Mali language

Not to be confused with Languages of Mali.
Mali
Gaktai
RegionNew Britain
Native speakers
(2,200 cited 1988)[1]
Baining
  • Mali
Language codes
ISO 639-3gcc
Glottologmali1284
Coordinates: 4°58′13″S 152°02′37″E / 4.970382°S 152.043503°E / -4.970382; 152.043503 (Marunga Village)

Mali or Gaktai is a Papuan language spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Dialects

There are two dialects of Mali:[2]

Phonology

The phonology of the Mali language:[4]

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t k
prenasal ᵐb ⁿd ᵑɡ
Fricative β s
Nasal m n ŋ
Approximant w ɹ j ɰ
Lateral l
Rhotic r

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low a

Noun classes

Mali makes use of noun classes. Below are some Mali noun class paradigms, using the noun root amēng ‘tree’ as an example:[5]: 802 

Noun class Singular Dual Plural Gloss
Masculine (m) amēng-ka amēng-iom amēng ‘slender tree’
Feminine (f) amēng-ki amēng-vem amēng ‘large full grown tree’
Diminutive (dim) amēng-ini amēng-ithom amēng-ithong ‘stick’
Reduced (rcd) amēng-ēm amēng-vam amēng-vap ‘tree stump’
Flat (flat) ― ― ― ―
Excised (exc) amēng-igl amēng-iglem amēng-igleng ‘plank’
Long (long) amēng-vēt amēng-imelēm amēng-imelēk ‘pole’
Extended (ext) amēng-ia amēng-inēm amēng-inēk ‘large log’
Count neutral (cn) amēng ‘wood or trees’

Bibliography

  • Stebbins, Tonya N. (2011). Mali (Baining) grammar. ANU, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 415. ISBN 9780858836297.
  • Stebbins, Tonya N.; Tayul, Julius (2012). Mali (Baining) dictionary: Mali-Baining Amēthamon Angētha Thēvaik. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. p. 455. hdl:1885/9273. ISBN 9781922185006.

References

  1. ^ Mali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Stebbins, Tonya N. 2011. Mali (Baining) grammar. (Pacific Linguistics, 623.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
  3. ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. ^ Palmer, Bill (2018). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 796–807.
  5. ^ Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". 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. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.