Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Mussau Emira language

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Native to
  
Papua New Guinea

ISO 639-3
  
emi

Native speakers
  
5,000 (2003)

Glottolog
  
muss1246

Region
  
Islands of Mussau and Emira (New Ireland Province)

Language family
  
Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic St. Matthias Mussau-Emira

The Mussau-Emira language is spoken on the islands of Mussau and Emirau in the St. Matthias Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago.

Contents

Consonants

Mussau-Emira distinguishes the following consonants.

Stress

In most words the primary stress falls on the penultimate vowel and secondary stresses fall on every second syllable preceding that. This is true of suffixed forms as well, as in níma 'hand', nimá-gi 'my hand'; níu 'coconut', niyúna 'its coconut'.

Subject prefixes

Prefixes mark the subjects of each verb:

  • (agi) a-namanama 'I'm eating'
  • (io) u-namanama 'you're (sing.) eating'
  • (ia) e-namanama 'he's/she's eating'

    • Numbers

    1. kateba
    2. qalua
    3. kotolu
    4. qaata
    5. qalima
    6. qaonomo
    7. qaitu
    8. qaoalu
    9. qasio
    10. kasagaula

    References

    Mussau-Emira language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA