Namia language
Namia (Namie, Nemia) is a Sepik language spoken in Namea Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It goes by various names, such as Edawapi, Lujere, Yellow River. Language use is "vigorous" (Ethnologue).
| Namia | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Namea Rural LLG in Sandaun Province; East Sepik Province |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2007)[1] |
Sepik
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nnm |
| Glottolog | nami1256 |
| ELP | Namia[2] |
In Sandaun Province, it is spoken in Ameni (3.981559°S 141.766186°E), Edwaki, Iwane (3.906643°S 141.755439°E), Lawo, Pabei (3.927006°S 141.776325°E), and Panewai villages in Namea Rural LLG, and in the Wiyari area. It is also spoken in 19 villages of Yellow River District in East Sepik Province.[3][4]
Dialects
Namie dialect groups are:[5]
- Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (3.870583°S 141.800527°E), Yaru (3.85512°S 141.802378°E), and Norambalip (3.814045°S 141.828438°E) villages
- Amani: spoken in Augwom (3.99286°S 141.716817°E), Iwani (3.906643°S 141.755439°E), Pabei (3.927006°S 141.776325°E), Panewai, and Tipas (3.981559°S 141.766186°E) villages
- Wiari: spoken in Alai (3.910948°S 141.797074°E), Nami (3.896557°S 141.879322°E), Worikori (3.923558°S 141.879066°E), Akwom (3.938724°S 141.833174°E), and Naum (3.923731°S 141.833466°E) villages
- Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (3.858705°S 141.744059°E), Mantopai (3.708668°S 141.698706°E), Yawari (3.676068°S 141.729295°E), and Aiendami (3.944326°S 141.806744°E) villages
Phonology
Namia has only 10 phonemic consonants:[6]
p t ʧ k m n l r w j
/t/ and /r/ are in nearly perfect complementary distribution with each other.
There are 6 vowels in Namia:[6]
i u e ə o a
Grammar
Unlike other Sepik languages, Namia has an inclusive-exclusive distinction for the first-person pronoun, which could possibly be due to diffusion from Torricelli languages.[6] Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005)[7] and Laycock (1968),[8] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[9]
gloss Namia head magu ear mak eye eno nose nəmala; nɨmala tooth pinarɨ; pinarə tongue lar leg liː; lipala louse nanpeu dog ar; ara pig lwae bird eyu egg puna blood norə bone lak skin urarə breast mu tree mi man lu woman ere sun wuluwa moon yem water ijo; ito fire ipi stone lijei name ilei eat (t) one tipia two pəli
References
- Namia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Endangered Languages Project data for Namia.
- 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.
- United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- Steer, Martin (2005). Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University.
- 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.
- Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
- Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66.
- Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.