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Nen language (Papuan)

Yam language of Papua New Guinea From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Nen (or Nen Zi, Nenium, Wekamara) is a Yam language spoken in the Bimadbn village in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, with 250 speakers as of a 2002 SIL survey. It is situated between the speech communities of Nambu and Idi.

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Nen has unusual lexicalization patterns in its verbs. It has very few intransitive verbs, and where some verbs would be intransitive in most other languages, Nen has a class of morphologically "middle" verbs in their place. Many of the few intransitive verbs that Nen does have are positional verbs, which refer to spatial positions and postures.[2]

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Phonology

The Nen phonemic inventory includes 22 consonants:[3]

  • /h/ occurs rarely in a few interactional and deictic words.
Vowels
More information Front, Central ...
  • /ã, ẽ/ occur rarely in a few interactional and deictic words.
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Morphology

Number

The realization of different grammatical meanings of Number in the noun depends on the syntactic function and case marking. The noun in the dative overtly differentiates 4 grammatical meaning of number: singular, dual, paucal and plural; the noun in the oblique shows singular ~ dual ~ paucal/plural opposition, while the ergative singular ~ dual/paucal ~ plural, and the noun in absolutive cannot be distinguished according to number.[4]

Direction

The verb expresses three grammatical meaning of motion: neutral − /Ø-/, towards speaker /n-/, and away from speaker /ng-/: n-Ø-armbte '(s)he is ascending' ~ n-n-armbte '(s)he is coming up (towards speaker) ~ n-ng-armbte '(s)he is going up (away from speaker).[4]:1056

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Syntax

Summarize
Perspective

The constituent order in clause is SOV. Case marking shows ergative/absolutive alignment.[4]

Argument structure and valency

According to indexing, the verbs can be either prefixing (an undergoer argument is cross-referenced by a prefix) or ambifixing (arguments are cross-referenced by both prefix and suffix in the verb). In the transitive predicate, a verbal prefix expresses patient and a verbal suffix actor. There are several types of valency pattern in Nen:[4]:1058–68

1. Basically monovalent pattern

  • Basic intransitive − NPabs U-V
  • Intrinsic middle − NPabs M-V-A
  • Middle with cognate object − NPabs + NPabs M-V-A

2. Basically divalent pattern

  • Basic transitive − NPerg + NPabs U-V-A
  • Experiencer object construction − NPabs > NPerg U-V-A3sg
  • Transitive verbs with deponent middle verbal morphology − Nperg + NPabs M-V-A
  • Semi-transitive verb registering oblique on undergoer slot − NPerg + NPobl U-V-A

3. Trivalent pattern

The arguments get the following case marking: the subject − ergative, the direct object − absolutive, and the indirect object − dative. In a trivalent predicate, the indirect object argument (semantically, recipient) is cross-referenced in the verb by the undergoer prefix.[4]:1067–68

Causative

The causative is got by the adding of the meaning 'cause (motion/trajectory) through sustained contact (carrying, leading etc.)' to the middle verbs. Prefix /wa-/ in the verb expresses the meaning and the causer and causee are reflected by the ergative and absolutive cases, respectively.[4]

Benefactive

Beneficiary is expressed by the undergoer prefix.[4]:1058–68

Notes

Further reading

References

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