The Marienberg or Marienberg Hills languages are a branch of the Torricelli language family. They are spoken in a mountainous stretch of region located between the towns of Wewak and Angoram in the Marienberg Hills of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
Marienberg | |
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Marienberg Hills | |
Geographic distribution | Marienberg Hills, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea |
Linguistic classification | Torricelli
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Glottolog | mari1433 |
![]() The Torricelli languages as classified by Foley (2018) |
Kamasau is the best documented Marienberg language.[1]
Marienberg languages distinguish masculine and feminine genders, with feminine being the default unmarked gender.[1]
Unlike all other Torricelli branches except for the Monumbo languages, word order in the Bogia languages is SOV, likely due to contact with Lower Sepik-Ramu and Sepik languages.[1]: 298
Foley (2018) provides the following classification, based primarily on morphological evidence.[1]
Pronouns in selected Marienberg Hill languages:[1]: 304
pronoun | Muniwara | Bungain | Buna |
---|---|---|---|
1SG | ŋa | ŋan | ŋa |
2SG | nu | nu | no |
3M.SG | na | neŋ | den |
3M.SG | wo | veŋ | gwen |
1PL | ŋam | ŋaŋ | ŋam |
2PL | num | nuŋ | nom |
3M.PL | ma | meŋ | bon |
3F.PL | kwo | ceŋ | en |