Namia (Namie, Nemia) is a Sepik language spoken in Namea Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It goes by various names, such as Edawapi, Lujere, Yellow River. Language use is "vigorous" (Ethnologue).
In Sandaun Province, it is spoken in Ameni (), Edwaki, Iwane (), Lawo, Pabei (), and Panewai villages in Namea Rural LLG, and in the Wiyari area. It is also spoken in 19 villages of Yellow River District in East Sepik Province.
Dialects Namie dialect groups are:
Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (), Yaru (), and Norambalip () villages Amani: spoken in Augwom (), Iwani (), Pabei (), Panewai, and Tipas () villages Wiari: spoken in Alai (), Nami (), Worikori (), Akwom (), and Naum () villages Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (), Mantopai (), Yawari (), and Aiendami () villages
Phonology Namia has only 7 phonemic consonants:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |+Namia consonant inventory ! !! Labial !! Alveolar !! Velar |- !Plosive
! Nasal
!Tap
! Lateral | || l ||
Some analyses present /tʃ/ as an eighth phoneme, although its distribution is predictable. [tʃ] and in some cases /r/ are positional variants of /t/, as described in the table below. +Distribution of oral coronal phones in NamiaEnvironmentPhonesExamplesAttestedIn variationUnattested# _[t], [l][t~r]*[tʃ][tip] 'basket', [lip] 'ditch'_ #[r], [l]*[t], *[tʃ][er] 'we two', [el] 'woman'[i u] _[tʃ], [r], [l]*[t][titʃei] 'stone', [irei] 'digging stick', [ilei] 'name'[e ə o a] _[r], [l]*[tʃ], *[t][ari] 'already', [alu] 'branch'V _ C V[r], [l]*[tʃ], *[t][irno] 'face', [ilpok] 'storm front'V C _ V[r], [l], [t]*[tʃ][amral] 'width', [amtou] 'red pandanus', [emomle] 'awaken' Word-initially [r] may be heard in place of expected [t] in rapid speech if the previous word ends in a vowel. In no environment do more than three phonemes contrast, meaning that a fourth oral coronal /tʃ/ is not required. [tʃ] only occurs following high vowels /i/ or /u/ (e.g. [putʃwapu] 'lazy') where it can be seen as an allophone of /t/. In most environments only two phonemes contrast, suggesting that /r/ only recently diverged from /t/.
There are 6 vowels in Namia:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" ! !! Front !! Central !! Back |- ! Close | i || || |- ! Mid
! Open
The glides [j w] occur as allophones of /i u/, e.g. /iapu/ [japu] 'Sepik river', /uəla/ → [wəla] 'house'.
Grammar Unlike other Sepik languages, Namia has an inclusive-exclusive distinction for the first-person pronoun, which could possibly be due to diffusion from Torricelli languages. Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.
Vocabulary The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005)Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005. and Laycock (1968),Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Namia |- ! head | magu |- ! ear | mak |- ! eye | eno |- ! nose | nəmala; nɨmala |- ! tooth | pinarɨ; pinarə |- ! tongue | lar |- ! leg | liː; lipala |- ! louse | nanpeu |- ! dog | ar; ara |- ! pig | lwae |- ! bird | eyu |- ! egg | puna |- ! blood | norə |- ! bone | lak |- ! skin | urarə |- ! breast | mu |- ! tree | mi |- ! man | lu |- ! woman | ere |- ! sun | wuluwa |- ! moon | yem |- ! water | ijo; ito |- ! fire | ipi |- ! stone | lijei |- ! name | ilei |- ! eat | (t) |- ! one | tipia |- ! two | pəli
References