Transcript Document

Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya)
language Presentation…………..
Mendi – Southern Highlands Province, Papua
New Guinea.
Wanpis Pokea,
B/Ed Graduate, University of Goroka
[email protected]/
[email protected]
Introduction
• The Kewabi (Aliya) language is one of the
small languages spoken in Papua New Guinea.
• It is spoken by almost 1000 people living in
the remote parts of Southern Highlands
Province, especially in the Kagua/ Erave
electorate.
• This presentation will focus on the basic
grammatical features of the Kewabi language
including phonology, morphology and syntax.
Source: Ethnologue.com
• 1. Phonology
• 1.1. Consonants
 The Kewabi language has the following consonants.
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/ l/
/m/
/k/
/n/
/p/
/r/
/w/
/s/
/b/
/d/
as in lapo 'two'
as in musa 'to lift it up'
as in kalu 'head'
as in mena 'pig'
as in paita 'to sleep'
as in rara 'medicine leaf'
as in wasa 'to look for'
as in papasi 'kinship term'
as in banapa 'lets go'
as in dia
'no'
1.2. Vowels
FRONT
HIGH
/i/
ipa 'water'
/e/
keke 'tongue'
kebo ‘big'
BACK
/u/
musa ‘lift it up'
/ɛ/
ame 'brother'
MID
LOW
CENTRAL
/a/
apa ‘father’
/o/
popo ‘steam’
• 1.3. Length.
• The vowels of monosyllabic words are
always phonetically long:
–/saa/
‘put it’,
–/i/
‘faeces’;
– /o/
‘scabs’;
–/u/
‘sleep’.
1.4. Syllable structure
In the Kewabi language, the syllable patterns are
V, VV, CV, and CVV.
E.g. V u 'sleep' a.ka 'teeth' a.do.a 'to wait‘
VV ai.pa 'native salt‘,ai.na ‘related brothers’
CV pu 'go‘/Urine’
pi.ki 'center post'
CVV pea 'to make'
ka.mea 'to smell'
1.5. Suprasegmentals (stress)
• Stress
• In the Kewabi language, different syllables can be
stressed. There is no fixed stress.
• Examples;
• 1st Syllable = pi-ra “ means sit down”
• 2nd Syllable = la-me-ya ‘ means they being talking
• Final Syllable = a-ne-pu-li ‘where are you going’?
2. Morphology
• Kewabi morphemes can be divided into
–Root morphemes;
• e.g. anda ‘ to see’ (present tense)
–Derivational morpheme,
• e.g. le-anda (eyeglass)
–Inflectional;
• e.g. anda-lo ‘have seen’ (present
Perfect tense)
• By far the most frequent types of affixes in
Kewabi are prefixes and suffixes.
– E.g. le-anda, anda-lo
• The Kewabi language does not have infixes,
circumfixes or reduplication.
3. Syntax
3.1. Verb classes
There are four verb classes in Kewabi
The verb classes are determined by the shape of
the V stem:
Class I: Va
ada ‘to see’
Class II: Vla
pola ‘to crack’
Class III: Vtya/Vra;
patya ‘to sleep’
pira ‘to sit down’
•Class IV: Vaa
rumaa ‘to distribute’
•The Kewabi language has an SOV structure.
ama
nana
ripina
mother child
hold
S
O
V
'the mother holds the child'
Pronoun
1. Personal pronouns
gender
subject
object
Kewabi
1st
male/female
I
me
Ni
2nd
male/female
you
you
Ne
male
he
him
Nipi
3rd
female
she
her
Nipi
1st
male/female
we
us
Naa
2nd
male/female
you
you
Ne
3rd
male/female/
they
them
Nimu
number person
singular
plural
2. Possessive pronouns
number person gender
object
Possessive Kewabi
1st
male/female
I
me
My/Mine
Ni nei
2nd
male/female
you
you
yours
Ne nei
male
he
him
his
Ipi nei
3rd
female
she
her
hers
Ipi nei
1st
male/female
we
us
Ours
Na nai
2nd
male/female
you
you
Yours
Ne nai
3rd
male/female/neuter they
them
Theirs
Imu nei
singular
plural
subject
Tenses
• There are four tenses in the dialect:
1. Present Tense
• Na-lo.
‘I am eating.’
2. Future Tense
• Na-lua
‘I will eat.’
3. Past Tenses
• Na-wo. ‘I just ate.’
• Na-su.
‘I ate long time ago.’
immediate past tense
remote past tense
Numerals
• The Kewabi language can be counted using
base -5 numeral system.
• For example;
• Numeral in English
Translation in Kewabi
• 1
‘egali’
• 2
‘lapo’
• 3
‘repo’
• 4
‘mala’
• 5
‘su’
• 6
‘ki menda na egali’
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
‘ki menda na lapo’
‘ki menda na repo’
‘ki menda na mala’
‘ki lapo’
‘ki lapo na egali’
‘ki lapo na lapo’
‘ki lapo na repo’
‘ki lapo an mala’
Conclusion
 The Kewabi (Aliya) language is too isolated, and
it has therefore not been described by any
linguists.
 More research needs to be done on the Kewabi
language.
 Reference
hpp//www. Ethnologue.com
• Thank you for your
attention!
• Any questions?