Mali language

Mali or Gaktai is a Papuan language spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Mali
Gaktai
RegionNew Britain
Native speakers
(2,200 cited 1988)[1]
Baining
  • Mali
Language codes
ISO 639-3gcc
Glottologmali1284
Coordinates: 4.970382°S 152.043503°E / -4.970382; 152.043503 (Marunga Village)

Dialects

There are two dialects of Mali:[2]

Phonology

The phonology of the Mali language:[4]

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t k
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative β s
Nasal m n ŋ
Approximant w ɹ j ɰ
Lateral l
Rhotic r

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a

Noun classes

Mali makes use of noun classes. Below are some Mali noun class paradigms, using the noun root amēng ‘tree’ as an example:[5]:802

Noun classSingularDualPluralGloss
Masculine (m) amēng-kaamēng-iomamēng‘slender tree’
Feminine (f) amēng-kiamēng-vemamēng‘large full grown tree’
Diminutive (dim) amēng-iniamēng-ithomamēng-ithong‘stick’
Reduced (rcd) amēng-ēmamēng-vamamēng-vap‘tree stump’
Flat (flat)
Excised (exc) amēng-iglamēng-iglemamēng-igleng‘plank’
Long (long) amēng-vētamēng-imelēmamēng-imelēk‘pole’
Extended (ext) amēng-iaamēng-inēmamēng-inēk‘large log’
Count neutral (cn) amēng‘wood or trees’

Bibliography

  • Stebbins, Tonya N. (2011). Mali (Baining) grammar. ANU, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 415. ISBN 9780858836297.
  • Stebbins, Tonya N.; Tayul, Julius (2012). Mali (Baining) dictionary: Mali-Baining Amēthamon Angētha Thēvaik. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. p. 455. hdl:1885/9273. ISBN 9781922185006.

References

  1. Mali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Stebbins, Tonya N. 2011. Mali (Baining) grammar. (Pacific Linguistics, 623.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
  3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. Palmer, Bill (2018). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 796–807.
  5. Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
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