Melpa | |
---|---|
Native to | Papua New Guinea |
Region | Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province |
Native speakers | (130,000 cited 1991) [1] |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
med |
Glottolog |
melp1238 |
Melpa (Medlpa, Mbowamb) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
Melpa is a Pandanus language used during karuka harvest. [2] Melpa has a voiceless velar lateral fricative, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for its binary counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011). [3]
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n̪ ⟨n⟩ | n | ŋ ⟨ng⟩ | ||
Stop | voiceless | p | t̪ ⟨t⟩ | t | k | |
prenasalized | ᵐb ⟨mb⟩ | ⁿd̪ ⟨nd⟩ | ⁿd ⟨nd⟩ | ᵑɡ ⟨ng⟩ | ||
Rhotic | r~ ɾ ⟨r⟩ | |||||
Lateral | l̪d̪ ⟨ld⟩ | l | ʟ~ 𝼄 ⟨ⱡ⟩ | |||
Semivowel | w | j ⟨y⟩ |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | ɨ ⟨ʉ⟩ | u |
Near-high | ɪ ⟨i⟩ | ʊ ⟨u⟩ | |
Mid | e | o | |
Low | a |
Decimal | Melpa | Interpretation |
---|---|---|
1 | tenda | "one" |
2 | ragl | "two" |
3 | ragltika | "two-one" |
4 | tembokak | "four" |
5 | pemp ti gul | "one past four" |
6 | pemp ragl gul | "two past four" |
7 | pemp ragltika gul | "two-one past four" |
8 | engakl | "eight" |
9 | pemp ti pip | "one past eight" |
10 | pemp ragl pip | "two past eight" |
Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe, [4] who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly ( First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, and Black Harvest).
The documentary Ongka's Big Moka also has Melpa dialogue.