Buna language

Buna is a Torricelli language of Marienberg Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.

Buna
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Marienberg Rural LLG, East Sepik Province
Native speakers	750 (2003)[1]
Language family	Torricelli Marienberg Buna
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bvn
Glottolog	buna1277
ELP	Buna[2]

There are two dialects. One dialect is spoken in Kasmin (4.018975°S 144.060235°E), Boig (3.84861°S 144.054923°E), Waskurin (3.870089°S 144.068112°E), and Arapang (3.88039°S 144.073217°E) villages, and another in Masan, Mangan (3.953676°S 144.239463°E), and Garien villages.[3][4]

Morphology

Buna has four noun classes. Noun class concord affixes in Buna are shown in the following examples.[5]

Class 1

singular (masculine)	plural (masculine)
uri gaba-re do-ko-n	oret gaba-bwe bo-ko-m
person.I.SG big-I.SG I.SG.SBJ-go-I.SG	person.I.PL big-I.PL I.PL.SBJ-go-I.PL
‘The big man went.’	‘The big men went.’

Class 2

singular (feminine)	plural (feminine)
uri gaba-gwe go-ko-ŋ	oret gaba-ʔe e-ko
person.II.SG big-II.SG II.SG.SBJ-go-II.SG	person.II.PL big-II.PL II.PL.SBJ-go
‘The big woman went.’	‘The big women went.’

Class 3

singular (class III)	plural (class III)
wan gaba-re na-ti-n	wan gaba-we u-ti-u
banana.III.SG big-III.SG III.SG.SBJ-fall-III.SG	banana.III.PL big-III.PL III.PL.SBJ-fall-III.PL
‘A big banana fell down.’	‘Big bananas fell down.’

Class 4

singular (class IV)	plural (class IV)
kwala gaba-le li-ti-l	kwala gaba-be bə-t-əm
netbag.IV.SG big-IV.SG IV.SG.SBJ-fall-IV.SG	netbag.IV.PL big-IV.PL IV.PL.SBJ-fall-IV.PL
‘A big netbag fell down.’	‘Some big netbags fell down.’

References

1. Buna at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Endangered Languages Project data for Buna.
3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
5. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

External links

• Paradisec houses a collection of Arthur Capell's materials that include Boiken (AC2) as well as recordings by Bill Foley (WF3) and notebooks from Don Laycock's work (DL2). All of these collections are open access.