Sobei (Sobey) is one of the Sarmi languages spoken in three villages (Sarmi Kota, Sawar, and Bagaiserwar) near the district center of Sarmi in Papua province of Indonesia. Ethnologue (2005) cites two third-party population estimates of 1,000 and 1,850, while Sterner estimates the population at 1,500 (1975) and 2,000 (1987), based on actual residence in the area.

Phonology Sobei reflexes of some common Austronesian etyma include 'hand', 'star', 'two', 'paddle', 'four', 'father', 'mother', '(his/her) child', 'coconut', 'food', 'betelnut', 'water', 'leaf', 'up', 'down', 'breast', 'sugarcane', 'rain', 'man', 'one', 'three', 'sand', 'fire'.

Vowels Front Central Back High Mid Low

Consonants Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal Plosive Fricative Liquid Semivowel

Morphology

Nouns Sobei distinguishes alienable possession from inalienable possession by directly suffixing nouns in the latter type of relationship, principally body parts and kin terms. The morphophonemics are often complex: 'my child', 'his/her child', 'our child(ren)', 'their child(ren)'; 'my head', 'his/her head', 'our heads', 'their heads'. The following paradigm of the inalienably possessed noun 'father' is from Sterner (1976). The intermediate before the possessive suffix serves as a plural marker. As an independent pronoun, is 3rd person plural ('they'). Some kin terms that do not take the possessive suffixes nevertheless have plural forms ending in : 'uncle-', 'mother-', 'cousin-'.

Person Singular Plural 1st person 2nd person 3rd person

Independent pronouns Person Singular Plural 1st person 2nd person 3rd person

Verbs Sobei verb stems can include a number of aspectual, reciprocal, modificational, or directional affixes, but every verb is minimally prefixed to show the grammatical person and number of its subject and grammatical mood (realis or irrealis). Mood markers differ according to whether the stem is simple or complex, and some classes of verbs show stem allomorphy in their conjugational paradigms.

+ 'come' Person/Number Realis Irrealis . .

+ 'make' Person/Number Realis Irrealis . . ' '

+ 'cry' Person/Number Realis Irrealis . .

+ 'eat' Person/Number Realis Irrealis . .

+ 'be' Person/Number Realis Irrealis . .

Notes Paradisec has two collections of Arthur Cappell's materials (AC1, AC2) that include Sobei language materials.

References

General references