Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation………….. Mendi – Southern Highlands...

Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation…………..

Mendi – Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Wanpis Pokea, B/Ed Graduate, University of Goroka

wpokea@gmail.com/wanpiswallacepokea@yahoo.com.au

Introduction • The Kewabi (Aliya) language is one of the

small languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. • It is spoken by almost 1000 people living in

the remote parts of Southern Highlands Province, especially in the Kagua/ Erave electorate.

• This presentation will focus on the basic grammatical features of the Kewabi language including phonology, morphology and syntax.

Source: Ethnologue.com

• 1. Phonology• 1.1. Consonants The Kewabi language has the following consonants. / l/ as in lapo 'two' /m/ as in musa 'to lift it up' /k/ as in kalu 'head' /n/ as in mena 'pig' /p/ as in paita 'to sleep' /r/ as in rara 'medicine leaf' /w/ as in wasa 'to look for' /s/ as in papasi 'kinship term' /b/ as in banapa 'lets go' /d/ as in dia 'no'

1.2. VowelsFRONT CENTRAL BACK

HIGH / i / ipa 'water'

/u/ musa ‘lift it up'

MID / ɛ / ame 'brother'

/o/ popo ‘steam’

LOW /e/ keke 'tongue' kebo ‘big'

/a/ apa ‘father’

• 1.3. Length.• The vowels of monosyllabic words are

always phonetically long: –/saa/ ‘put it’, –/i/ ‘faeces’;– /o/ ‘scabs’; –/u/ ‘sleep’.

1.4. Syllable structureIn the Kewabi language, the syllable patterns are V, VV, CV, and CVV.E.g. V u 'sleep' a.ka 'teeth' a.do.a 'to wait‘ VV ai.pa 'native salt‘,ai.na ‘related brothers’ CV pu 'go‘/Urine’ pi.ki 'center post' CVV pea 'to make' ka.mea 'to smell'

• Stress• In the Kewabi language, different syllables can

be stressed. There is no fixed stress.• Examples;• 1st Syllable = pi-ra “ means sit down”• 2nd Syllable = la-me-ya ‘ means they being talking• Final Syllable = a-ne-pu-li ‘where are you going’?

1.5. Suprasegmentals (stress)

2. Morphology• Kewabi morphemes can be divided into –Root morphemes; • e.g. anda ‘ to see’ (present tense)

–Derivational morpheme, • e.g. le-anda (eyeglass)

–Inflectional; • e.g. anda-lo ‘have seen’ (present

Perfect tense)

• By far the most frequent types of affixes in Kewabi are prefixes and suffixes. – E.g. le-anda, anda-lo

• The Kewabi language does not have infixes, circumfixes or reduplication.

3. Syntax 3.1. Verb classesThere are four verb classes in KewabiThe verb classes are determined by the shape of the V stem:

Class I: Va ada ‘to see’ Class II: Vla pola ‘to crack’ Class III: Vtya/Vra; patya ‘to sleep’

pira ‘to sit down’ •Class IV: Vaa rumaa ‘to distribute’

•The Kewabi language has an SOV structure.ama nana ripinamother child hold S O V'the mother holds the child'

Pronoun

number person gender

1. Personal pronouns

subject object Kewabi

singular

1st male/female I me Ni

2nd male/female you you Ne

3rd

male he him Nipi

female she her Nipi

plural

1st male/female we us Naa

2nd male/female you you Ne

3rd male/female/ they them Nimu

number person gender

2. Possessive pronouns

subject object Possessive Kewabi

singular

1st male/female I me My/Mine Ni nei

2nd male/female you you yours Ne nei

3rd

male he him his Ipi nei

female she her hers Ipi nei

plural

1st male/female we us Ours Na nai

2nd male/female you you Yours Ne nai

3rd male/female/neuter they them Theirs Imu nei

Tenses• There are four tenses in the dialect:

1. Present Tense• Na-lo. ‘I am eating.’

2. Future Tense• Na-lua ‘I will eat.’

3. Past Tenses

• Na-wo. ‘I just ate.’ immediate past tense

• Na-su. ‘I ate long time ago.’ remote past tense

Numerals • The Kewabi language can be counted using

base -5 numeral system.• For example;• Numeral in English Translation in Kewabi• 1 ‘egali’ • 2 ‘lapo’• 3 ‘repo’• 4 ‘mala’• 5 ‘su’ • 6 ‘ki menda na egali’

• 7 ‘ki menda na lapo’• 8 ‘ki menda na repo’• 9 ‘ki menda na mala’• 10 ‘ki lapo’• 11 ‘ki lapo na egali’• 12 ‘ki lapo na lapo’• 13 ‘ki lapo na repo’• 14 ‘ki lapo an mala’

Conclusion The Kewabi (Aliya) language is too isolated, and

it has therefore not been described by any linguists.

More research needs to be done on the Kewabi language.

Referencehpp//www. Ethnologue.com

• Thank you for yourattention!

• Any questions?