Organised Phonology Data
Fore Language [FOR] Okapa – Eastern Highlands Province Trans New Guinea Phylum; East New Guinea Highlands Stock; East-Central (Gorokan) Family; Fore Subfamily Population census: 17,000 (1981) Major villages: Okapa, Ofafina, Ibusa, Anumpa, Ivingoi, Purosa, Umasa Linguistic work done by: SIL Data checked by: Graham Scott, May 1992
Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory
e k k i k m n o p p p s t t t u w j a a e k, k i nk m n o p,b p mp s t,r t nt u w y ’ @ @ D J H L M N O R S S T V X
Consonants
Bilab LabDen Dental Alveo Postalv Retro Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn Glottal Plosive p t k Nasal m n Trill Tap/Flap Fricative s Lateral Fricative Approx j Lateral Approx Ejective Stop Implos
/w/ voiced labial-velar approximant
/b/ voiced prenasalized bilabial plosive
/d / voiced prenasalized alveolar plosive
/ / voiced prenasalized velar plosive p pane '(it is a) sun' m mane 'here' nabawe '(it is) my father' amane 'his shadow' aparebuwe 'I sever it' a'makuwe 'I squash (it)'
p pi mparisawe 'from that ground' ampaeye 'he gets it'
Fore OPD Printed: August 20, 2004 Page 2 w waye 'he goes' k kawe '(it is) rain' awawe 'his tooth' aragawe '(it is a) girl' a'wareyuwe 'I roll over' akawe '(it is) his back' t taye 'it burns' k pi nka'tategi 'I put it there and I' aragawe '(it is a) girl' tunkane '(it is) his axe' ataye 'he puts it'
j yagawe '(it is) day' t pi ntagarawe '(it is) that man' ayakuwe 'I show him' antaruye 'it thunders' a'ya'mawe '(it is) all' n naye 'he eats it' isa'awe '(it is) sweet potato' anariwe 'it is an arrow tip' abagepuwe 'I waken him' a'napuwe 'I pluck (it)' s sararene 'Saturday' asaribuwe 'I shake (it) off'
Vowels
i u
e o
The long low vowel // i iriye 'it boils' u umuwe '(it is a) rat' igiwe 'gourd' tusi 'pumkin' kagi piye 'he laughs'
i aintiwe 'later' e eri'yane '(it is) work' kanaine 'he comes!' pasesuwe 'beads' taye 'it burns' aentawe '(it is an) old woman' e akenaenawe '(they are) thorns' asawe '(it is a)tie' kampae 'no' waye 'he goes'
o aowe '(it is ) his eye' ugawe 'nothing' agaone 'I see it' o omuwe 'I tell him' u auwe 'I plant' abone 'hull' agaune 'we see it' kano 'come'
/i/ /e/ /o/ /u/
Suprasegmentals (tone, stress, length) Stressed syllable has always high pitch. Fore OPD Printed: August 20, 2004 Page 3
Tone (accent) is phonemic. Among disyllabic words, all four accent patterns are phonemic: L spread, H spread, LH, HL. Among trisyllabic words, six patterns are phonemic: L spread, H spread, LH spread, HL spread, LHL, HLH.
Syllable Patterns V a.bi.go 'ask him' VV ao.we 'his eye' CV mo.ni 'down there' ma.ro.ni 'over there' a.ya.mpu.we '(it's) his bone' CVV mae.ni 'up there' a.gau.ne 'we see it' CCV ta.'wa.we '(it is) a type of shrub' a.ya.mpu.we '(it is) his bone''
Conventions: Phonological
The phonemes /p t k/ are voiceless word initially and following glottal plosive. Intervocalically they are voiced /b /.
/t/ fluctuates intervocalically between [] - [l].
/p/ and /k/ fluctuate word initially between [p] - [], [k] - [x], intervocalically between [b] - [], [] - []
/s/ occurs intervocalically , and initially in loanwords.
// occurs only intervocalically or medially preceding the simple consonants /p, t, k, m, n, w, y /
The phonemes / p t k/ do not occur utterance initial., only word initial in phrases.
Only the vowels /e/ and /o/ occur sentence final.
The vowel // occasionally occurs prepausal, as in the text: 'Pigoya, ...'
Conventions: Orthographic
< a > represents both / / and //.
/k/ is written < k > initially and < g > between vowels
/p/ is written < p > initially and < b > between vowels
/t/ is written < t > initially and < r > between vowels
Glottal plosive is written only when intervocalic or preceding / m n w y/.
The consonant clusters /p/, /t/ and /k/ are written <p, t> and <k> respectively.
Accent is not written.
Transcription of a recorded passage < Wa'enetisa nantepisa irosa'utegi yaganempa ntaba tumpa ku'magi Aobakaumaentisa me asumitegi, tumima; tumimagi Kabarepa me tunkataogana eri'ya maekena atumegi, kae eri'ya maekena; naeba tumimagi ma tumpintogana, " Aentanempao kanao!" yeka, waogana me pusiwama umu pama tamipa uma nayakeka umaeritegi ampa kaemagi, kaemiyogana kanagi Pirinaumunu nkamogana, maete wagasagi; mampa Mabaritaba purimiyena pumiyegi asupa'urinta, purimiyenaba puma, me tunkatategi pumutategi; Aegayanta isa'aba uma ku'ma aesaga'uritegi ma me nkatategi, "Pigoya, kae mata Ayaiyakaba kabiyo!" otate naeba anintaena puritegi Kiyagamutisa asugu'ma nagaite mampa tumuwe. > Fore OPD Printed: August 20, 2004 Page 4
'Leaving my house in the village I went down and dug food for my pig, then went up from Aobakaumaenti and put its food down there and came down. I went down and down there left Kabare who came down there to get work, to work for you. And I came down and when I arrived here, you said, "Mother-in-law, come here!" and I went and you showed me down there where the cat had killed a rat and I went and took it and went and cooked it. And while I was cooking it, Pirinaumunu came, and I gave it to him, and he took it away to eat. And Mabarita was here sweeping and I went in and took the broom, and I swept and put the rubbish down there. And after doing that I went and dug sweet potato for Aegaya and I carried it and put it down here. "Okay, you care for Ayaiga here!" I told him while I collected some green vegetables, and then I went up and cooked some and from Kiyagamuti when I had eaten I came down here.'
Bibliography Scott, Graham. 1963. 'The Dialects of Fore.' Oceania 33. ___. 1968. 'Fore Final Verbs.' Pacific Linguistics A 16. ___. 1973. 'Higher levels of Fore Grammar.' Pacific Linguistics B 23. ___. 1978. 'The Fore Language of Papua New Guinea.' Pacific Linguistics B 47. ___. 1980. 'Fore Dictionary.' Pacific Linguistics C 62. Nicholson, Ruth, and Ray Nicholson. 1961. 'Phonemes of the Fore Language.' Workshop Papers 1961.