Melpa (Meldpa, Mbowamb) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by the Kawelka people and other related tribes.
Melpa has a pandanus language used during karuka harvests. Melpa has a velar lateral, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for its binary counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011).Stewart, Pamela J., Andrew Strathern and Jürgen Trantow. 2011. Melpa-German-English Dictionary. Pittsburgh: University Library System.
Phonology Note: the descriptions of these soundsStucky et al. 1990 Melpa Phonology is not clear, so the conversion to IPA below may not be accurate.
Consonants LabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarNasalPlosiveRhoticLateral ? Semivowel
Ladefoged analyzes the laterals instead as , and the rhotic as .Melpa laterals
Plosives and laterals are voiceless in word-final position.
Vowels FrontCentralBackHigh , Near-highMidLow
Numeral system NumeralMelpaLiteral meaning 1 "one" 2 ragl "two" 3 ragltika "two-one" 4 tembokak "four" 5 pemp ti gul "one past four" 6 pemp ragl gul "two past four" 7 pemp ragltika gul "two-one past four" 8 engakl "eight" 9 pemp ti pip "one past eight" 10 pemp ragl pip "two past eight"
Media Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe, who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly (First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, and Black Harvest).
The documentary Ongka's Big Moka also has Melpa dialogue.
References
External links Kay Owens. "The Work of Glendon Lean on the Counting Systems of Papua New Guinea and Oceania", section "The Melpa Counting System". Mathematics Education Research Journal vol. 13 (April 2001),