Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation…………..

1. Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation………….. Mendi – Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Wanpis Pokea, B/Ed Graduate, University of Goroka wpokea@gmail.com/ wanpiswallacepokea@yahoo.com.au

2. Introduction • The Kewabi (Aliya) language is one of the small languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. • It is spoken by almost 1000 people living in the remote parts of Southern Highlands Province, especially in the Kagua/ Erave electorate. • This presentation will focus on the basic grammatical features of the Kewabi language including phonology, morphology and syntax.

3. Source: Ethnologue.com

4. 1. Phonology • 1.1. Consonants • The Kewabi language has the following consonants. • / l/ as in lapo 'two' • /m/ as in musa 'to lift it up' • /k/ as in kalu 'head' • /n/ as in mena 'pig' • /p/ as in paita 'to sleep' • /r/ as in rara 'medicine leaf' • /w/ as in wasa 'to look for' • /s/ as in papasi 'kinship term' • /b/ as in banapa 'lets go' • /d/ as in dia 'no'

5. 1.2. Vowels

6. 1.3. Length. • The vowels of monosyllabic words are always phonetically long: • /saa/ ‘put it’, • /i/ ‘faeces’; • /o/ ‘scabs’; • /u/ ‘sleep’.

7. 1.4. Syllable structure In the Kewabi language, the syllable patterns are V, VV, CV, and CVV. E.g. V u 'sleep' a.ka 'teeth' a.do.a 'to wait‘ VV ai.pa 'native salt‘,ai.na ‘related brothers’ CV pu 'go‘/Urine’ pi.ki 'center post' CVV pea 'to make' ka.mea 'to smell'

8. 1.5. Suprasegmentals (stress) • Stress • In the Kewabi language, different syllables can be stressed. There is no fixed stress. • Examples; • 1st Syllable = pi-ra “ means sit down” • 2nd Syllable = la-me-ya ‘ means they being talking • Final Syllable = a-ne-pu-li ‘where are you going’?

9. 2. Morphology • Kewabi morphemes can be divided into • Root morphemes; • e.g. anda ‘ to see’ (present tense) • Derivational morpheme, • e.g. le-anda (eyeglass) • Inflectional; • e.g. anda-lo ‘have seen’ (present Perfect tense)

10. By far the most frequent types of affixes in Kewabi are prefixes and suffixes. • E.g. le-anda, anda-lo • The Kewabi language does not have infixes, circumfixes or reduplication.

11. 3. Syntax 3.1. Verb classes • There are four verb classes in Kewabi • The verb classes are determined by the shape of the V stem: • Class I: Vaada ‘to see’ • Class II: Vlapola ‘to crack’ • Class III: Vtya/Vra; patya ‘to sleep’ pira ‘to sit down’ • Class IV: Vaarumaa ‘to distribute’

12. The Kewabi language has an SOV structure. ama nana ripina mother child hold S O V 'the mother holds the child'

13. Pronoun

15. Tenses • There are four tenses in the dialect: 1. Present Tense • Na-lo. ‘I am eating.’ 2. Future Tense • Na-lua ‘I will eat.’ 3. Past Tenses • Na-wo. ‘I just ate.’ immediate past tense • Na-su. ‘I ate long time ago.’ remote past tense

16. Numerals • The Kewabi language can be counted using base -5 numeral system. • For example; • Numeral in EnglishTranslation in Kewabi • 1 ‘egali’ • 2 ‘lapo’ • 3 ‘repo’ • 4 ‘mala’ • 5 ‘su’ • 6 ‘ki menda na egali’

17. 7 ‘ki menda na lapo’ • 8 ‘ki menda na repo’ • 9 ‘ki menda na mala’ • 10 ‘ki lapo’ • 11 ‘ki lapo na egali’ • 12 ‘ki lapo na lapo’ • 13 ‘ki lapo na repo’ • 14 ‘ki lapo an mala’

18. Conclusion • The Kewabi (Aliya) language is too isolated, and it has therefore not been described by any linguists. • More research needs to be done on the Kewabi language. • Reference hpp//www. Ethnologue.com

19. Thank you for your attention! • Any questions?