Nalca language

Nalca (Naltya, Naltje) is a Papuan language spoken in Yahukimo Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia. Alternative names are Hmanggona, Hmonono, Kimnyal (Kimyal). The latter is most often used for Korupun-Sela. Indonesian Kemendikbud classified Nalca as Mek Nalca, while Kimyal is used for Korupun-Sela.^[2]

Nalca
Mek Nalca, Hmanggona
Native to	Highland Papua Indonesia
Native speakers	16,000 (2013)[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Mek Northern Nalca
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nlc
Glottolog	nalc1240

History

The Nalca language was an unwritten language until missionaries from the USA entered the area in the early 1960s. A literacy program was developed, and many people in the Nalca language group learned to read. Roger Doriot from the USA learned the language and completed the translation of the New Testament of the Bible in 2000.

Classification

Nalca belongs to the Western branch of the Mek languages, which is a family of closely related languages belonging to the larger grouping of Trans-New Guinea languages.^[3]

Geographic distribution

The Nalca language is spoken by about 18,000 people in Yahukimo Regency, Highland Papua.^[4]

Phonology

Consonants

Nalca has 15 phonemic consonants:^[5]

Consonant phonemes

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Laryngeal
Plosive	pʰ	b	tʰ	d			kʰ	ɡ	ʔ
Fricative			s						h
Nasal		m		n				ŋ
Tap or flap				ɾ
Approximant		w				j

• /tʰ/ only occurs in loanwords and names.

Vowels

Nalca has five phonemic vowels:^[5]

Monophthong phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Grammar

Morphology

Nalca is a generally isolating language, but exhibits an elaborate system of agglutination in verb formation.

Syntax

The usual word order of Nalca is subject-object-verb (SOV).