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(Lakuramau) in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea

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(Lakuramau) in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea Lakuramau. Notes on lexicon and morphosyntax. Lakuramau is an Austronesian language, spoken in only one village (Lakuramau) in the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The number of speakers is around 1,500; the language is endangered: most children still have a good passive knowledge and a certain active knowledge of Lakuramau, but they mostly speak Tok Pisin with each other and with their parents. Lakuramau has been described as a ‘transitional dialect’ or ‘transitional language’ between the two neighbouring languages Kara and Nalik (cf. Volker 1994: 3). The classification of Lakuramau as a “dialect” of Nalik or Kara or as an independent language must still be established. However, the speakers of Lakuramau have already a clear idea about the status of their language: they consider it to be an independent language, indeed very similar to Nalik and Kara, but part of neither of the two language communities. I am inclined to consider Lakuramau as an independent language that is part of the Lavongai-Tigak-Kara-Nalik chain (cf. Ross 1988). Lakuramau has never been described, nor documented (except for two songs recorded and transcribed by Robert Eklund in 2000; https://www.ida.liu.se/~robek28/PNG-Lakurumau.htm ). In the following, I present a brief overview of some topics in Lakuramau lexicon and morphosyntax. All data derive from my own fieldwork in Lakuramau in September 2016. Swadesh list: a comparison with Nalik and Kara The list is taken from Swadesh (1971: 283). Kara, Nalik and Lakuramau share most of the basic vocabulary, with Lakuramau agreeing now with Kara, now with Nalik. Lakuramau Nalik Kara 1. I ne ni ne 2. you (sg) no no no 3. we we.incl./excl. dire1 we.incl. di we.incl. taare we.excl. maam we.excl. maam 4. this zakamam angkare aanabe’ 5. that zakanam angkanaan aave, aapave 6. who nanis nis nase’ 7. what a zo a ze a so 8. not ka vit, pe ka vit, we pife 9. all xawuz vaagdul xapiak, mu 10. many (a mo) făyes faras xaves 11. one azaxamon azarei saxa 12. two arălăwă uru taragua 13. big lăbă lapuk, laba molava 14. long mondus baraf modus 15. small mondak mamut modak 16. woman răvin ravin tefin 17. man rate rate mataa 18. person wuna - mataa 19. fish yen yen din 20. bird manu mani manu 21. dog viu viu piu 22. house flu vaal lifu 23. tree wai yai wai 24. seed xala xalamon kam 25. leaf waxan waxan xavatai 26. root xadoi xatkadaar xare 1 My consultants told me repeatedly that dire is used for both inclusive and exclusive first person plural. In dual and paucal, however, there is a difference: nimai ‘we two.excl’; dirai ‘we two.inclusive’; nutan ‘we few.excl’; ditan ‘we three.inclusive’. 27. bark bak xupkup xup (< Tok Pisin bak) 28. skin rua waan ta 29. meat miske maras - 30. blood dei dare ria 31. bone ruan run tun 32. grease vuan guan - 33. egg xati xater, yau xatolok 34. horn - - - 35. tail zum zum - 36. feather vui lawas - 37. hair vui var fui 38. head wat waat putu 39. ear rana langa tanga 40. eye măra mara mata 41. nose is - yusu 42. mouth ngus ngus, bale vala 43. tooth fa lava fa 44. tongue xema xarama xalema 45. claw marimba walwal damau - 46. foot xa raak ka 47. knee buk a xa bukak - 48. hand mit mit ma 49. belly ru xu - 50. neck lengavua vuru - 51. breasts băbongană babanga - 52. heart buzei lamlamon lalamon 53. liver yat yaat yaat 54. drink inim imen num 55. eat yan, vangan yen, vangan fangan 56. bite xayat xarat xet 57. see taxamai ramai, raain xalum 58. hear longoi langa longoi 59. (know) - rexaas texaas 60. (sleep) - milaif matef 61. die marasang mat (faanong) maat 62. kill zof a marasang zof famat punuk 63. swim kayok kayok - 64. fly lif laf laj 65. walk zangas zangas sangas 66. come fălamăn (also: wut sawat wut) 67. lie uman milaif mati 68. sit ze zi nai 69. stand ti ru tigina 70. give rabai lis tavai 71. say fedawai piaat, xus xuus 72. sun yas yaas ngaas 73. moon flen flen fulun 74. star wătpăda watpada vapara 75. water danim daanim raarum 76. rain davui daavur - 77. stone vat vaat faat 78. sand wan xon gun 79. earth via pira xavala, pia (soil) 80. cloud bara (bobung ‘be vata cloudy’), bara ‘sky’ 81. smoke buan bun bun 82. fire văre uvara fata 83. ash nebit nibaraat vebit 84. burn veif kaif raam 85. path len len salan 86. mountain wut wut put 87. red bung memek vuung, vuj 88. green moxawe maraxawa maxawa 89. yellow xis xis xiis 90. white văzak rofkof pasak 91. black xoi maxit maxata 92. night suk labung vung, voj 93. hot lagaf lagaf - 94. cold burung mingavat - 95. full pus mbus bas, masi 96. new vo vaxor fa’ui 97. good doxo doxo roxo 98. round kaliwut - (kalivan ‘surround’) 99. dry măgăle vurigmisai pigalip 100. name izin iza isi(n) Tab 1. Lakuramau, Nalik and Kara Swadesh lexemes. Sources: own fieldwork (Lakuramau); Volker 1994 (Nalik); Dryer 2013; Schlie & Schlie 1984 (Kara). Topics in Lakuramau morphosyntax (a) Ditransitives. Patterns in Nalik, Lakuramau and Kara In Nalik, ditransitives as ‘give’ have mostly an argumental structure with a direct object and an indirect object introduced by the preposition sin ‘to, of’: (1) Nalik Ga lis a baxot sin a ravin 1SG give ART money to ART woman ‘I give the money to the woman’ (Volker 1994: 227) A second, less diffused pattern foresees the recipient encoded as a direct object and the theme as a prepositional phrase (in this case, the verb lis ‘give’ is used in the participial form relas ‘giving’): (2) Nalik Gu relas ni pan a mun saan 2SG give:PART 1SG PREP ART PL thing You give me the things’ (Volker 1994: 296) In Lakuramau, I could only elicit the second pattern; it seems that indirect objects are never encoded as prepositional phrases, but always as direct objects: (3) Lakuramau Ne rabai no van a ni 1SG give 2SG PREP ART coconut ‘I give you a coconut’ (own field notes) According to Dryer (2013), the pattern attested in Lakuramau is also the most common in Kara: (4) Kara Ne taa tavai nano pa-na xasa mo 1SG FUT give 2SG PREP-3SG other thing ‘I will give you another thing ...’ (Dryer 2013: 141) (b) Alienable/inalienable possession Lakuramau has a double set of possessives, used to mark alienable and inalienable possession. Alienable possession is expressed with the preposition sin ‘of; to; for’, which takes personal suffixes: (5) Lakuramau A buk ză-gu ART book of_1SG Inalienable possession is expressed through possessive suffixes: (6) Lakuramau A măr-am ART eye-2SG ‘Your eye’ Possessive suffixes can also form ‘long’, independent forms: (7) Lakuramau A yat nangu/ num ART liver Px-1SG Px-2SG ‘My/your liver’ Parts of the body, elements that form the ‘person’ (footprints, voice, name) take the inalienable set of possessives. My informants told me that some nouns such as vui ‘hair’ can take both sets: vui nangu ‘my hair (inal.))/ vui zăgu ‘my hair (alien.))’. There may be a semantic difference between the two forms, but at this stage I do not have enough data to state anything definitive on this. Kin terms, instead, want the alienable preposition sin: as far as I could verify, only diak ‘sibling’ is inalienably possessed: diagu ‘my sister’; yaya zăgu ‘my grandparent/grandchild’; tete zăgu ‘my father’. Alienable possessives based on the proposition si- are found in Nalik (sin) and Kara (si) (Volker 1994: 174ff ; Dryer 2013: 87ff). In both languages, however, kin terms take almost always the inalienable set of possessives, while in Lakuramau they don’t. (c) Benefactive preposition xa In Lakuramau, beneficiaries are expressed by means of the benefactive preposition xa (preceded by a ‘the’), which takes personal suffixes: (8) Lakuramau Ne ga da maran a buk a xa-num 1SG 1SG FUT buy ART book ART for_2SG ‘I will buy the book for you’ (9) No gu da maran a buk a xa-ku 2SG 2SG FUT buy ART book ART for_1SG ‘You will buy the book for me’ (own field notes) The benefactive preposition ka/ku is also found in Kara and Nalik (Dryer 2013: 147; Volker 1994: 219). In Nalik, however, only the first person singular is attested: xaaku ‘for me’: second person singular, for instance, *xaanum is not attested; in Kara and Lakuramau, instead, xaanum is a regular form of the paradigm. In Nalik, the possessive preposition sin can also be used with benefactive meaning: ga wul a buk sunum ‘I buy the book for you’ (Nalik, own field notes; Volker 1994: 228). As this brief overview of some morphosyntactic properties of Lakuramau shows, Lakuramau shares some patterns with Nalik and others with Kara. Some patterns, it seems, are declined originally in Lakuramau, as the use of the alienable set of possessives with kin terms, unlike both Kara and Nalik. References Dryer, Matthew S. 2013. A Grammatical Description of Kara-Lemakot. Asia-Pacific Linguistics. Australian National University. Ross, Malcom. 1988. Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages o f Western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics C-98. Schlie, Ginny & Schlie, Perry. 2014; Created: 1984. Kara Dictionary [Manuscript]. http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/abstract.asp?id=928474558118 Swadesh, Morris. 1971. The Origin and Diversification of Language. Ed. post mortem by Joel Sherzer. Chicago: Aldine. Volker, Craig Alan. 1994. The Nalik language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. New York/Bern/Berlin: Peter Lang.
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