Elseng language
| Elseng | |
|---|---|
| Morwap | |
| Region | Papua, Indonesia: Jayapura and Keerom regencies - Abepura, Arso, Kemtuk Gresi, and Senggi districts; Lake Sentani area - south, southwest. |
Native speakers | 300Â (2018)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mrf |
| Glottolog | else1239 |
| ELP | Elseng |
Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu[2]) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" 'Morwap' is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.[1]
Elseng is spoken in Omon village, Gresi Selatan district, Jayapura Regency; it is also called Tabu or Tapu.[3]
Classification
[edit]Laycock classified Elseng as a language isolate but noted pronominal similarities with the Border languages. Ross included it in Border because of these similarities but noted that it does not appear to share any lexical similarities with the family. However, this may be an effect of the paucity of data on Elseng. Foley similarly classifies Elseng as an isolate.[2]
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by MĂŒller et al. (2013)[4] also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.
Phonology
[edit]| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | |
| voiced | b | g | |||
| prenas. | á”b | á”ÉĄ | |||
| Nasal | m | n | Ć | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ||
| voiced | v | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | É | |
| Open | a |
Pronouns
[edit]Pronouns are:[2]
| sg | pl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1excl | ka | kam |
| 1incl | yo | |
| 2 | so | sem |
| 3 | yi | |
Basic vocabulary
[edit]Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][2]
Elseng basic vocabulary gloss Elseng 'bird' bisyas 'blood' sakwos 'bone' wok 'breast' pan 'ear' waskwos 'eat' tou 'egg' syungwin 'eye' nafon 'fire' bÉt 'give' venenggiÊ 'go' gele 'ground' mo 'hair' nimbias 'hear' sÉškwen 'leg' poksÉn 'louse' ku 'man' seseu 'moon' mÉm 'name' tin 'road, path' mol 'see' nÉšnggwen 'sky' kuil 'stone' sÉpak 'sun' ningnaf 'tongue' mosÉn 'tooth' an 'tree' sÉk 'water' vetev 'woman' saun
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
gloss Elseng head walambiap hair nimbias ear mo; uskĆs eye naf nose sÉnpokep tooth an tongue mÉs; mÉsÉn leg pokÉs louse ku dog wÉs pig wo bird bisjas; bisyas egg suĆun blood wÉtwÉn bone ok skin son; sÉn breast pan tree sÉk man sisÉu; sisew woman saÉ sun ninaf moon mÉm water wÉtel; wÉtÉl fire bot; bÉt stone sÉpat road, path mul eat to
Sentences and phrases
[edit]Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:[2]
ka
1
makÉn
POSS
teti
father
'my/our father'
waso
man
amsan
good
'good man'
tele
father
si
garden
fa-san
work-?
'Father is working (his) garden.'
tele
father
bas
?
to-san
eat-?
'Father is eating.'
References
[edit]- 1 2 Elseng at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest 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. 433â568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- â Burung, Wiem. 2000. A Brief Note on Elseng. SIL International Electronic Survey Reports 2000â001.
- â MĂŒller, AndrĂ©, Viveka Velupillai, SĂžren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
- â Menanti, Jackie. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report on the Elseng Language in Sia-Sia Village, Keerom County, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished report. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
- â Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
- â Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
- â Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
