Sentani language

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Wikipedia

Sentani
Native toPapua, Indonesia
RegionLake Sentani, Papua
Native speakers
(30,000 cited 1996)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3set
Glottolognucl1632

Sentani or Buyaka is a Papuan language of Papua. It is spoken in about 30 scattered villages around Lake Sentani. Dialects are East, West, and Central (Ethnologue).

Phonology

Consonants

Cowan (1965), pp. 3, 5, 6
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p ~ b t ~ d k ~ q
~ x
Fricative f ~ ɸ (s) h ~ s
Approximant w l j

Consonants marked with a tilde ⟨~⟩ are free variants. Because of the distance between [h] and [s] in the chart, [s] is marked in parentheses, being the less common (but still free) variant.

Vowels

Cowan (1965), p. 4
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e
Mid ə o
Open-mid ɛ
Open a

Central Sentani

Central Sentani phonology from Foley (2018):[2]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal mn
Plosive pk
Fricative fh
Approximant wlj
Rhotic r
Vowels
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ə o
Open æ a

Grammar

Pronouns

There are four series of pronouns. The first involves stressed pronoun forms, and "is... composed with the emphatic particle jɛ". The second involves subject, postposition, and possessive usages – their vowels are allowed to be elided. The third are stressed or substantive possessives, and sometimes reflexives. The fourth involves "proclitic possessive[s]", which may have their vowels elided; they are not full affixes.[3]

I II III IV
1sg dəjɛ da dɛj də
1pl ex mejɛ me mɛj
1pl in ejɛ (e) ɛj
2sg wəjɛ wa wɛj wə
2pl məjɛ ma maj mə
3sg nəjɛ na nɛj nə
3pl nəjɛ na nɛj nə

Citations

  1. ↑ Sentani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Foley, William A. (2018). "4: 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. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. doi:10.1515/9783110295252-004. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ↑ Cowan (1965), p. 16.

References