| Tauya | |
|---|---|
| Fo'upo | |
| Pronunciation | Foʔu Po |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Madang Province |
Native speakers | (350 cited 1981)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tya |
| Glottolog | tauy1241 |
Tauya (alsoInafosa) is aRai Coast language spoken in the Ramu River valley,Madang Province,Papua New Guinea by approximately 350 people.[2] The Linguistics Department at theUniversity of Manitoba inWinnipeg,Canada, has Tauya language resources.
Tauya is closely genetically related to theBiyom Language and is grouped with Tauya in the Rai Coast subgroup.[3] The two languages relate although Biyom is spoken higher up the mountains as they border close to each other and have been found to have some similarities in diction such as the wordkaŋgora meaning initiate which was directly borrowed from the Biyom Language.[4][2] From this it is known that the two languages have had frequent communication as well as intermarriage between the societies.[4]
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p(b) | t(d) | k (g) | ʔ | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Fricative | f | s | ||||
| Approximant | j | |||||
Notes:
| ||||||
In Tauya, four of the consonantsr, k, kʷ,ʔʷ have restrictions to specific parts of word structure.r occurs in the word-medial position of words in the language andk, kʷ occur mostly in the word-initial position.ʔʷ is restricted to the morpheme- initial position.[2]
Tauya has five vowels similar to most languages in Papua New Guinea.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | o | |
| Open | a |
e vowel follows many linguistic rules of increasing argument from a lesser clause to a main one. The vowel may change in sound to a sound that is near by, and rounds the lips when in a word.[4][2]
Tauya allows for thediphthongsai, au, ae, ao, ou, oi (althoughoi is rare).[5]: 87
Tauya is considered aSOV order language as sentences end strictly with a verb.[2]
Some exceptions do exist as some are derivative to the SOV and use the verb to carry the meaning.
The Tauya language is a suffixing one and in arguments it isverb agreement is primarily used andcase marking is secondarily used. Verb agreement is used to mark singular or plural inarguments.
Medial verbs are used to mark subject of a medial clause that is different or the same from verbs in a clause with a relationship to a following clause.[2]
Tauya syllable structure consists of an onset consonant of (C)V(V). In plural forms of personal pronouns consonants are the final in morphemes, these ones all have a consonant ending ofn as seen insen.[2] The use of consonant in the ending word is followed by a vowel initial in transitive verbs, impersonal verbs and inalienable nouns. Using them to mark objects,experiencers, and possessors inflecting with ~pi suffix.[2]
Consist of personal pronouns, deictic pronouns and full nouns as classes of nouns.
Differentiated by person and only two numbers occurring in various cases, such as the unmarked absolutive case. Using third person singular,ne personal pronouns can occur with proclitics on transitive or impersonal verbs for marking objects or experiencers and inalienable nouns for possessors.[4]
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ya | sen |
| 2nd Person | na | ten |
| 3rd Person | ne | nen |
Third person singular is used independently while in inalienable nouns third person objects, experiencers, and possessors are unmarked.[4]
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