| Foi | |
|---|---|
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2015)[1] |
Papuan Gulf ?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | foi |
| Glottolog | foii1241 |
Foi, also known asFoe orMubi River, is one of the twoEast Kutubuan languages of theTrans-New Guinea family spoken alongLake Kutubu and Mubi River, located in theSouthern Highlands Province ofPapua New Guinea.[1] Dialects of Foi are Ifigi, Kafa, Kutubu, Mubi.[2] ASwadesh list for the Foi language was documented byThe Rosetta Project in 2010.[3] The estimated number of Foi speakers as of 2015 is between 6,000 and 8,000.[4]
Source:[5]
Foi is asubject–object–verb language, similar to most languages inPapua New Guinea.
Foe adopts the usage of focused objects as sentence-initial. In noun phrases, Foi follows the pattern of Noun + Quantifier and Adjective + Noun.
Adverbial phrases are marked postpositionally byclitics in Foi.
Foi also has a series ofevidentials to mark theverbal aspect of seen, unseen, deduced, possibility, and mental deduction.
Source:[5]
Thesubject or focus transitive in a sentence is marked with-mo as shown in example (1) below.
no-mo
I-FOC
agira
sweet.potato
nibi'ae
eat.did
no-mo agira nibi'ae
I-FOC sweet.potato eat.did
'I ate the sweet potato'
Where the focus is on the person who is eating the sweet potato.
| Base Form | Marked for Subject or Focus Transitivity | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 sg. | na(no) | no-mo |
| 2 sg. | naʔa | nomaʔa-mo |
| 3 sg. | jo | jo-ø |
| 1 pl. excl. | jia | jia-mo |
| 1 pl. incl. | jija | jija-mo |
| 2 pl. | haʔa | hemaʔa-mo |
| 3 pl. | jaʔa | jaʔa-ø |
| 1 dl. excl. | jage | jage-mo |
| 1 dl. incl. | jaʔa | jaʔa-ø |
| 2 dl. | hagaʔa | hagemaʔa-mo |
| 3 dl. | hagera | hagera-mo |
Foi has separate words for today and yesterday, as well as two, three, four and five days prior and hence.[5]
Source:[5]
Singular,dual, and plural are distinguished inpersonal pronouns. In addition, Foe also marksclusivity forfirst-personpronouns.
| singular | dual | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | inclusive | na(no) | jaʔa | jija |
| exclusive | jage | jia | ||
| 2nd person | naʔa | hagaʔa | haʔa | |
| 3rd person | jo | hagera | jaʔa | |
It was not made clear if a reported minimal distinction in the first-person plural form between the inclusivejia and exclusivejija is real.
Foi features 5vowels.
The 16consonants including theglottal stop used in Foi are:
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n ñ | ||||
| Stop | b | t d | k g | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | f v | s | h | |||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||
| Trill | r |
Allophonic variation of [t], [d] and [r] is common.[5]
The vowel/y/ was mentioned as a consonant by Franklin, suggesting that the research was phonetically noted inAmericanist phonetic notation.[5] The table above has been amended according to the standards ofInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
Foi adopts thebody-part counting system. This feature can also be found in approximately 60Trans-New Guinea Languages such asFasu andOksapmin.[5]
Counting typically begins by touching (and usually bending) the fingers of one hand, moves up the arm to the shoulders and neck, and in some systems, to other parts of the upper body or the head. A central point serves as the half-way point. Once this is reached, the counter continues, touching and bending the corresponding points on the other side until the fingers are reached.[6]
| Number | Gloss | Translation | Number | Gloss | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'little finger' | mena-gi | 20 | 'side of nose' | to | |
| 2 | 'ring finger' | ha-gi | 21 | 'eye' | i | |
| 3 | 'middle finger' | i-gi | 22 | 'cheekbone' | bobo | |
| 4 | 'index finger' | tugu-bu | 23 | 'ear' | kia | |
| 5 | 'thumb' | kaba | 24 | 'upper neck' | fufu | |
| 6 | 'palm' | tama | 25 | 'lower neck' | heno-go | |
| 7 | 'wrist' | bona-gi | 26 | 'collarbone area', | keno | |
| 8 | forearm' | kwebo | 27 | 'shoulder' | ki | |
| 9 | 'inside elbow' | karo-habo | 28 | 'upper middle arm' | ame-ni | |
| 10 | 'upper middle arm' | ame-ni | 29 | 'inside elbow' | karo-habo | |
| 11 | 'shoulder' | ki | 30 | forearm' | kwebo | |
| 12 | 'collarbone area', | keno | 31 | 'wrist' | bona-gi | |
| 13 | 'lower neck' | heno-go | 32 | 'palm' | tama | |
| 14 | 'upper neck' | fufu | 33 | 'thumb' | kaba | |
| 15 | 'ear' | kia | 34 | 'index finger' | tugu-bu | |
| 16 | 'cheekbone' | bobo | 35 | 'middle finger' | i-gi | |
| 17 | 'eye' | i | 36 | 'ring finger' | ha-gi | |
| 18 | 'side of nose' | to | 37 | 'little finger' | mena-gi | |
| 19 | 'ridge of nose' | kisi |
According toEthnologue, the language status of is '5*', referring to the situation whereby the language is anticipated to be in vigorous use by all, based on the informed guess made by editorial team due to the lack of information. This status is based on Lewis and Smino's (2010)Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS).[1]
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