Oksapmin is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in

Oksapmin Rural LLG Oksapmin Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Ind ...

Telefomin District Telefomin District is a district of Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Telefomin. Its inhabitants include the Mountain Ok people, a cultural group with numerous sub-groups including the Telefol, the Urapmin, and the Wopkaimin ...

Sandaun Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capital is Vanimo. In July 1998 the a ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The two principal dialects are distinct enough to cause some problems with mutual intelligibility. Oksapmin has

dyadic kinship term Dyadic kinship terms (abbreviated or ) are kinship terms in a few languages that express the relationship between individuals as they relate one to the other. In English, there are a few set phrases for such situations, such as "they are father and ...

sThe Oksapmin Kinship System
, retrieved May 21, 2009. and a body-part counting system that goes up to 27..

Classification

Oksapmin has been influenced by the

Mountain Ok languages The Ok languages are a family of about a dozen related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known i ...

(the name "Oksapmin" is from Telefol), and the similarities with those languages were attributed to borrowing in the classifications of both

Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Early life Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-sp ...

(1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005), where Oksapmin was placed as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea. Loughnane (2009) and Loughnane and Fedden (2011) conclude that it is related to the Ok languages, though those languages share innovative features not found in Oksapmin. Usher finds Oksapmin is not related to the Ok languages specifically, though it is related at some level to the southwestern branches of Trans–New Guinea.

Phonology

Vowels

There are six

monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...

s, , and one

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

, .

Consonants

Tone

Oksapmin contrasts two tones: high and low.

References

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Oksap
{{Languages of Papua New Guinea Languages of Sandaun Province Languages of Southern Highlands Province Languages of Western Province (Papua New Guinea) Ok languages Trans–New Guinea languages