Kuman Language [Simbu Province]

8 Pages·2005·0.192 MB·

by  Daryl Pfantz, Mary Pfantz

Kuman Language
[Simbu Province]
Trans New Guinea Phylum; East New Guinea Highlands Stock; Central
(Chimbu) Family
Population: 115,000 (2000 census)
Major villages: All villages inside the following boundary: follow the Wahgi
River east from the Western Highlands and Simbu Province border going until
Kundiawa and then leave the Wahgi River and continue 10 more kilometers
east along the Highlands Highway, then north to the border between Madang
and Simbu provinces. Follow this border west to the Simbu Western Highlands
border and follow that border south to the Wahgi River.
Linguistic work done by: Lutheran mission, Catholic Church and SIL
Data checked by: Daryl and Mary Pfantz (2004)
Abbreviations
PL = plural
1S = first person singular
2S = second person
3S = third person singular
3PL = third person plural
[ ] = the phonetic transcription of a word
/ / = the phonemic transcription of a word
< > = orthographic form
Phonetic transcriptions follow the most recent IPA symbols with the exception
of [L], which is used to mark the voiceless velar lateral.
Phonemic and Orthographic Inventory
/a b d e  i k l m n o p  s t u w j /
<a b,mb d,nd e g,ng i k l m n o p r s t u w y gl>
<A B D E G I K M N O P S T U W Y>
19
20 Kuman Language
Consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive p b t d k 
Nasal m n
Tap/Flap 
Fricative s
Approximant j
Lateral Approximant l 
/w/ voiced labial-velar approximant
/p/ [pi] ‘knife’ /s/ [su.o] ‘there’
[to.po] ‘trade’ [u.si] ‘term for tobacco’
[ko.pap] ‘quickly’ (no word final forms)
/b/ [mbo] ‘sugar cane’ // (no word initial forms)
[a.mbai] ‘girl’ [u.o] ‘to pick’
(no word final forms) [ir] ‘wind’
/m/ [mam] ‘mother (3S)’ /k/ [ku.a] ‘bird’
[o.mun] ‘beetle larva’ [do.ko] ‘find’
[ju.um] ‘ashes’ [ak] ‘boy’
/w/ [wam] ‘fat’ [kam.ku.a] ‘cloud’
[o. u.wa] ‘pumpkin’ [u.na.ka] ‘I will come’
no word final forms // [o] ‘red’
/t/ [t.ke] ‘hide’ [mo.o] ‘seed’
[mit.na] ‘above’ (no word final forms)
(no word final forms) /j/ [jo.mba] ‘people’
/d/ [.da] ‘there’ [mi.je] ‘flesh’
[di] ‘axe’ (no word final forms)
(no word final forms) // (no word initial forms)
/n/ [na] ‘I’ [a.i.mba~a.mba] ‘a kind of
[kat.na] ‘foot (1S)’ green vegetable’
[ka.mun] ‘rain’ [mo.ka] ‘he stays’
/l/ (no word initial forms) [to] ‘fence’
[w.la] ‘bat’
(no word final forms)
Organised Phonology Data Papers 21
Vowels /u/ [u.u.mbo] ‘thick reed or cane’
i u [su.o] ‘there’
[a.mbu] ‘woman’
e o [ε.du.o] ‘come here’
a
/o/ [o.u.wa] ‘pumpkin’
/i/ [i. a] ‘who?’ [to.ki] ‘snake’
[pi] ‘knife’ [ko.do] ‘leave’
[.di] ‘tree’ [pi.jo] ‘you (PL) go!’
[ki.am] ‘other wife’
/a/ [a.de] ‘sun’
/e/ [.i.me] ‘now’ [ka.mbe] ‘banana’
[d.no] ‘belly’ [o.a] ‘he goes’
[ka.de] ‘big’ [ku.a] ‘bird’
Table 1– Vowel glides
Vowels Examples Phonetic Gloss
iu diun [diun] ‘fly’ (noun)
ui kuiye [kui.je] ‘flower’
au gaugl [au] ‘laugh’
ou tou [tou] ‘wrapper’
ei kei [ki] ‘to build’
ai wakai [wa.kai] ‘good’
oi koiye [koi.je] ‘wing’
eu deu [du] ‘miracle’
Vowels occurring together are pronounced as separate syllables if the second
vowel is lower than the first, as illustrated by the examples in Table 2:
Table 2 – Vowel clusters forming two syllables
Vowels Examples Phonetic Gloss
uo kruo [ku.o] ‘white’
ua kua [ku.a] ‘bird’
io pio [pi.o] ‘you go’ (imperative)
ie sie [si.e] ‘owl’
ia kiam [ki.am] ‘other wife’
22 Kuman Language
Suprasegmentals (tone, stress, length)
In two-and three-syllable words the stress is usually on the first syllable. There
are only very few exceptions. In words with four or more syllables the stress is
on the third syllable. These long words are fairly uncommon and may all be the
result of compounding.
Hardie (2003:63-92) identifies a distinction between falling and non-falling
tone on Kuman words. However, there are only a few minimal pairs, so tone is
not marked in the orthography.
There is no contrast between length of vowels or between length of consonants.
Syllable Patterns
There are 4 basic syllable types in the language. They are V, VC, CV, CVC.
Syllables are discussed in Hardie (2003:44-48).
Table 3 – Syllable patterns
Word Phonetic Meaning
V i [i] ‘this, that’
a.na [a.na] ‘and’
et.n.a [t.n.a] ‘do (2S)’
du.a [du.a] ‘rat’
VC ir [ir] ‘cold’
ol.to [o.to] ‘long’
ki.am [ki.am] ‘other wife’
CV bo [mbo] ‘sugar cane’
ka.mun [ka.mun] ‘sky’
bu.mbu.no [mbu.mbu.no] ‘desire’
kol.ko [ko.ko] ‘frog’
CVC ak [ak] ‘boy’
anilma [a.i.ma] ‘brother (3PL)’
nu.man [nu.man] ‘louse’
Syllable codas are only formed by the sonorant [m, n, , r, l].
Organised Phonology Data Papers 23
Conventions: Phonological
The voiced plosives /b d / are usually prenasalised [b d ]. Word initially
the simple and pre-nasalised voiced plosives fluctuate; elsewhere only the pre-
nasalised allophones occur.
/p/, /t/ and /k/ are always aspirated word initially.
/s/ can be pronounced either [s] or [ts] word initially, although the use of [ts]
seems to be disappearing in younger speakers.
// occurs only word-medially and finally. In word final position it is a trilled
[r].
/l/ occurs only word medially, while // occurs only word medially and word
finally.
// is pronounced in many ways according to what sound follows it. Generally
it is voiced between vowels, elsewhere more like [x] or [dl]. It becomes an
alveolar lateral fricative [] before [s].
/w/ is pronounced [] before front vowels /i/ and /e/. Elsewhere it is
pronounced like the English [w]. The verb final combination /kwa/ is caused by
the combining of two verbal suffixes and is the only place in the langauge
where /kw/ occurs.
/e/ is pronounced in its lax form [] when it is the first vowel in the word.
/o/ is pronounced in its lax form [] when it preceeds //.
The semivowels /j/ /w/ alternate between vowels and consonants in order to
maintain a CV.CV syllable pattern. For example, when the morphemes: /u/
‘come’, /–i/ ‘1S’ and /-ga/ ‘declarative’ come together they form [wi.ga] ‘I
come’.
Consonant clusters: the following alternations occur, depending on surrounding
stress and syllable patterns: pir ~ pr , sir ~ sr, mbir ~ mbr, tir ~ tr, and dir ~ dr.
Word final [n] can be syllabic as in ambatn [a.mbat. ņ] ‘your sister’.
Word final [] can produce a syllabic [l] in a few situations, such as in Keglsugl
[keg.ļ.sug.ļ] ‘place name’.
24 Kuman Language
Conventions: Orthographic
Only loanwords use: h <h>, f <f>, and j <j>.
There have been two ways to write the prenasalised allophones of voiced
plosives (b,d,g) occurring word medially. Some write them like the simple
plosives, but because of the influence of English and Tok Pisin, we are
recommending that they be written as <mb>, <nd>, and <ng>.
The following consonant clusters: [pr], [kr], [tr], and [sr]; when they occur in
words where they are in free variation with [pir], [kir], [tir], and [sir]
respectively, are written as <pr>, <kr>, <tr>, and <sr>. The one exception to
this rule is the verb stem /pir/ ‘know’ or ‘hear’, which is always written as
<pir>.
Vowels at the end of words are lost in normal speech when followed by a word
starting with a vowel; these latter vowels are still usually written. Note in the
example below that <ende> is spelled the same even though the final vowel /e/
is dropped in the first sentence.
[endogwa] <ende ongwa> ‘he went’
[endesigarogwa] <ende Singar ongwa> ‘he went to Singar’
Transcription of a recorded passage
/keaku joba tau kabu ee sina ede edile ewa  je pi kobuo muu ta
kaniwa  je taa kobuo da jewa  ak suota ewa je kobuo dra
mekwa joba tau ede edile kabu dekikwa  ak keba suo ni koa
ebiko ak ta kanwa kobuo da si pere di ake jauukwa  mim
pao joba edile wawa wiwa  ak keba nem ditowa nono juu
paikiabuue duwa  kobuo jane dra sipere duwa nono meda
panabalua  ana je meda pabiika ediwee kobuo jane da sipee
duwa  ak nem kana wakai miuri iba tau ekwa  eime joba edile
waniwa kobuo dra paikrikwa  edile wan ede juu keme wiwa  te
edile panamunedi juu kebra kei padi pawa/
<Kengaglku yomba tau kambu ere sina ende endile engwa. Ye pi kombuglo
muru ta kaningwa. Ye taragl kombuglo dra yengwa. Gak suota engwa ye
kombuglo dra meglkwa yomba tau ende endile kambu dekiglkwa. Gak kembra
suo nigl kora embriko gak ta kangwa kombuglo dra si pere di aglke yaurukwa.
Mim pango yomba endile wangwa wingwa. Gak kembra nem ditongwa nono
yungugl paikirambuglue dungwa. Kombuglo yange dra sipere dungwa nono
menda panambalua. Ana ye menda pambrika endiwere kombuglo yange dra
sipere dungwa. Gak nem kana wakai miuri imba tau geglkwa. Erime yomba
Organised Phonology Data Papers 25
endile waningwa kombuglo dra paikrikwa. Endile wan ende yungugl keme
wingwa. Te endile panamunendi yungu kembra kei pandigl pangwa.>
‘One day the people from Kengaglku went to hunt wallabies in the bush. They
went and found a cave where they put their belongings. The people went into
the bush to look for wallabies, leaving three boys to stay in the cave. While two
of the boys went for water the other boy saw a stone close over the entrance of
the cave and then open up again. In the afternoon when people returned from
the bush, the small boy said to his father, "We shall not sleep in the cave. I saw
a stone fall over the entrance of the cave and then open up again." So the father
and his son slept outside. At night the stone fell and closed the door of the cave.
The father and the son were safe but the other people died. Now when people
go to the bush they never sleep in caves. They only go to the bush and come
home. And if they want to sleep in the bush they must make a small house and
sleep.’
26 Kuman Language
Bibliography
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