| Arapesh | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | easternSandaun Province and northernEast Sepik Province,Papua New Guinea |
| Ethnicity | Arapesh people |
| Linguistic classification | Torricelli
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | arap1279 |
 The Torricelli languages as classified byFoley (2018) | |
TheArapesh languages are several closely relatedTorricelli languages of the 32,000Arapesh people ofPapua New Guinea. They are spoken in easternSandaun Province and northernEast Sepik Province,Papua New Guinea.
The Arapesh languages are among the better-studied of Papuan languages and are most distinctive in their gender systems, which contain up to thirteen genders (noun classes) with noun-phrase concordance.Mufian, for example, has 17 noun classes for count nouns plus two extra noun classes, i.e. proper names and place names.[1] (See that article for examples.)
The most notable feature of the Arapeshphoneme inventory is the use oflabialization as a contrastive device.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | labialized | plain | labialized | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||
| Stop | voiceless | t | tʃ | k | kʷ | |||
| voiced | d | dʒ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| Fricative | s | xʷ | h | hʷ | ||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | a |
Arapesh syllables have the structure (C)V(V)(C), though monosyllables always contain coda consonants.
Higher central vowels /ɨ ə/ sometimes break up consonant clusters in the middle of words.
Pronouns in Arapesh and other related Torricelli languages:[2]
| Kombio | Mountain Arapesh | Southern Arapesh | Urim | Urat | Aruop | Kayik | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1SG | apm | yek~eik | aeʔ | kupm | ŋam | am | kəmex |
| 2SG | yikn | ɲak~ɲek | inəʔ | kitn | nin | yi | kiyox |
| 3SG | kɨl | ənan~nani | ənən | kil | kin | din | təno |
| 1PL | an(t) | okok~kwakwi | apə | men | poi | mendi | kupox |
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database.[3]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g.bʌrʌkʰa,berag for “head”) or not (e.g.ɛligʌ,atah for “ear”).
| gloss | Abu' Arapesh[4] | Bukiyip[5] |
|---|---|---|
| head | bʌrʌkʰa | berag |
| hair | bʌrʌkʰa | |
| ear | ɛligʌ | atah |
| eye | ŋʌim | nabep |
| nose | mutu | |
| tooth | nʌluh | nau̥h̥ |
| tongue | ʌhʌkʌ | jaham |
| leg | burʔah | aijag |
| louse | numunʌl | |
| dog | nubʌt | nybat |
| pig | bul | |
| bird | ʌlimil | aramir |
| egg | ʌlhuʌb | juhuryb |
| blood | usibɛl | ausibør |
| bone | pisitʌnʌgel | bøløpigør |
| skin | beni'koh | jageniu̥h̥ |
| breast | numʌb | |
| tree | lʌ·wʌk | lawag |
| man | ʌʔlemʌn | araman |
| woman | numʌto | ara- matoku |
| sun | uʔwʌh | aun |
| moon | 'ʌ'un | aun |
| water | ʌbʌl | bør |
| fire | unih | nih̥ |
| stone | utʌm | utom |
| road, path | iʌh | |
| name | ɛigil | |
| eat | 'nʌsʌh | |
| one | etin | |
| two | biəs | bium |
Recent shifts have moved Arapesh languages from the typical PapuanSOV to aSVO order, along with a corresponding shift inadpositional order. Most modifiers usually precede the noun, though as a result of changes in word order genitives and nouns do not have a fixed order.
The language's uniquegender system is largely based on the ending of the noun. There are cognate pairings of each gender for singular and plural numbers. The whole gender system, unlike most of the comparable complexity inNiger–Congo languages, is sex-based: Gender IV is for all female beings and Gender VII for male ones. Arapesh culture forbids the use of personal names, so that kinship nouns are used extensively to address even intimate relatives.
Arapesh languages also have a system of verbal nouns: there by default belong to gender VIII.
Gender agreement, along with that for person and number, occurs with alladjectives,numerals and interrogative pronouns and the subject and object ofverbs. Verbs in Arapesh languages are inflected by means ofprefixes. The basic template for this inflection is the order SUBJECT-MOOD-ROOT.
Authority control databases: National |
|---|