalasowo aali-ow p-ein y-umu
3PL.H-cross river.name below-DEM 3SG.NH-finish 3PL.H-leave:PL
'After they had crossed the Kalasowo river, they left.'
Literally: 'they crossed the Kalasowo river down there, it was finished, they left'[6]
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