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.

Mussau-Emira
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionIslands of Mussau and Emirau (New Ireland Province)
Native speakers
5,000 (2003)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3emi
Glottologmuss1246
ELPMussau-Emira
Mussau is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Phonology

Consonants

Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.

Bilabial Alveolar Velar
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p t k
Fricative β s ɣ
Liquid l ɾ
  • Fricative sounds /β, ɣ/ may also be heard as voiced stop sounds [b, ɡ] in word-initial position and when geminated.

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ɔ
Low a

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

Free pronouns

Person Singular Plural Dual Trial Paucal
1st person inclusive ita italua itatolu itaata
1st person exclusive agi ami aŋalua aŋatolu aŋaata
2nd person io am amalua amatolu amaata
3rd person ia ila ilalua ilotolu ilaata

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

  1. Mussau-Emira at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

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. doi:10.15144/PL-A69 hdl:1885/145028
  • Ross, Malcolm (1988). Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/PL-C98 hdl:1885/145428
  • Mussau Grammar Essentials by John and Marjo Brownie (Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages, volume 52). 2007. Ukarumpa: SIL.
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