Tairora-English Dictionary

Lois E. Vincent Grateful acknowledgement is made for funding from Wycliffe USA and private donors which will enable the speakers of the to be able to purchase copies of the dictionary at a price affordable to them.

The drawing in Appendix 3 are by Anisi Kaave.

250 Copies

Published 2010 by the Wycliffe, inc. Branch

ISBN: 9980-0-3600-1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

MAP OF LANGUAGE AREA...... iv

PREFACE...... v Introduction...... v The Tairora language dictionary project...... v The sounds of Tairora...... v Tairora sound equivalents in Australian English:...... vi The dictionary entries...... vi Grammar categories...... vi Transitive and Intransitive...... vii Homonyms...... vii Extended meanings...... vii Scientific names...... vii

TAIRORA – ENGLISH...... 1-488

ENGLISH – TAIRORA...... 489-575

APPENDICES: GRAMMAR OF TAIRORA...... 576-608

SEMANTIC GROUPINGS...... 609-634

SOME DRAWINGS...... 635-641 Map showing North and South Tairora villages in relation to Kainantu and .

Kainantu ■ ■ Ukarumpa Haapaarira ● ●Auhaana ●Vatantara ●Ontavura Vurauta ● ●Ahaunkira North Tairora ●Uraara ●Untoqa ●Bantura (Vaantura) ●Vontaqa ●Aviqora ●Vatainavura ●Arokaara ●Noraikora ●Noraqeranta Maamaqera● ●Noraikora ●Vaaravuntora ●Oqiva ●Vaaravuna Saiqora ● Arau ● ●Atopi Varosia ● ●Hosarora ●Nompia ●Aantantara ●Tomaura ● Suwaira (Kuvaira ) North Tairora ●Orena ☼Mt Erantora Dialect Motokara● ●Kyaurona ●Omwunra - Obura Kovara ● ●Qaakyara - Asara Vaira ● ●Aatasaara ●Vivera ●Anima South Tairora ●Toqura ●●ToqukyenaAheqa Veqaura ● ●Haaviqinra ●Oraura ●Vinaata ●Konkompira

Village names are given in Tairora spelling. Distance from Ukarumpa to Suwaira by road is 30 km.

iv PREFACE

Introduction The Tairora language is a member of the Eastern family of the East New Guinea Highlands Stock, and the language is spoken by approximately 13,000 people most of whom live in the Wonenara-Kainantu sub-district in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. There are a number a dialects spoken, and the major division is between north and south. The Northern dialects differ from the Southern dialects in the following way:

North Tairora Dialects South Tairora Dialects 4 way distinction in the verb 5 way distinction in the verb No nr or mw phonemes nr and mw phonemes No animate or inanimate distinction Animate or inanimate distinction made in made in the verb ‘to be’ the verb ‘to be’

The entries in this dictionary are from the North Tairora. This group numbers approximately 5,000 who live in villages near Kainantu and in villages as far south as Suwaira, Motokara and Kovara (see map).

The Tairora language dictionary project The material in this dictionary was collected by the authors during short periods of field work and residency in Aupora and Bantura villages followed by 49 years living in Vaa’era village in the Suwaira area in the North Tairora under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Data was gathered f rom everyday conversations, written texts and observations. This is not an exhaustive dictionary of so rich a language as Tairora. It is hoped that there will be some who will use this as a base to produce an even fuller dictionary As well as this dictionary helping to preserve the Tairora language, it is hoped that it will encourage school children and the community at large to value their mother tongue and not consider it inferior to and English. It may also be a benefit to non-Tairora speakers living in the community.

The sounds of Tairora The Tairora alphabet has 11 consonants: p, t, k, h, m, n, p, q, r, s, and v. The letter s is a variant of h in introduced English words like soap, salt and helicopter and usage depends on the preference of the speaker. The glottal stop is written as q. This was chosen over the apostrophe with the hope of keeping the whole word together in cursive writing. There are no final consonants. v The vowels are a, aa, i, e, o, u with ai and au glides. The lengthened a is written as aa. Pre-nasalized stops mp, nt, nk

Tairora sound equivalents in Australian English: a as in but aa as in father ai between the sound in may and the sound in iron au as in over e as in error h as in English i as in bee k as in keg m as in English mp as in temper and timber (Suwaira) n as in English nk as in sinking nt as in centre and sender (Suwaira) o as in lawn p as in pat q represents the glottal stop r is a single flapped ř s as in English t as in English u as in boot v is like a v made with the two lips instead of top teeth on bottom lip

The dictionary entries There are entries from the Tairora dialect (Tai) close to Kainantu, and the Suwaira dialect (Suw) dialect north of Obura. The headword is usually Tairora. Variant forms of the entry follow the headword/major entry. The English meaning follows a ► (wedge). The abbreviation cf (compare) refers the reader to a related word elsewhere in the dictionary. Other abbreviations are: Lit ­– literally, Opp – opposite

Grammar categories: (n) noun or noun phrase (-va) -va class noun (see grammar) (pro) pronoun (v) verb or verb phrase (adj) adjective (adv) adverb

vi Transitive and Intransitive Many verbs can be transitive and/or intransitive. Verbs or verb phrases ending with ke are usually transitive. Those ending with vi are intransitive. Sometimes the headword verb (lexeme) might end in vi (intransitive), but an example might end in ke (transitive).

Homonyms Homonyms are indicated by a subscript number after the headword. See for example tota1 and tota2.

Exended Meaings Some headwords have an extended meaning depending on context. A number and a right bracket 1) following the ► (wedge) gives the extended meaning. These numbers following the headword indicate the number of meaning variations. See for example rukite ► 1).

Scientific names Where known, scientific names are given and these are in underlined italics. For example, the korikora – the ornamental honeyeater – has the scientific name:Melidectes torquatus.

Appendices The first appendix, pages 579-611, is a simple grammar which it is hoped will be easy to follow for those Tairora speakers who have a reasonable grasp of English. The second appendix, pages 612-contains listings of semantically-related groups of words. The third appendix, pages 635-641, has drawings by Anisi Kaave from the Tairora valley.

Bibliography The volume entitled The Languages of the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland Stock edited by Howard McKaughan and published by the University of Washington Press 1973 contains more information about Tairora Noun Morphology, Tairora Verb Structure, and has some translated Tairora Texts. The 2005 revision of the Tairora New Testament, Qaraaka Uva Tivatora, and the Old Testament 50%, Haarua Uva Tivatora, is on line. A primer and other literacy materials are also on line. A Dialect paper and the last edition of the Tairora hymn book will also be on line.

Acknowledgements While it is not possible to acknowledge every individual who has helped in producing the dictionary we do want to recognize those who have given an especially large amount of time to making the dictionary completion possible. Tuva’u Vauto and Ra’ia Duhe gave invaluable help in checking and re-checking the Suwaira material without the benefit of knowing English which was the case with most vii of those who checked the material. Others who also contributed are: Aive O’uvi, Monu Vatau, Puampu Vahi, Ori Kainke, Manki Vi’i, Tutua Vahi, U’aatai Arovara and others from Bantura and surrounding vil- lages. Timoti Uhaa, Vohaa-Uva Nanori, Verava Kaina, Uiniqa O’o’i, Konti Kave, Amuri Ka’o, Rupi O’o’i, Avaa O’o’i, Noto Imia, Deri Duhe, Kokaahi Deri, Vuari O’o’i, Ka’aari Vumpani, Hirihiri Noto from Suwaira. We acknowledge much help from Birds of New Guinea – Beehler, Pratt and Zimmer- man (1986). We are grateful to the Tairora people who have befriended us for many years and taught us their language and worked with us to produce literature for their own people. We are deeply appreciative of friends, family members and churches in the Australia, Norway, Switzerland, the United States and other countries who have faithfully supported us and our work among the Tairora people for many years. Finally, we would like to acknowledge assistance from Wycliffe USA and private donors who have helped meet the cost of the publication.

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