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Mussau-Emira language

The Mussau-Emira language is spoken on the islands of Mussau and Emirau in the St Matthias Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago.

Phonology

Phonemes

Consonants

Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.

  • Fricative sounds may also be heard as voiced stop sounds in word-initial position and when geminated.

Vowels

Stress

In most words the primary stress falls on the penultimate vowel and secondary stresses fall on every second syllable preceding that. This is true of suffixed forms as well, as in níma 'hand', nimá-gi 'my hand'; níu 'coconut', niúna 'its coconut'.

Morphology

Pronouns and person markers

Free pronouns

Subject prefixes

Prefixes mark the subjects of each verb:

  • (agi) a-namanama 'I'm eating'
  • (io) u-namanama 'you're (sing.) eating'
  • (ia) e-namanama 'he's/she's eating'

Sample vocabulary

Numbers

  1. kateva
  2. galua
  3. kotolu
  4. gaata
  5. galima
  6. gaonomo
  7. gaitu
  8. gaoalu
  9. kasio
  10. kasaŋaulu

References

Further reading

  • Blust, Robert (1984). "A Mussau vocabulary, with phonological notes." In Malcolm Ross, Jeff Siegel, Robert Blust, Michael A. Colburn, W. Seiler, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, No. 23, 159-208. Series A-69. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Ross, Malcolm (1988). Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Mussau Grammar Essentials by John and Marjo Brownie (Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages, volume 52). 2007. Ukarumpa: SIL.https://pnglanguages.sil.org/resources/archives/23621

External links