Iau language
Iau (Iaw, Yau) or Turu is a Lakes Plain language of West Papua, Indonesia, spoken by about 600 people. Most speakers are monolingual, and their number is growing. Other peoples in the western Lakes Plain area speak basic Iau. Iau is tonal.
| Iau | |
|---|---|
| Edopi, Turu | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Western New Guinea |
Native speakers | 2,100 (2000–2012)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:tmu – Iaudbf – Edopi |
| Glottolog | cent2110 |
Names and dialects
Dialects are Foi (Poi), Turu, Edopi (Elopi), and Iau proper; these may be distinct enough to be considered separate languages. Foi is spoken on the large Tariku River (Rouffaer River), Turu on the Van Daalen River, Iau proper between the rivers, and Edopi at the juncture of the Tariku and Kliki (Fou) rivers.
Another name for the language is Urundi ~ Ururi. Dosobou (Dou, Doufou) is specifically Edopi.
In Puncak Jaya Regency, Iau dialects are spoken in Bakusi, Duita, Fawi, and Fi villages, located between the Rouffaer River and Van Daalen River in Fawi District.[2]
Phonology
The following discussion is based on Bateman (1990a).
Consonants
| Labial | Coronal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | b | t d | k |
| Fricative | f | s | |
There are six consonants. /t d/ are dental; /s/ is alveolar. /b d/ are implosive, and may be realized as nasals before the low nasal vowel /ã/. /d/ may also be realized as the liquid [l].
/f/ is pronounced [ɸ]~[h] word-initially, or as [x] before the high nonback vowels /i ɨ/. The labial allophone [ɸ] is preferred in the Foi dialect; the glottal allophone [h] is preferred in Turu. It is always pronounced [h] word-medially and as an unreleased plosive [p̚] word-finally. /f/ is the only consonant that can occur word-finally.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fricated | i̝ | ||
| Close | i | u | |
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | ã |
The low vowel is always nasalized, except when it is a component of a diphthong. The open-mid front vowel varies between [e], [ɛ], and [æ].
The following diphthongs exist:
| ɛ | ɪ | ʊ | i | u | i̝ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | aɛ | aɪ | aʊ | ai | au | ai̝ |
| ɛ | ɛi | |||||
| ɔ | ɔɛ | ɔi | ||||
| ʊ | ʊɪ | |||||
| u | ui |
No diphthongs begin with /ɪ i i̝/ or end in /a ɔ/.
There are two triphthongs: /aui/ and /aʊɪ/. The back components of these triphthongs are realized as unrounded.
Syllables
Syllables consist minimally of a vowel. They may include a single onset consonant and/or a single coda consonant. Diphthongs and triphthongs are attested. The template is (C)(V)V(V)(C). The tone-bearing unit is the syllable.
Stress
Stress in Iau is predictable: it falls on the final syllable of disyllabic words. (Words may not be longer than two syllables.) The interaction between stress and tone is not clear.
Tone
Iau is the most tonally complex Lakes Plain language. Unlike other Lakes Plain languages which can be disyllabic or trisyllabic, Iau word structure is predominantly monosyllabic. Iau has eight phonemic tones, transcribed by Bateman using numerical Chao tones (usually used with East Asian languages): two level tones (low and high), two rising tones (low rising and high rising), three falling tones (high-low, high-mid, and mid-low), and one falling-rising tone. Phonetically, these are:[3]
- high (44)
- mid (33)
- high-rising (45)
- low-rising (23)
- high-to-low-falling (42)
- high-to-mid-falling (43)
- mid-to-low-falling (32)
- falling-rising (423)
A sequence of two tones (called a tone cluster) may occur on one syllable. There are eleven tone clusters that can occur on verbs to mark aspect; only three of these can occur on nouns.
Some minimal sets in Iau illustrating phonemic tonal contrasts:[3]
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|
Tone is only lexical on nouns; the lexical forms of verbs are unmarked for tone, and each tone represents a different aspect. The complex system of aspectual marking via tone is discussed in Bateman (1986).
Aspect
Iau also displays complex tonal verb morphology. Verbal roots do not have any inherent tone, but tone is used to mark aspect on verbs. Example paradigms:[3]
Tone Aspect ba ‘come’ tai ‘moving s.t. toward’ da ‘locate s.t. inside’ tone 44 totality of action, punctual ba⁴⁴ ‘came’ tai⁴⁴ ‘pulled’ da⁴⁴ ‘ate, put it in (stomach)’ tone 33 resultative durative ba³³ ‘has come’ tai³³ ‘has been pulled off’ da³³ ‘has been loaded onto s.t.’ tone 45 totality of action, incomplete ba⁴⁵ ‘might come’ tai⁴⁵ ‘might pull’ tone 23 resultative punctual ba²³ ‘came to get’ tai²³ ‘land on s.t.’ da²³ ‘dip into water, wash s.t.’ tone 42 telic punctual ba⁴² ‘came to end’ tai⁴² ‘fell to ground’ da⁴² ‘eaten it all up’ tone 43 telic, incomplete ba⁴³ ‘still coming’ tai⁴³ ‘still falling’ da⁴³ ‘still eating it up’ tone 32 totality of action, durative ba³² ‘be coming’ tai³² ‘be pulling’ tone 423 telic durative ba⁴²³ ‘sticking to’ tai⁴²³ ‘be falling’ tai⁴⁵–³² ‘pull on s.t., shake hands’ tai⁴⁵–³³ ‘have pulled s.t., shook hands’
Mood
Tonal alternations can also serve as final mood and speech act particles.[3]
- tone 44: speaker assumes the information is correct (such as rhetorical questions)
- tone 32: speaker asks a question to confirm what he believes is true (such as yes-no questions)
- tone 43: speaker is uncertain about the actual state of affairs
Example sentences:[4]
(1)
a⁴³ ty⁴⁵ bi⁴⁵e⁴⁴ a⁴⁵se⁴⁴ u²³ di⁴⁴ be⁴⁴? father people PN SEQ before kill.TOTAL.PUNCT Q.FACT - ‘So the people from Bie killed father first?’
(2)
fv⁴⁵ ba⁴⁵ ba³²? canoe come.TOTAL.INCOMPL Q.CONFIRM - ‘Is the plane coming?’
(3)
da⁴⁴ a⁴²³ tv⁴⁴ be⁴³? 2.PL land travel.TOTAL.PUNCT Q.GUESS - ‘(I’m guessing) did you (pl) go by land?’
References
- Iau at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
Edopi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) - Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Indonesia languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
- Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". 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. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Foley, William A. (2018). "The morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages". 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. 895–938. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Bateman, Janet. 1982. The topic-comment construction in Iau. In Marit Kana (ed.), Workpapers in Indonesian linguistics, vol. 1, 28–49. Irian Jaya, Indonesian: Universitas Cenderawasih.
- Bateman, Janet. 1986. Iau verb morphology. NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 26. Jakarta: Universitas Katolik Atma Jaya. 1–76. http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v26.pdf
- Bateman, Janet. 1990a. Iau segmental and tone phonology. NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 32. 29–42. http://sealang.net/archives/nusa/pdf/nusa-v32-p29-42.pdf
- Bateman, Janet. 1990b. Pragmatic functions of the tone morphemes on illocutionary force particles in Iau. NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 32. 1–28.
- Edmondson, A., Janet Bateman & Helen Miehle. 1992. Tone contours and tone clusters in Iau. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Special Session on the Typology of Tone Languages, vol. 18, 92–103. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society. http://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/viewFile/1544/1327