Mali language

Not to be confused with Languages of Mali.

Mali or Gaktai is a Papuan language spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Mali
Gaktai
Region	New Britain
Native speakers	(2,200 cited 1988)[1]
Language family	Baining Mali
Language codes
ISO 639-3	gcc
Glottolog	mali1284
Coordinates: 4.970382°S 152.043503°E / -4.970382; 152.043503 (Marunga Village)

Dialects

There are two dialects of Mali:^[2]

• Arongda dialect (standard dialect; with two groups), spoken in the mountains, including in Marunga village (4.970382°S 152.043503°E / -4.970382; 152.043503 (Marunga Village)) in Sinivit Rural LLG, East New Britain Province^[3]
• Abilta dialect, spoken along the coast

Phonology

The phonology of the Mali language:^[4]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd		ᵑɡ
Fricative		β	s
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Approximant		w	ɹ	j	ɰ
Lateral			l
Rhotic			r

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Low		a

Noun classes

Mali makes use of noun classes. Below are some Mali noun class paradigms, using the noun root amēng ‘tree’ as an example:^[5]: 802

Noun class	Singular	Dual	Plural	Gloss
Masculine (m)	amēng-ka	amēng-iom	amēng	‘slender tree’
Feminine (f)	amēng-ki	amēng-vem	amēng	‘large full grown tree’
Diminutive (dim)	amēng-ini	amēng-ithom	amēng-ithong	‘stick’
Reduced (rcd)	amēng-ēm	amēng-vam	amēng-vap	‘tree stump’
Flat (flat)	―	―	―	―
Excised (exc)	amēng-igl	amēng-iglem	amēng-igleng	‘plank’
Long (long)	amēng-vēt	amēng-imelēm	amēng-imelēk	‘pole’
Extended (ext)	amēng-ia	amēng-inēm	amēng-inēk	‘large log’
Count neutral (cn)	amēng			‘wood or trees’

Bibliography

• Stebbins, Tonya N. (2011). Mali (Baining) grammar. ANU, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 415. ISBN 9780858836297.
• Stebbins, Tonya N.; Tayul, Julius (2012). Mali (Baining) dictionary: Mali-Baining Amēthamon Angētha Thēvaik. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. p. 455. hdl:1885/9273. ISBN 9781922185006.