Mali Language
Mali or Gaktai is a Papuan language spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.
Dialects
There are two dialects of Mali:
- Arongda dialect (standard dialect; with two groups), spoken in the mountains, including in Marunga village (4°58′13″S 152°02′37″E / 4.970382°S 152.043503°E) in Sinivit Rural LLG, East New Britain Province
- Abilta dialect, spoken along the coast
Phonology
The phonology of the Mali language:
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| prenasal | ᵐb | ⁿd | ᵑɡ | ||
| Fricative | β | s | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Approximant | w | ɹ | j | ɰ | |
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ||||
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | a |
Noun classes
Mali makes use of noun classes. Below are some Mali noun class paradigms, using the noun root amēng ‘tree’ as an example:
Noun class Singular Dual Plural Gloss Masculine (m) amēng-ka amēng-iom amēng ‘slender tree’ Feminine (f) amēng-ki amēng-vem amēng ‘large full grown tree’ Diminutive (dim) amēng-ini amēng-ithom amēng-ithong ‘stick’ Reduced (rcd) amēng-ēm amēng-vam amēng-vap ‘tree stump’ Flat (flat) ― ― ― ― Excised (exc) amēng-igl amēng-iglem amēng-igleng ‘plank’ Long (long) amēng-vēt amēng-imelēm amēng-imelēk ‘pole’ Extended (ext) amēng-ia amēng-inēm amēng-inēk ‘large log’ Count neutral (cn) amēng ‘wood or trees’
Bibliography
- Stebbins, Tonya N. (2011). Mali (Baining) grammar. ANU, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 415. ISBN 9780858836297.
- Stebbins, Tonya N.; Tayul, Julius (2012). Mali (Baining) dictionary: Mali-Baining Amēthamon Angētha Thēvaik. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. p. 455. hdl:1885/9273. ISBN 9781922185006.
References
- ^ Mali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Stebbins, Tonya N. 2011. Mali (Baining) grammar. (Pacific Linguistics, 623.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
- ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- ^ Palmer, Bill (2018). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 796–807.
- ^ Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.