Moi is a West Papuan language of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
| Moi | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Papua |
Native speakers | (4,600 cited 1993)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mxn |
| Glottolog | moii1235 |
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | (ʔ) | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
| Fricative | f | s | h | ||||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
[ʔ] is in free variation with /k/ in word-final position.
Vowels edit
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a | ɑ |
/i, u/ can also be heard as [ɪ, ʊ].[2]
Morphology edit
Verb morphology edit
Verbs agree with the grammatical subject for person, number and, in the third-person, for gender. There are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and non-human. For the third person plural, the gender distinction applies only for human vs. non-human. For the first person plural, there exists a two way clusivity distinction. The agreement markers are prefixes on the main verb. [3]
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1p. | t- | Incl. | Excl. | |
| w- | m- | |||
| 2p. | n- | |||
| 3p. | Masculine | w- | y- | |
| Feminine | m- | |||
| Non-human | p- | n- | ||
Along with agreement prefixes cross-referencing the grammatical number of the subject, the verb stem itself can reflect number too: there may be one stem allomorph with front vowels (singular agreement) and one with back vowels (plural agreement).
aa-ya-faagu
DU-3PL.H-collect
kawak
stone
n-uu-s
3PL.NH-at.PL-PERF
ow
DEM
'They both collected stones there' [7]
aa-m-oka
DU-1PL.EXCL-assume
aa-n-ankar
DU-2PL-cheat
mam
1PL.EXCL
'We both thought that the two of you cheated us' [7]
ara
breadfruit.tree
n-eesin
3PL.NH-fruit
n-oolok
3PL.NH-fall
n-osu
3PL.NH-to
aali
below
'Fruits of the breadfruit tree fell down'
As can be seen in the examples (1d) and (1f) and elaborated on by Menick, elements corresponding to prepositions in English share characteristics with verbs, which is why the conclusion can be made that the lexical category of adpositions is absent in Moi.[6]
Nominal morphology edit
Inalienable nouns are obligatorily marked by prefixes for the possessor agreement (see example (1h) ara n-eesin 'breadfruit fruits', literally 'breadfruit tree its fruits')
Negation edit
To negate a clause, the particle dau following the verb is used:
ne-Moi
person-Moi
y-eek
3PL.H-know
dau
NEG
yawa
sago.tree
k-ow
PROX.DEM
'Moi people did not know this sago tree'[6]
The same particle can also negate a noun phrase:
ne-Moi
person-Moi
dau
NEG
y-eek
3PL.H-know
yawa
sago.tree
k-ow
PROX.DEM
'not the Moi people knew this sago tree'[6]
ne-Moi
person-Moi
y-eek
3PL.H-know
yawa
sago.tree
k-ow
PROX.DEM
dau
NEG
'the Moi people knew not this sago tree'[6]
Aspect edit
The verb -ein indicates perfective aspect. It can also be indicated by the means of the suffix -s appended to the verb, cf ex. (1f) above.
ya-sak
3PL.H-cross
Kalasowo
river.name
aali-ow
below-DEM
p-ein
3SG.NH-finish
y-umu
3PL.H-leave:PL
'After they had crossed the Kalasowo river, they left.'
Literally: 'they crossed the Kalasowo river down there, it was finished, they left'[6]
References edit
- ^ Moi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Menick, Raymond (1995). Moi, a language of the West Papuan phylum: A preview. Baak, Connie and Bakker, Mary and van der Meij, Dick (eds.), Tales from a concave world: Liber amicorum Bert Voorhoeve: Leiden University. pp. 55–73.
- ^ Menick, Raymond H. (1996). "Verb sequences in Moi" (PDF). Studies in Irian languages. 1: 41.
- ^ a b c Menick (1996), p. 42
- ^ Menick (1996), p. 47
- ^ a b c d e f Menick (1996), p. 43
- ^ a b Menick (1996), p. 50