Massep language

Massep (Masep, Potafa, Wotaf) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by fewer than 50 people in the single village of Masep in West Pantai District, Sarmi Regency, Papua. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous. It is surrounded by the Kwerba languages Airoran and Samarokena.[4]

Massep
Wotaf
Native toIndonesia
RegionPapua: Sarmi Regency, West Pantai District, north coast (Masep village); also west of Sarmi near Apauwer River
Ethnicity85 (2000)[1][2]
Native speakers
25 (2000)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mvs
Glottologmass1263
ELPMasep[3]
Massep
Massep
Coordinates: 1.75°S 138.29°E / -1.75; 138.29

Classification

Clouse, Donohue, and Ma (2002) conclude that it definitely is not a Kwerba language,[5] as it had been classified by Wurm (1975). They did not notice connections to any other language family. However, Usher (2018) classifies it as Greater Kwerbic.[6]

Ethnologue, Glottolog, and Foley (2018)[4] list it as a language isolate,[1][7] but it has not been included in wider surveys, such as Ross (2005). The pronouns are not dissimilar from those of Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.

Phonology

Consonants:[4]

tck
ᵑɡ
ɸsʃ
βɣ
mnɲ
r
wj

Some probable consonant leniting sound changes proposed by Foley (2018):

  • *p > ɸ
  • *b > β
  • *d > r
  • *k > ɣ (perhaps partially)

Vowels:[4]

iu
eo
a

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[4]

sgpl
1 kanyi
2 guje
3 eviive

Morphology

Massep case suffixes as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[4][5]

suffixcase
-o ~ -u ~ -aaccusative
-ɣokedative
-avenoinstrumental
-menoassociative
-(a)vrilocative
-niallative
-atemporal

Sentences

Massep sentences as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[4]

(1)

kaicin-ofartasiunu-ɣoke
1SGstone-ACCthrowdog-DAT
‘I threw a stone at the dog.’

(2)

jesaremnayaf-avri
2PLsithouse-LOC
‘You (pl.) sat in the house.’

(3)

guko-war-emon
2SG1SG.OBJ-see-SG.TNS
‘You see me.’

Word order is SOV.

References

  1. Massep at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Massep language at Ethnologue (15th ed., 2005)
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Masep.
  4. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  5. Clouse, Duane; Donohue, Mark; Ma, Felix (2002). "Survey Report of the North Coast of Irian Jaya" (PDF). SIL. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  6. Usher, Timothy. West Foja Range. New Guinea World.
  7. Hammarström, Harald; Forke, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2020). "Massep". Glottolog 4.3.
  • Timothy Usher and Mark Donohue, New Guinea World, Masep
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