The Mussau-Emira language is spoken on the islands of
Mussau
Mussau Island is the largest island of St Matthias Islands, Papua New Guinea, at . It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The island is a noted Biodiversity hotspot with pristine primeval Rainforest
Rainforest ...
and
Emirau
Emirau Island, also called Emira, is an island in the Bismarck Archipelago located at . It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The local language is a dialect of the Mussau-Emira language. Emira is part of what on ...
in the
St Matthias Islands
The St Matthias Islands (also known as the Mussau islands) are a small archipelago group of islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, in northern Papua New Guinea. They are within New Ireland Province.
Geography
There are at least 10 islands. The larg ...
in the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
.
Phonology
Phonemes
Consonants
Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.
* Fricative sounds may also be heard as voiced stop sounds in word-initial position and when geminated.
Vowels
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
Pronouns and person markers
Free pronouns
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
# kateva
# galua
# kotolu
# gaata
# galima
# gaonomo
# gaitu
# gaoalu
# kasio
# kasaŋaulu
References
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
Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 as a non-profit publisher at the Australian National University, Canberra, publishing linguistic books (such as grammars and dictionaries) on the languages of Oceania, the Pacific, Australia, Indonesia ...
.
* Ross, Malcolm (1988). ''Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia.'' Canberra:
Pacific Linguistics
Pacific Linguistics was established in 1963 as a non-profit publisher at the Australian National University, Canberra, publishing linguistic books (such as grammars and dictionaries) on the languages of Oceania, the Pacific, Australia, Indonesia ...
.
* Mussau Grammar Essentials by John and Marjo Brownie (Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages, volume 52). 2007. Ukarumpa: SI
External links
*
Kaipuleohone Kaipuleohone is a digital ethnographic archive that houses audio and visual files, photographs, as well as hundreds of textual material such as notes, dictionaries, and transcriptions relating to small and endangered languages. The archive is stored ...
has archived
a word list of Mussau language
* Materials on Mussau-Emira are included in the open access
Arthur Capell
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages.
Early life
Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wales ...
AC1 and Malcolm Ross
MR1 collections held by
Paradisec
The Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC) is a cross-institutional project that supports work on endangered languages and cultures of the Pacific and the region around Australia. They digitise reel-to ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mussau-Emira Language
St Matthias languages
Languages of New Ireland Province
Definitely endangered languages