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.[2]
| Massep | |
|---|---|
| Wotaf | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Papua: Sarmi Regency, West Pantai District, north coast (Masep village); also west of Sarmi near Apauwer River |
| Ethnicity | 85 (2000)[1] |
Native speakers | 25 (2000)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mvs |
| Glottolog | mass1263 |
| ELP | Masep |
  Massep  Massep | |
| Coordinates: 1°45′S 138°17′E / 1.75°S 138.29°E | |
Classification
editClouse, Donohue, and Ma (2002) did not notice connections to any other language family.[3] Ethnologue, Glottolog, and Foley (2018)[2] list it as a language isolate.[1][4] Usher classifies it as Greater Kwerbic.[5] The pronouns are not dissimilar from those of Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.
Phonology
editConsonants:[2]
t c k kʷ ᵑɡ ɸ s ʃ β ɣ m n ɲ r w j
Some probable consonant leniting sound changes from pre-Massep proposed by Foley (2018):
- *p > ɸ
- *b > β
- *d > r
- *k > ɣ (perhaps partially)
Vowels:[2]
i u e o a
Pronouns
editPronouns are:[2]
sg pl 1 ka nyi 2 gu je 3 evi ive
Morphology
editMassep case suffixes as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[2][3]
suffix case -o ~ -u ~ -a accusative -ɣoke dative -aveno instrumental -meno associative -(a)vri locative -ni allative -a temporal
Sentences
editMassep sentences as quoted by Foley (2018) from Clouse (2002):[2]
ka
1SG
icin-o
stone-ACC
fartasi
throw
unu-ɣoke
dog-DAT
‘I threw a stone at the dog.’
je
2PL
saremna
sit
yaf-avri
house-LOC
‘You (pl.) sat in the house.’
gu
2SG
ko-war-emon
1SG.OBJ-see-SG.TNS
‘You see me.’
Word order is SOV.
References
edit- ^ a b c Massep at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ a b c d e f g 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. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forke, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2020). "Massep". Glottolog 4.3.
- ^ Usher, Timothy. West Foja Range. New Guinea World.
External links
edit
- Timothy Usher & Mark Donohue, Masep, New Guinea World