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 toPapua New Guinea
RegionMount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province
Native speakers
(130,000 cited 1991)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3med
Glottologmelp1238

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

Consonants
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
Front Central Back
High i ɨ ⟨ʉ⟩ u
Near-high ɪ ⟨i⟩ ʊ ⟨u⟩
Mid e o
Low a

Numeral system
Decimal Melpa Interpretation
1tenda"one"
2ragl"two"
3ragltika"two-one"
4tembokak"four"
5pemp ti gul"one past four"
6pemp ragl gul"two past four"
7pemp ragltika gul"two-one past four"
8engakl"eight"
9pemp ti pip"one past eight"
10pemp ragl pip"two past eight"

Melpa language in films

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
  1. Melpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 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.
  3. Stewart, Pamela J., Andrew Strathern and Jürgen Trantow. 2011. Melpa-German-English Dictionary. Pittsburgh: University Library System.
  4. Connolly, Bob (14 February 2017). "Filmmaker Bob Connolly returns to PNG 25 years after 'Black Harvest'". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
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