Gumawana
Gumawana language
Austronesian language spoken in Papua New Guinea
Gumawana (sometimes also referred to by the exonym Gumasi) is an Austronesian language spoken by people living on the Amphlett Islands of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
| Gumawana | |
|---|---|
| Gumasi | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Amphlett Islands, Milne Bay Province |
Native speakers | 470 (2000 census)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gvs |
| Glottolog | guma1254 |
Gumawana is an Austronesian language of the North Papuan Mainland-D'Entrecasteaux branch.
Gumawana is spoken by some 470 people in the small Amphlett Islands of Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. The language is spoken on the four inhabited islands of the archipelago: Nubogeta, Gumawana, Omea, and Bituma.[2] Gumawama has been influenced by the nearby Dobu language, and speakers of Gumawana often have knowledge of other neighboring Papuan Tip languages.[2]
Dialects
Gumawana had three dialects: Nubogeta, Omea, and Bituma. The last speaker of the Omea dialect died in April 1988. The Bituma dialect is very different from the Nubogeta dialect of Nubogeta and Gumawana islands in both syntax and lexicon.[2]
Gumawana has 11 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes.[2]
| Bilabial | Labio-Dental | Alveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | |
| Fricative | v | s | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ||
| Lateral | l |
Olson represents the labio-dental consonant [v] as bilabial [β] in later works, and also includes the palatal approximant [j].[3]
Syllables have a (C)V structure.
Clauses in Gumawana have a basic order of SOV. Oblique noun phrases occur between the direct object and the verb.[2]
Koloto-ya-di
man-REF-3PL
weniya
dog
si-duduwe
3PL-call.TR
Koloto-ya-di weniya si-duduwe
man-REF-3PL dog 3PL-call.TR
'The men called the dog.'
- Gumawana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- Olson, Clif (1992). "Gumawana (Amphlett Islands, Papua New Guinea): grammar sketch and texts" (PDF). Pacific Linguistics. Series A. Occasional Papers. 82: 251–430.
- Olson, Cliff (1992). Organised Phonology Data: Gumawana (Gumasi) Language [GVS], Esa'ala – Milne Bay Province (PDF) (Report). SIL. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
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