Melpa language
Melpa (also written Medlpa) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
| Melpa | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (130,000 cited 1991)[1] |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | med |
| Glottolog | melp1238 |
Melpa is a Pandanus language used during karuka harvest.[2] Melpa has a voiceless velar lateral fricative, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for its binary counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011).[3]
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n̪ ⟨n⟩ | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ ⟨t⟩ | t | k | |
| prenasalized | ᵐb ⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd̪ ⟨nd⟩ | ⁿd ⟨nd⟩ | ᵑɡ ⟨ng⟩ | ||
| Rhotic | r~ɾ ⟨r⟩ | |||||
| Lateral | l̪d̪ ⟨ld⟩ | l | ʟ~𝼄 ⟨ⱡ⟩ | |||
| Semivowel | w | j ⟨y⟩ | ||||
Vowels edit
Numeral system edit
| Decimal | Melpa | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tenda | "one" |
| 2 | ragl | "two" |
| 3 | ragltika | "two-one" |
| 4 | tembokak | "four" |
| 5 | pemp ti gul | "one past four" |
| 6 | pemp ragl gul | "two past four" |
| 7 | pemp ragltika gul | "two-one past four" |
| 8 | engakl | "eight" |
| 9 | pemp ti pip | "one past eight" |
| 10 | pemp ragl pip | "two past eight" |
Melpa language in films edit
Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe,[4] who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly (First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, and Black Harvest).
The documentary Ongka's Big Moka also has Melpa dialogue.
References edit
- ^ Melpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Franklin, Karl J. (September 1972). "A Ritual Pandanus Language of New Guinea". Oceania. 43 (1): 66–76. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1972.tb01197.x. OCLC 883021898.
- ^ Stewart, Pamela J., Andrew Strathern and Jürgen Trantow. 2011. Melpa-German-English Dictionary. Pittsburgh: University Library System.
- ^ Connolly, Bob (14 February 2017). "Filmmaker Bob Connolly returns to PNG 25 years after 'Black Harvest'". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
External links edit
- Melpa laterals
- Kay Owens. , section "The Melpa Counting System". Mathematics Education Research Journal vol. 13 (April 2001), doi:10.1007/BF03217098
- Melpa Phonology