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Elseng language

Isolate language spoken in Indonesia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu[2]) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" ‘Morwap’ is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.[1]

Quick Facts Region, Native speakers ...
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Elseng is spoken in Omon village, Gresi Selatan district, Jayapura Regency; it is also called Tabu or Tapu.[3]

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Classification

Laycock classified Elseng as a language isolate but noted pronominal similarities with the Border languages. Ross included it in Border because of these similarities but noted that it does not appear to share any lexical similarities with the family. However, this may be an effect of the paucity of data on Elseng. Foley similarly classifies Elseng as an isolate.[2]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4] also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.

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Phonology

More information Bilabial, Alveolar ...
More information Front, Central ...

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[2]

More information sg, pl ...

Basic vocabulary

Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][2]

More information gloss ...

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]

More information gloss ...
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Sentences and phrases

Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:[2]

(1)

ka

1

makən

POSS

teti

father

ka makən teti

1 POSS father

‘my/our father’

(2)

waso

man

amsan

good

waso amsan

man good

‘good man’

(3)

tele

father

si

garden

fa-san

work-?

tele si fa-san

father garden work-?

‘Father is working (his) garden.’

(4)

tele

father

bas

?

to-san

eat-?

tele bas to-san

father ? eat-?

‘Father is eating.’

References

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