Melpa language

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[2]

Melpa (also written Medlpa) 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 has a voiceless velar lateral fricative, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). It is notable for its binary counting system.

DecimalMedlpaInterpretation
1tenda"one"
2ragl"two"
3ragltika"two-one"
4tembokak"four"
5pömp tsi gudl"one past four"
6pömp ragl gudl"two past four"
7pömp ragltika gudl"two-one past four"
8engak"eight"
9pömp tsi pip"one past eight"
10pömp ragl pip"two past eight"

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Voiceless stop p t̪ <t> t k
Prenasalized stop ᵐb <mb> ⁿd̪ <nd> ⁿd <nd> ᵑɡ <ng>
Nasal m n̪ <n> n ŋ <ng>
Rhotic r~ɾ <r>
Lateral l̪d̪ <ld> l ʟ~ʟ̝̊ <ⱡ>
Approximant w j <y>

Vowels

Front Central Mid
High i ɨ <ʉ> u
Near-high ɪ <i> ʊ <u>
Mid e o
Low a

Melpa language in films

Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe,[3] who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly (First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, and Black Harvest).

References

  1. ↑ Melpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Melpa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. ↑ Connolly, Bob (14 February 2017). "Filmmaker Bob Connolly returns to PNG 25 years after 'Black Harvest'". The Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 25 January 2017.


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