Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Iwam language
Language of Papua New Guinea From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
May River Iwam, often simply referred to as Iwam, is a language of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
Remove ads
It is spoken in Iyomempwi (4.24117°S 141.89271°E), Mowi (4.294971°S 141.929199°E), and Premai villages of Tunap/Hunstein Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, and other villages on the May River.[1][2]
Remove ads
Phonology
Vowels
In non-final positions, /u/ /o/, /i/, and /e/ are [ʊ] [ɔ], [ɪ], and [ɛ], respectively. /ə/ appears only in nonfinal syllables. When adjacent to nasal consonants, vowels are nasalized; nasalization may also occur when adjacent to word boundaries.[3]
Consonants
/p/ and /k/ are voiced fricatives ([β] and [ɣ]) respectively) when intervocalic and unreleased when final (/t/ is also unreleased when final). /ŋ/ is a nasal flap ([ɾ̃]) word-initially and between vowels. /s/ is [ts] initially and may otherwise be palatalized [sʲ].[3] Sequences of any consonant and /w/ are neutralized before /u/ where an offglide is always heard.
Phonotactics
Bilabial and velar consonants and /n/ may be followed by /w/ when initial. Other initial clusters include /pr/, /kr/, /hr/, /hw/, and /hn/ and final clusters are /w/ or /j/ followed by any consonant except for /h/ or /ŋ/.[3]
Remove ads
Pronouns
May River Iwam pronouns:[4]: 282
Noun classes
Like the Wogamus languages, May River Iwam has five noun classes:[4]
As shown by the example above for ana ‘hand’, a noun can take on different classes depending on the physical characteristics being emphasized.
Verbal morphology
May river Iwam has four periodic tense suffixes: matutinal -yok, diurnal -harok, postmeridial -tep and nocturnal -wae.[5]
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words of Iwam are from Foley (2005)[6] and Laycock (1968),[7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
Remove ads
Notes
External links
References
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads