Adzera language

Adzera
Adzera
Region	Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	ca. 30,000 (2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea ? Ngero–Vitiaz ? Huon Gulf Markham Upper Adzera; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously:; adz – Adzera; zsu – Sukurum; zsa – Sarasira
Glottolog	adze1240 Adzera; suku1264 Sukurum; sara1323 Sarasira
ELP	Adzera
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Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

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Dialects

Holzknecht (1989) lists six Adzera dialects.^[2]

Central dialect chain: 9,950 speakers
Amari dialect: 5,350 speakers
Ngarowapum dialect: 1,200 speakers
Yaros dialect: 2,200 speakers
Guruf / Ngariawang dialect: 1,550 speakers
Tsumanggorun dialect: 400 speakers

Sukurum is spoken in the villages of Sukurum (6°16′35″S 146°28′36″E / 6.27629°S 146.476694°E / -6.27629; 146.476694 (Sukurum)), Rumrinan (6°16′40″S 146°28′36″E / 6.277752°S 146.476623°E / -6.277752; 146.476623 (Rumdinan)), Gabagiap (6°17′22″S 146°27′58″E / 6.289357°S 146.465999°E / -6.289357; 146.465999 (Gabagiap)), Gupasa, Waroum (6°17′14″S 146°27′14″E / 6.287214°S 146.453831°E / -6.287214; 146.453831 (Warom)), and Wangat (6°21′11″S 146°25′07″E / 6.35307°S 146.418517°E / -6.35307; 146.418517 (Wangat)) in Wantoat/Leron Rural LLG.^[2]

Sarasira is spoken in the villages of Sarasira (6°19′15″S 146°28′59″E / 6.320957°S 146.48297°E / -6.320957; 146.48297 (Sirasira)), Som (6°19′26″S 146°30′27″E / 6.323791°S 146.507495°E / -6.323791; 146.507495 (Som)), Pukpuk, Saseang (6°25′08″S 146°25′01″E / 6.418768°S 146.416931°E / -6.418768; 146.416931 (Sasiang Farm)), and Sisuk in Wantoat/Leron Rural LLG. Sarasira and Som share the same speech variety.^[2]

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels^[2]
	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid		o
Low	ɑ

The diphthongs /ɑi, ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.

/o/ does not occur in the Amari and Ngarowapum dialects.

Consonants

Consonants^[2]
		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿtʃ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
	prenasal vd.			ⁿdʒ
Fricative		f	s			h
Approximant		w		j
Rhotic			r

h occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".

In the Amari dialect, palato-alveolar affricates /tʃ, ⁿtʃ/ and dʒ, ⁿdʒ are heard as only alveolar sounds [ts, ⁿts] and [dz, ⁿdz].^[3]

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

/tʃ ⁿtʃ/ are sometimes realized as [ts ⁿts], especially in codas.

Writing system

A a	B b	D d	Dz dz	F f	G g	H h	I i	K k	M m	Mp mp	N n	Ndz ndz	Nt nt
ɑ	b	d	dʒ	f	ɡ	h	i	k	m	ᵐp	n	ⁿdʒ	ⁿt
Nts nts	Ŋ ŋ	Ŋk ŋk	Ŋʼ ŋʼ	P p	R r	S s	T t	Ts ts	U u	W w	Y y	ʼ
ⁿtʃ	ŋ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ	p	r	s	t	tʃ	u	w	j	ʔ

J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.

The letter ŋ was replaced by the digraph ng in the 2015 orthography.^[4]

Grammar

Negation

Simple negation

Simple negation in Adzera is achieved by the word imaʔ 'no'. This word can be used on its own in response to a question, or paired with a negative sentence.^[5] For example:

Imaʔ

NEG

Dzi

1SG

i-

REAL

bugin

not.like

biskit

biscuit

No, I do not like biscuits.^[5]

The Amari dialect of Adzera is specifically noted for its use of namu for 'no' where all other Adzera dialects would use imaʔ. however, in Amari both words can be used interchangeably.^[5]

Negation of a noun phrase

The simple negative forms above can be used in a noun phrase after the noun to modify it. Such as mamaʔ namu 'No children'. This can also apply to a coordinated noun phrase, such as iyam da ifab 'dog and pig' where iyam da ifab namu would mean that there were no dogs and no pigs.^[6]

Negation of a verb phrase

Most negation is done through the verb phrase. For general circumstances, verbal negation is achieved by a verbal prefix anuŋʔ- And an optional negation particle u at the end of the sentence.^[6] For example:

dzi

1SG

anuŋʔ-

NEG

i-

REAL

saŋʔ

be.enough

rim

help

-a

PTCP

u

2SG

sib

COMP

u

NEG

I am not able to help you.^[6]

However, for verbs in the imperative or hortative forms, which take a prefix wa- or na- respectively, the negative is achieved by replacing their respective prefixes with a negative form ma- followed at the end of the sentence by a compulsory particle maʔ.^[7]

ma-

IMP.NEG

fan

go

maʔ

IMP.NEG

Do not go!^[7]

Coordinated verb negation

When two negative verbs or phrases are joined by da ‘and’ the first verb takes the negative prefix anuŋʔ-, and the negative particle u comes at the end of the whole sentence.^[8]

muŋʔ ugu

a.long.time.ago

da

TIME

sagat

woman

anuŋʔ-

NEG

i-

REAL

ga

eat

was

lime

da

and

i-

REAL

is

hit

pauʔ

tobacco

u

NEG

A long time ago, women neither chewed betel nut nor smoked tobacco.^[8]

Negation with future tense

When negating a sentence in the future tense, the future tense prefix is replaced with the realis prefix. Any future time marking still remains. There is also a preference toward forming negative sentences in the future tense with an auxiliary verb saŋʔ 'be able, be enough' before the main verb of the sentence, suggesting a reluctance toward making negative statements about the future.^[9] For example:

tataʔ

tomorrow

da

TIME

u

2SG

anuŋʔ-

NEG

i-

REAL

saŋʔ

be.enough

fa

go

-da

PTCP

taun

town

u

NEG

Tomorrow you will not be able to go to town.^[9]

When coordinating two sentences of future tense, the first verb phrase replaces the future prefix with the realis, but all following verb phrases retain their future tense marking.^[9]

List of abbreviations

see List of Glossing Abbreviations.

Below is a list of Grammatical abbreviations used throughout this article:

Grammatical Abbreviations
NEG	Negative
1SG	1st Person Singular
REAL	Realis
PTCP	Participle
2SG	2nd Person Singular
COMP	Completive
IMP	Imperative

References

^ Adzera at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sukurum at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
Sarasira at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Holzknecht, Susanne (1989). The Markham Languages of Papua New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0-85883-394-8.
^ Holzknecht (1986), p. 83-93
^ "HIV da AIDS Nan Gan". SIL.org. 15 September 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c Holzknecht (1986), pp. 137–138
^ ^a ^b ^c Holzknecht (1986), p. 138
^ ^a ^b Holzknecht (1986), pp. 140–141
^ ^a ^b Holzknecht (1986), p. 140
^ ^a ^b ^c Holzknecht (1986), p. 139–140

Adzera language

Contents

Dialects

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Writing system

Grammar

Negation

Simple negation

Negation of a noun phrase

Negation of a verb phrase

Coordinated verb negation

Negation with future tense

List of abbreviations

References

Further reading