Mapos Buang Dictionary Page 1

Mapos Buang Dictionary Page 1 NOTE: 'This is work in progress being made available for the use of anyone interested. I am continuing to work on this dictionary, and anticipate making updated versions available from time to time. Bruce Hooley, April 27, 2006. INTRODUCTION Bruce A. Hooley Central Buang is an Austronesian language spoken in the central part of the Snake River Valley in the Mumeng sub-Province, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. The term Buang is not a local one, although it is generally accepted by them. Bu is the Busama word for water or river, and the Ang is a stream which flows into the ocean on the coastal side of the range. It was along this stream that the Buangs used to travel to reach the coast if they ventured that far afield in pre-contact days. The other term used by coastal people for the Buangs was Kaidemoe, which sometimes appears in the literature as Gaidemoe. This was a somewhat derogatory term akin to 'bush kanaka'. The Buang language family is a close-knit group of four major and two minor languages ranging from Buasi on the coast to Piu in the middle Watut. There are three major groups in the Snake River valley, the headwaters, the central villages, and the Mangga Buang. These three parts correspond to linguistic divisions also—the first two being considered dialects, and the third a distinct language. For further details of the linguistic situation in the area see Hooley (1970). The data recorded in this dictionary is based principally on the speech of Mapos I and the nearby villages. Mapos I, is one of the main Central Buang villages. Some of the other villages of this dialect show minor differences in speech and where these are known they have been recorded. Central Buang comprises ten villages: Wij (Davong), Römaröm (Lomalom), Humeḳ (Bulantim), Mapos I, Mapos II, Sebulek (Chimbulok), Saggee (Senagai), Sëhayo (Sagaiyo), Seyuggee (Siyuwai), and Pepeḳnë (Popekani)1. Almost every village has minor linguistic variations; for example Sebulek and Saggee tend to use the backed k in many words where Mapos uses a regular one. Mapos II uses the -j suffix for 1st person plural inalienable possession as well as for 3rd person plural, while Mapos I has two separate forms. Basically 1 The names in italics are the normal Buang village names. Those in brackets are the names given to them by government officers and appearing in many if not all government records. The discrepancy between the two is sometimes due to the difficulties of Buang phonology, but sometimes arises because an original village has been moved to another nearby site with a different name. Senagai is one example of this, as Senaggee refers to an area a little further down the valley than the present village of Saggee. There are a number of smaller groupings in many of these villages, each of which has its own name. Mapos II for example is made up of two main parts known as Bod and Jamenggee, and even then each little piece of ground has its own name which is well known to all the villagers concerned. 11/3/2006 Page 2 Mapos Buang Dictionary however the villages of Mapos I, Mapos II, Sebulek, Saggee, Seyuggee, and Sëhayo are all very similar. Pepeḳnë also belongs in the Central Buang group although geographically it is close to the Mangga Buang villages of Toḳanën and Rahis (Lagis). It is separated from the rest of the Central Buang villages by the valley of the Ġagwee river, and shows evidence of the influence of Mangga Buang speech. A more substantial difference can be seen between the villages listed above and those of Humeḳ, Römaröm and Wij. A number of vocabulary differences are evident, with Wij being more divergent than the other two. This is because of its proximity to the villages of the Headwater dialect. While most of the distinctions observed in the speech of these villages are vocabulary items, there are some phonological features such as intonation patterns which are characteristic of particular villages. Such differences may even have grammatical implications in some cases. An example of the latter is that Mapos and the surrounding villages often show loss of the n of the continuative prefix accompanied by the upgrading of the associated shewa to a full vowel, for example denenër becomes dënër. In my observation, this loss of the n never occurs in the speech of the villages of Römaröm and Humek. The words in this dictionary were collected over a period of 25 years. Many of them were contributed by older men since dead, and some are no longer known by the younger generation. Because of changing culture and values some words have fallen into disuse. Most of the Central Buang villages occur at altitudes between 1000 and 2000 metres. The staple foods have been sweet potato and yam, the latter being particularly significant ritually and socially. Other staples, such as taro, tapioca, and bananas, are grown also, and form a not insignificant part of the diet. Greens, legumes, and other vegetables, especially the immature flower of the Saccharum edule, are also popular. The importance of these foods is revealed by the multiplicity of names for the cultivated species of some of them. Originally the people seem to have lived as family groups in houses scattered around the bush but with connections to a particular men's house. Authority, to the extent that it existed, was exercised by the leaders of the men's houses. The important people were those who were good at fighting, magic, or gardening (and therefore were in a position to give away food in large quantities). These characteristics were often interconnected. Of particular importance was one's birth position, that is the order in which one appeared with respect to one's brothers or sisters (Hooley 1972). Also of importance was the clan or degwa to which one belonged (Sankoff 1972). Due to pressure from mission and government in colonial times, the people were drawn together to live in villages. During the period of our fieldwork there was a tendency to drift back to family homes and hamlets scattered along the mountainside. There was also a dearth of able-bodied young men, and, to a lesser extent, women. So many of this age group had gone to work or live in the towns, leaving the work of growing food largely to the old people. Some 11/3/2006 Mapos Buang Dictionary Page 3 emigrants eventually do return and settle down, but more and more there is a tendency for them to spend their entire lives in places like Moresby and Lae, with only an occasional visit home. One of the attractions to this kind of life is the opportunity it affords for their children to get a better education in English than is available in the village. A side effect however is that many of these children grow up not speaking Buang well, and not familiar with their own history and tradition. This is lamented by the parents and grandparents, and there was a tendency to send at least one of child home to live with grandparents and so become fluent in the language. SOUND SYSTEM & ORTHOGRAPHY Buang is phonetically more complex than most of the other Austronesian languages in the area. Table I gives a phonetic chart of the contrasts found in Central Buang: 11/3/2006 Page 4 Mapos Buang Dictionary Consonants: Bilabial Dental Alveo-Palatal Velar Labio-Velar Uvular Voiceless Stops p t ʧ k kʷ q Voiced Prensalized Stops ͫb ⁿd ⁿʤ ŋɡ ŋɡʷ ɴɢ Voiced Continuants β l̪ ɾ/l ɣ ˠw/w ʁ Nasals m n nʸ ŋ ŋʷ ɴ Semi-vowel y Vowels: Front Central Back High i i: u u: Mid e e: (ə)* o o: Low ɛ ɛ: a a: ɔ ɔ: * [ə] is a prominent feature of Buang phonology, but is not contrastive. A description of the sounds follows: Voiceless Obstruents: [p, t, k, kʷ, ḳ] are voiceless stops at the bilabial, dental, velar, labiovelar, and uvular points of articulation. [ʧ] is a voiceless sibilant which tends to affricate articulation, and with some speakers in some environments occurs as [ty]. It functions as part of the series of voiceless obstruents by filling the lacuna in that series at the alveo-palatal point of articulation. Voiced Obstruents: [ ͫb, ⁿd, ŋɡ, ŋɡʷ, ɴɢ] are voiced stops at the positions corresponding to those of the voiceless stops. They are always pre-nasalized with the corresponding homorganic nasal. [ⁿʤ] is a voiced sibilant which tends to affricate articulation, and is also pre-nasalized. Voiced Continuants: [β, ɣ, ʁ] are voiced fricatives at the bilabial, velar, and uvular points of articulation. [l̪] is a dental lateral tending to fricative articulation. [ɾ/l] is a flap with retroflex or lateral articulation. Some speakers tend to produce one or the other of these possibilities exclusively, but in general the articulation of these two variants is free and independent of conditioning factors. [ˠw/w] is a bilabial semivowel, but again it is interpreted as belonging in this position on the chart because it fills a lacuna in the labiovelar position, and because, together with [l̪] and [ɾ/l] it shows the same kind of grammatical correlation as the other members of the continuant series. The voiced velar fricative onglide [ˠw]occurs following shewa word medially, [w] occurs in other environments. Nasals: [m, n, nʸ, ŋ, ŋʷ, ɴ] are voiced nasals at the respective points of articulation. No minimal contrasts in identical environments have been found for [ŋ] in contrast to [ɴ], but the evidence is clear that they are, in fact; distinct.

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