Kunimaipa is a
Papuan language
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...
of New Guinea. The varieties are divergent, on the verge of being distinct languages, and have separate literary traditions.
Phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s
Below is a chart of Kunimaipa consonants.
Vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s
* “ i, e, a, o, and u”
Morphophonemics
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (mi ...
Each stem that ends with
a has three kinds of
allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specif ...
s:
a,
o, and
e. Allomorphs end with
a in a word finally or before a syllable with
a. It is the most common ending.
O ending appears before syllables with
o,
u, or
ai.
E ending appears before syllable with
e or
i. All of above holds true, except the ending syllable before
-ma. In the general morphophonemic rule, ending a appears before syllable with a. In the case of
-ma, o appears before the syllable with a. For example, the sentence so-ma, meaning ‘I will go.’
Words [Geary, Elaine (1977). Kunimaipa grammar: morphonemics to discourse. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.]
Non-
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
ed
Word classes that are usually not suffixed are responses, exclamations, attention particles, vocative particles, conjunctions, names, and particles. Responses are short replies on a conversation; such as, ''
kara'' 'okay',
ee 'yes',
gu 'yes', ''
ev'' 'no'. Exclamations is usually occurs on sentence boundary; such as,
auma 'surprise',
au 'mistake',
maize 'regret', and
aip 'dislike'. Attention particles are only used on reported speech; such as, ''
gui'' 'call to come',
ae 'attention getter', and
siu 'attention getter -close'. Vocative particles are beginning of addresses in sentence boundary; such as,
engarim 'hey, woman',
erom 'hey, man',
engarohol 'hey, children', and ''
guai'' 'uncle'. Conjunctions are links in "phrases, clauses, and sentences"; such as,
mete 'and, but, then',
ma 'or, and',
povoza 'therefore', and
ong 'but, then'. Names label person, place, days, and months; such as,
made-ta-ka, 'on Monday', and
pode-ta-ka, 'on Thursday'. Lastly, one particles that is used in introducing a quote is never suffixed,
pata meaning 'reply'.
Suffixed or non-suffixed
Word classes including adjectives, pronouns, interrogative words, nouns, and verbs can be suffixed or non-suffixed depending on the meaning and usage. Some example of adjectives in Kunimaipa are
tina 'good',
goe 'small', and
hori 'bad'. The Kunimaipa language has 7 pronouns, including
ne,
ni, pi,
rei,
rari,
aru, and
paru. Example of od interrogative words are
taira and
tai meaning 'what'. Noun is a large word class including words such as
abana 'men',
abanaro 'young men',
no nai nai 'everything', and
mapo 'all'.
Not Classified According to suffixation
The word classes that cannot be classified by suffixation are locations, temporals, adverbs, and auxiliaries.
References
Further reading
*
* {{cite journal, url=http://www-01.sil.org/pacific/png/pubs/0000364/Weri.pdf, title=Organised Phonology Data, last=Boxwel, first=Maurice, year=1992, access-date=2018-07-23, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723181550/http://www-01.sil.org/pacific/png/pubs/0000364/Weri.pdf, archive-date=2018-07-23, url-status=dead
* Dobrin, Lisa. n.d. ''Noun classification in Weri''. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia.
Languages of Central Province (Papua New Guinea)
Goilalan languages