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Manam
Spoken in: Northern New Guinea
Total speakers: 7,000 (1998)
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian
  Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
   Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
    Oceanic
     Western Oceanic
      North New Guinea
       Schouten
        Kairiru-Manam
         Manam
          Manam
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: mva
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the world's second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers The family of Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages is a branch of the Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian languages. The family of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (EMP languages is a subgroup of the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages. The Oceanic languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, containing approximately 450 languages The family of Western Oceanic languages is a subgroup of the Oceanic languages. The family of North New Guinea languages of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia is a branch of the Western Oceanic languages. Components Kairiru-Manam languages Kairiru languages Manam languages Siau languages Components Kairiru languages Kaiep Kairiru Terebu Manam The family of Manam languages is a subgroup of the Kairiru-Manam languages. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Manam is a Kairiru-Manam language spoken mainly on the volcanic Manam Island, northeast of New Guinea. Components Kairiru languages Kaiep Kairiru Terebu Manam Manam, known locally as 'Manam Motu' is an inhabited island located in the Bismarck Sea across the Stephan Strait from the northeast coast of mainland Papua New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the world's second largest island, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known


Contents

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Velar
Stop p b t d k ~ ʔ ~ q g
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative (t)s (d)z
Lateral l
Flap ɾ ~ r

Allophony

Some vowels become glides in diphthongs, eg. A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A central vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the /u/, /o/ -> [w] and /i/, /e/ -> [j]. /i/ and /u/ are 'weaker' than /e/ and /o/, so that the syllable /kuo/ becomes [kwo] and not *[kuw]

According to Turner, /k/ is more and more often realized as [ʔ], while some older speakers have [q].

Syllable structure

The Manam syllable is (C)(V1)V(V1)(C1), the only exception is a syllabic [m̩].

There are some phonotactic restrictions on the prevalent syllable structure. Eg. V1 cannot be [a], whereas V must be [a] as long as it’s not the syllable’s sole vowel. C can be any consonant, whereas C1 must be a nasal consonant.

Stress

Stress is phonemic: /ˈsara/ 'palm tree', /saˈra/ 'seagull'. The stress falls on one of the three last syllables of a word, and stressing the penult syllable is the most common: /ˈnatu/ 'child', /maˈlipi/ 'work'. If the last syllable ends in a nasal consonant, it will be stressed instead: /naˈtum/ 'your child'. Some inflections and affixes do not alter the stress of the root word: /iˈto/ 'he learned' (i- is a 3rd person prefix), /siˈŋabalo/ 'in the bush' (-lo is a locative suffix).

In the orthography, stressed vowels can be underlined in order to avoid ambiguities. Ie. /ˈsara/ <sara> 'palm tree', /saˈra/ <sara> 'seagull'.

Syntax

The main word order in Manam is SOV:

    tamoata boro i- un -i
man pig 3SG hit 3SG
"The man hit the pig. "

Morphology

Number

Manam has got a very unusual four-way distinction between singular, dual, trial and plural number. This is marked on the verb and sometimes on the adjective, but never on the noun.

Pronouns

Person Number
Singular Dual Trial Plural
1st Inclusive kitaru kitato kita
Exclusive ngau
nga		 keru keto keka
2nd kaiko
kai		 kamru kamto kam
kakaming
3rd ngai diaru diato di

Reduplication

Reduplication can be either leftward (sa-salaga) or rightward (salaga-laga). Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world Reduplication, in Linguistics, is a morphological Process by which the root or stem of a Word, or part of it is repeated There seems to be no point in using terms like 'partial' and 'total' reduplication, since at most two syllables are reduplicated.

Nouns

Rightwards reduplicated nouns can either take on a meaning related to the original word, or function as an agentive marker:

    moata snake
moata-moata worm
malipi the work
malipi-lipi worker

Adjectives

Here are two examples of how number can be marked on the adjective through the different kinds of reduplication:

Rightward reduplication (singular)

    udi noka-noka ripe banana
    tamoata bia-bia the big man


Leftward reduplication (plural)

    udi no-noka ripe bananas
    tamoata bi-bia the big men

Verb aspects

The verb

The verb always marks the subject and the mood (these two are fused together). An agentive ending in the English language is the use of the suffix -er, -or, -ist, or -ian at the end of a verb in order Optional suffixes includes such things as object, direction, aspectual markers, benefactive and various kinds of intensifiers and quantifiers. Here’s a schematical overview of the Manam verb:

Outer prefixes Verb nucleus Outer suffixes
Inner prefixes Root Inner suffixes
Subject/mood marking Manner prefix
aka- transitive		 Verb root ak- transitive Object marking
Optional suffixes

Subject marking

The marking of subject is obligatory. In addition to expressing number and person, the pronouns have fused with the mood markers (see below) called real and unreal. Realis moods are a category of Grammatical moods which indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case in other words the state of which is known Irrealis moods are the main set of Grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened as the speaker is talking

Person Singular Plural
Real Unreal Real Unreal
1st Inclusive ta-
Exclusive u- m- ki- ga-
2nd ku- go- ka- kama-
3rd i- nga- di- da-

Mood

The "real" mood (RE) is used for events of the past or present, ie. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world Realis moods are a category of Grammatical moods which indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case in other words the state of which is known Irrealis moods are the main set of Grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened as the speaker is talking Realis moods are a category of Grammatical moods which indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case in other words the state of which is known Irrealis moods are the main set of Grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened as the speaker is talking things that are certain to have happened, things that are "real". Accordingly, the "unreal" (UN) mood describes events that are in the future, or events that the speaker wish were real.

    ura nga- pura
rain 3SG:UN come
"it will rain"


    u- noku
1SG:RE jump
"I jumped"


    nga- pile i- bebe
3SG:UN say 3SG:RE unable
"he will say that he is unable" (he still hasn’t said anything, but when he does, his unability will be real)


    tama -gu i- rere zama go- pura
father 1SG:POSS 3SG:RE want tomorrow 2SG:UN come
"my father wants you to come tomorrow" (the father’s wanting is real, whereas the anticipated coming is still unreal)


Manner prefixes

Manner prefixes are infixed between the subject/mood marker and the verb root. The manner prefixes describe in what manner the verb action was done, such as 'biting', 'cutting', 'throwing' etc.

    boro u- tara- paka -i
pig 1SG:RE spearing miss 3SG:OBJ
"I speared at the pig but missed it"

Object marking

Person Singular Plural
1st Inclusive -kita
Exclusive -a -kama
2nd -(i)ko -kaming
3rd -i -di
-Ø


    mi- ang -ko
1SG:UN give 2SG:OBJ
"I will give (it) to you"


    niu u- sing -Ø
coconut 1SG:RE drink 3SG:OBJ
"I drank a coconut"


    go- ang -kama
2SG:UN give 1SG:PL:EXCL
"give it to us"

Transitivization

There are three different morphologically overt methods for turning intransitive verbs into transitive ones:

These methods can also be combined.

    dang i- aka- gita -i
water 3SG:RE TRANS be hot 3SG:OBJ
"he heated the water"


    aka- tukura -ng -ak -i
TRANS be short TC TRANS 3SG:OBJ
"to shorten it"

Optional suffixes

The object suffixes are also optional, but rather common. Here are a few examples of some of the more unusual suffix types:


Direction

    go- dok -a -mai
2SG:UN bring 3SG:OBJ hither
"bring it here"


Spreading

    pipia i- rokaki -ramoi
rubbish 3SG:RE throw away all over
"he throws rubbish all over the place"


Intensifying

    u- rere -tina
1SG:RE like very
"I like it very much"


Benefactive

    go- moasi -n -a
2SG:UN sing BEN 1SG:OBJ
"sing for me"

Adjectives

Most adjectives are derived by reduplication from a verb or a noun. As seen above, some reduplicated adjectives have a number distinction, but some others don’t, eg. siki-siki 'small' (singular and plural). Some adjectives use the possessive pronouns to mark person and number, eg. kapisa-Ø 'selfish' (singular) and kapisa-di 'selfish' (plural).

Possession

As in many other Austronesian languages, Manam expresses different degrees of possession. Possession, in the context of Linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents the Referent of one of which (the possessor) possesses In addition to the most common differentitation between alienable and inalienable possession, Manam uses a particular morphological processes to describe belongings that are edible or associated with eating.

Possessive pronouns

Person Number
Singular Dual Trial Plural
1st Inclusive -da-ru -da-to -da
Exclusive -gu -ma-i-ru -ma-i-to -ma
2nd -m / -ng -ming-ru -ming-to -ming
3rd -Ø -di-a-ru -di-a-to -di

Inalienable possession

In this class, we find 'belongings' that are involuntary, such as body parts, family members and different kinds of necessary 'parts of a whole'. Grammatical person, in Linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event such as the speaker the Addressee, or others In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world This class is characterized by simply a possessive suffix attached to the word in question:

    mata -gu
eye 1SG
"my eye"


    niu labu -di
coconut base 3PL
"the bases of the coconut trees"


Edible possession

In this class, we find things that are edible and 'used to obtain, prepare or store food'. This class is characterized by the word kana, which is placed after the possessed thing and to which the possessive suffix is attached:

    udi kana -gu
banana ED 1SG
"my banana"


Alienable possession

In this class, we find belongings that are voluntary; things that we can cease to own, unlike body parts or family. This class is characterized by the word ne, which is placed after the possessed thing and to which the possessive suffix is attached:

    kati ne -gu
canoe AL 1SG
"my canoe"


    natu keu ne -di
child dog AL 3SG
"the children’s dogs"


Cross-class possession

One fascinating thing is that the same word can occur in all three possession classes, and then of course its meaning will differ. Here are two examples:

    boro-gu my pig (as part of one’s wealth)
    boro kana-gu my pork (which I am going to eat)
    boro ne-gu my pig (which I may or may not eat later)


    dang-i-gu my water (or rather 'body fluids')
    dang kana-gu my water (to drink)
    dang ne-gu my water (to wash with)

Resources

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