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Nen (or Nen Zi, Nenium, Wekamara) is a Yam language spoken in the Bimadbn village in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, with 250 speakers as of a 2002 SIL survey. It is situated between the speech communities of Nambu and Idi.

Nen
RegionWestern Province (Papua New Guinea)
Native speakers
250 (2002)[1]
Language family
Yam
  • Nambu
    • Nen
Language codes
ISO 639-3nqn
Glottolognenn1238
ELPNen

Nen has unusual lexicalization patterns in its verbs. It has very few intransitive verbs, and where some verbs would be intransitive in most other languages, Nen has a class of morphologically "middle" verbs in their place. Many of the few intransitive verbs that Nen does have are positional verbs, which refer to spatial positions and postures.[2]


Phonology


The Nen phonemic inventory includes 22 consonants:[3]

labial alveolar palatal velar labiovelar
Stop voiced ptkk͡p
voiceless bdɡg͡b
prenasalized ᵐbⁿdᵑɡ
Nasal mnɲŋ͡m
Fricative voiceless s
voiced z
prenasalized ⁿz
Approximant liquid r, l
semivowel j w
Vowels
i, ɪ, e, æ, a, (ə), o, u

Morphology



Number


The realization of different grammatical meanings of Number in the noun depends on the syntactic function and case marking. The noun in the dative overtly differentiates 4 grammatical meaning of number: singular, dual, paucal and plural; the noun in the oblique shows singular ~ dual ~ paucal/plural opposition, while the ergative singular ~ dual/paucal ~ plural, and the noun in absolutive cannot be distinguished according to number.[4]


Direction


The verb expresses three grammatical meaning of motion: neutral − /Ø-/, towards speaker /n-/, and away from speaker /ng-/: n-Ø-armbte '(s)he is ascending' ~ n-n-armbte '(s)he is coming up (towards speaker) ~ n-ng-armbte '(s)he is going up (away from speaker).[4]:1056


Syntax


The constituent order in clause is SOV. Case marking shows ergative/absolutive alignment.[4]


Argument structure and valency


According to indexing, the verbs can be either prefixing (an undergoer argument is cross-referenced by a prefix) or ambifixing (arguments are cross-referenced by both prefix and suffix in the verb). In the transitive predicate, a verbal prefix expresses patient and a verbal suffix actor. There are several types of valency pattern in Nen:[4]:1058–68

1. Basically monovalent pattern

2. Basically divalent pattern

3. Trivalent pattern

The arguments get the following case marking: the subject − ergative, the direct object − absolutive, and the indirect object − dative. In a trivalent predicate, the indirect object argument (semantically, recipient) is cross-referenced in the verb by the undergoer prefix.[4]:1067–68


Causative


The causative is got by the adding of the meaning 'cause (motion/trajectory) through sustained contact (carrying, leading etc.)' to the middle verbs. Prefix /wa-/ in the verb expresses the meaning and the causer and causee are reflected by the ergative and absolutive cases, respectively.[4]


Benefactive


Beneficiary is expressed by the undergoer prefix.[4]:1058–68


Notes


  1. Nen at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Evans, Nicholas (2014). "Positional Verbs in Nen". Oceanic Linguistics. 53 (2): 225–255. doi:10.1353/ol.2014.0019. hdl:1885/14019.
  3. Evans, Nicholas (2018). "The Languages of Southern New Guinea". 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. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. Evans (2015)

References







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