Arammba language
Aramba, also known as Serki or Serkisetavi, is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken to the south of Western Province in the Trans Fly region. Aramba belongs to the Tonda Sub-Family, which is next to the Nambu Sub-Family region and the Suki language. Alternative names for the language include Upper Morehead, Rouku, Kamindjo and Tjokwasi.
Background
The Aramba language is spoken in five villages by approximately 1000 people. Children learn how to read and write the Aramba language in preschool, before entering primary school which is conducted in English.The Aramba people are semi nomadic, and live off the animals and plants in the surrounding rainforest and savannah. They also have gardens in which primarily yams are grown, but this depends on the season. There is no cash economy and few basic services. Aid posts for healthcare services are usually understaffed and have no supplies. While elementary school in the vernacular language is available, most do not have reading and writing materials. It is rare for students to go to secondary school as there are no secondary schools around. The Aramba region could be accessed by airplane, or by boat from the provincial capital, Daru island, though this could take up to a week.
Phonology and Orthography
The following tables lists the phonemes of Aramba. Graphemes are included in brackets where different from phonemic representation.| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatel | Velar | Uvular | |
| Plosive | b ᵐb | t ⁿd | k g ᵑg | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Fricative | ɸ | ð | s | χ | ||
| Affricative | d͡ʒ ⁿd͡ʒ | |||||
| Approximant | w | j |
| Front Unrounded | Front Rounded | Central Unrounded | Back Unrounded | Back Rounded | |
| High | i | ʉ <ú> | u | ||
| Mid | ɛ | ø <ó> | ə̆ <è> | ʌ | ɔ |
| Low | æ <é> a <á> | ɐ̆ <à> |
Major word classes
Verbs
Alongside with nouns, verbs constitute the only open word class in Aramba. Syntactically, they fall into three subtypes: transitive verbs, intransitive verbs and derived intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs like -dren- 'pound' are inflected with a so-called absolutive prefix and an appropriate nominative suffix. Intransitive verbs like -om- 'live' are also inflected with an absolutive prefix and nominative suffix; however, here it is the prefix that denotes the Actor of the action, whereas the nominative suffix remains invariant. Derived intransitive verbs like ngadenóg- 'learn' are derived from transitive roots ; they carry a detransitiviser prefix and are suffixed by the same set of nominative suffixes as their transitive counterparts. Examples - below illustrate each verbal subtype as outlined above.thedrenóg
thà- dren -ox
it- pound_sago -I
3m.sg.ab- V.C -d.nm.1sg
'I am pounding sago.'
bi thomnda
bi thà- om -nda
he he- live -
Pn.ab 3m.sg.ab- V.C -d
'He is there.'
gye ngadenógóg
gye nga- denóg -óg
I I learn -?
ab.1sg dt.i V.C -d.nm.1sg
'I am learning.'
In addition to subject/object marking, Aramba verb affixes also mark for a complex set of tense/aspect categories as will be outlined in. Furthermore, all verbs occur in two forms referred to as "common root" and "limited action root" . For instance, the verb meaning 'pound' has a common root form -dren- 'pound' as well as a limited action root form -dreñg- 'pound'. The common root form of most verbs can be used to derive nouns by adding to it the nominal suffix -djó/-dó; e.g. -dren- 'pound' can be nominalized to drendjó meaning 'the act of pounding'.
Nouns
Just like verbs, Aramba nouns present an open word class. With regard to morphology, nouns may optionally inflect for number, taking the plural suffix -a. However, there are a few suppletive plural forms, and the plural suffix can also not be used on verbal nouns like drendjó.Reduplication is used on some nouns to indicate smallness or definiteness; e.g. the reduplicated form of meñg 'house' is meñg-meñg and means 'small house', reduplication of tày 'cassowary nail' yields tày tày 'finger nail', and the reduplicated form of dúme 'yam house' is dúme-dúme or dúdúme ' yam house'. Compare this with the reduplication effect on derived nouns: fàrdjór 'making noise' > fàfàrdjór 'making lots of noise'; màryadjór 'walking, going' > màmàryadjór 'strolling around'.
Syntactically, nouns can make up an entire NP and they can be marked by a long list of 'postpositional clitics'. Some of these clitics have derivational function while most others carry case-marking functions.
For examples of adjectivising -dje/-sa. For a discussion of alienable and inalienable possession in Aramba.
Adjectives
Aramba is one of those languages with a very limited set of underived adjectives. Boevé & Boevé give the following list of 13 adjectival forms: xanda 'big', ndamba 'small', tefye 'old', dóbne 'young, new', dermber 'long', negwe 'short', denxa 'far', xexa 'close by', gafu 'good', tútéf 'straight', tofo 'first', górye 'after' and wàrfo 'up'.Compare: In his famous article 'Where have all the adjectives gone?', Bob Dixon presented the results of a survey carried out on 20 different languages. 17 languages had only small adjective classes and three had morphologically determined subsets within the larger class of adjectives. The size of the classes/subsets in the 20 languages ranged from 7 to 24, with an average of 13. The following adjectival meanings turned out to be the most frequent: 'large', 'small', 'long', 'short', 'new', 'old', 'good', 'bad', 'black', 'white', 'red', 'raw, green, unripe' .
Based on Boevé & Boevé 's list of adjectives, Aramba shares 7 out of the 12 cross-linguistically most frequent adjectival meanings, though it lacks 5 of the other most frequent meanings. At the same time, it has 6 adjectives which have different meanings from the ones listed above, predominantly in the domain of locational and temporal qualification.
The Aramba adjectives can generally be distinguished from other word classes in that they do not exhibit any nominal or verbal morphology. Unlike nouns, they cannot make up an entire NP on their own and they cannot be used with the adjectiviser suffix -dje/-sa. It seems that adjectivised nouns often make up for the limited repertoire of underived adjectives:
Gye fànye me xubrémendeg xanda sesemberdje ngare.
gye fànye me xuf- rye -endeg xanda sember -dje ngare
1sg there fc - be -p.pg big jealous -Adjr woman
Pn.ab Adv prt 1sg.ab.p.cp- V.it -nm.sg Adj N.rd -pp N
'There I was a very jealous woman.'
Ndani finamsa semndjó.
nda- -ni finam -sa semndjó
us- -gen. wish -Adjr food
ip.1pl- -pp N -pp N
'Our favorite food.'
Personal Pronouns
In Aramba, free personal pronouns exhibit the ergative-absolutive case marking pattern, i.e. the unmarked forms are used in intransitive subject and transitive object function, while the marked form is used in transitive subject function.| Ergative | Absolutive | |
| 1sg. | gène | gye |
| 2 | bène | be |
| 3 | binó/nafo | bi |
| 1pl. | nine | ni |
| 2 | bène | be |
| 3 | bine/nafa | bi |
Table 3: Personal pronouns in Aramba.
gye ya xrameg
gye ya xra- me -g
I will go
Pn-ab adv dt.ft- V -nom.sg
'I will go.'
ñgàwo tó gye xufigenendeg.
Ñgàw -o tó gye xuf- igen -endeg.
father me me carry
N -erg adv Pn.ab 1sg.ab.cp- V -p.ct.sg
'Father carried me.'
gene tó weyñgáx
we- yñg -áx
I-erg. p her- trick -dp.sg
'I tricked her.'
Pronouns can also take the postpositional clitic -we which either functions as intensifier or as reflexive, e.g. benewe 'you yourselves' or bewe 'you yourselves'. Note that this use of pronouns in context with intensification and reflexivity is analogous to English and its set of pronominal self-forms: He himself had baked the cake vs. He hit himself on the head.
3.5 Demonstratives
Aramba has three demonstrative forms: proximal ne 'this', medial fàn 'that' and distal mbe 'that over there'. They can function as demonstrative pronoun ; in example or as demonstrative determiner :nafbáno fàn tamndjáx
naf- bán -o fàn ta- mndj -áx
her son -erg that - marry -dp
ip.3sg N -erg Dm.ab dt.pf- V -nm.sg
'Her son married that.'
Gene tó fànye thàfarameñgendeg agya
gene tó fàn -ye thàfa- rameñg -endeg agya
I past that -in - watch_over - crocodile
erg.1st Adv Dm. pp ab3sg.m.p.cp- V -nm.sg.p.pg N.ab
'There I was watching over the crocodile.'
Fàn ewesba tó fàn xanda-xando dridáx.
fàn ewesba tó fàn xanda-xanda -o de- rid -áx
that woman p that old_man -erg she- pass_by -dp
Dm N Adv Dm N -erg ab.3f.sg- V.L -nm.sg
'That old man had passed by that old woman.'
Quantifiers
This class includes numeral and non-numeral expressions. The numeral system takes the base 6 and involves the following forms:| ngámbi | 'one' |
| yànbaru | 'two' |
| yenówe | 'three' |
| asàr | 'four' |
| tambnoy | 'five' |
| nimbo | 'six' |
| feté | '36' |
| tarumba | '6x36' |
| ndamno | '6x tarumba' |
| wermeke | '6x ndamno' |
There is also counting with the base of five, involving the composite form ngámbi mbày brú 'five '. Thus, for 'ten' you get yànbaru mbày brú ' two hands parts', for 'fifteen' you get yenówe mbày brú ' three hands parts', or for '24' you get asàr mbày brú asàr ' four hands parts four'. Non-numeral quantifiers include nga 'one, some, another', xàyo xusi / bedjidjó meme 'uncountable', yeyenówe 'not much', brámwe 'all', ñgówe 'many', dof-dof 'many' and tús 'plenty'.
Adverbs
Adverbs are uninflected forms which are never governed by a postposition, and do not function as arguments or predicates in single clauses. In addition to degree adverbs like xanda 'very', ndamba 'somewhat' and fefe 'really, very', there are also a number of adverbs indicating tense, aspect or mood: tó 'past tense', ya 'future tense', wàrye 'still', xut 'again', añgu 'no matter', mo 'irrealis', wamo 'as if', yamo 'would, should', manamo 'counterfactual', xaxe 'negative' and úró 'prohibitive'.Conjunctions
Aramba has coordinate conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions. Coordinate conjunctions functioning at noun phrase as well as clause/sentence level are e 'and' and o 'or'; the expressions mba 'and/then', bi 'but', wati 'and' and xa 'and/then', on the other hand, only function on clause/sentence level. The subclass of complementizers includes mánà 'when, if', mbàndámàr 'until', and interrogative pronouns me 'whichever', mende 'like what', muma 'from where', manda 'wherever', mumba 'whatever' and múme 'how big'.Possession
Aramba makes a formal distinction between alienable and inalienable possession. The possessive relationship holding between a possessor noun and a possessed noun is commonly marked by the postpositional clitic -ni. Consider the examples below.ngámbi nañgbani mám wàdji tror
ngámbi nañgba -ni mám wàdji tror
one child -gen. wallaby bush_string vine
Qt N -pp N N N
'One boy's wallaby bush string.'
Fàn yànmbaru ngarúwéni djó
fàn yànmbaru ngarú -ni djó
that two man -gen. name
Dm Qt N -pp N
'The names of those two men.'
Abramni màran, Abram muma thremáx
Abram -ni màran, Abram muma thra- m -áx
Abram -gen. family, Abram from_where it- go -dp
Npr -pp N Npr Dm 3sg.m.ab.ft- V -nm
'Abram's family where Abram came from.'
In addition, Boevé and Boevé observe the following subset of so-called inalienable nouns in the language: -ngam 'mother', -ngàwa 'father', -tabú 'father', -tér 'friend', -bidj 'husband', -begend 'wife', -for 'daughter, -bán 'son', -gasi 'name sake'. These nouns obligatorily take the inalienable noun prefix without the possessive postpositional clitic -ni, which is used with alienable nouns.
Table 4: Inalienable noun prefixes varying according to person and number.
xaxexa nafngamàn dúwefesáx
xaxexa naf- ñgam -n dúwe- fes -áx
not his- mother -to she- tell -dp
Neg_Cj ip.3sg- N -pp ab.3f.sg.st.pf- V.L -nm.sg
'He did not tell it to his mother.'
Ara, ndunñgán, gafu wàrye nàrye?
ara, ndu- nñgán gafu wàrye nà- rye
? my friend good still you- be
Q ip.pp N Adj Adv 2sg.ab- V.C.it
' My friend, are you still okay?'
The list of inalienable nouns suggests that the formal marking of inalienable possession is restricted to nouns denoting social kinship relations. Nevertheless, the examples below demonstrate that by no means all semantically inalienable nouns are formally marked as such.
nga ngarúweni yàmanba togye
nga ngarú -ni yàmanba togye
one man -gen. girl little
Qt N -pp N Adj
'Somebody's little daughter.' Boevé & Boevé, 1999: 62)
Nduni nañgàna yamo yàsàràx.
nduni nañgàn -a yamo ye- sàr -àx
my younger_sibling -pl - hit -pt
ip.1sg N -pl pt-ir 2/3pl.abs- V -nm.1sg
'I used to hit my small brothers and sisters.'
Yet another way of marking possessive relationships is demonstrated by the following example ; here the otherwise locative postpositional clitic -ye is employed as possessive marker. Note that the possessed noun bidj 'husband' belongs to our above list of inalienable nouns.
Yúryéye bidj be xanmbraxend
Yúryé -ye bidj be xa- n- mbraxend
yúryé husband you - this_way-say_loud
Npr -pp N 2abs dt.imp- dir- V.L
'Yúrye's husband, you say it aloud !'
Verbal morphology
As already indicated in, Aramba verbs occur in two forms: 'common root' and 'limited action root' . To these roots, obligatory prefixes and suffixes are attached. The verb morphology is unusual in that it displays a mixture of ergative-absolutive marking and nominative-accusative marking. Tense/Aspect marking in Aramba is rather complex.Common root vs. Limited action root
The limited action root of a verb is used when there is only one instance of the action, when the action implied is restricted in time, intensity or amount or when the number of participants in the event is limited. The common root, on the other hand, implies no such restrictions. Consider examples and involving the limited action root -fes- and the common root -fex- of the verb meaning 'tell':mafo mbán safes?
maf -o mba -n sa- fes ∅
who? you -to you- tell
-erg ip -pp 2pl.pf.st- V-L 3sg.nm
'Who told you two?'
mafo mbán safafexo?
maf -o mba -n safa- fex -o
who? you -to you- tell
-erg ip -pp 2pl.p.cp.st V-C -3sg.nm
'Who told you ?'
The limited action root also serves as a stylistic device in certain discourse contexts, e.g. when issuing a command or directive. Compare example with the limited action root -yaf- 'help' with where the common root -yax- 'help' is being used.
ndun xwayaf
ndu -n xwa- yaf
me -for - help
ip.1sg -pp 1sg.ft.st- V-L
'Help me please!'
ndun xwayaxàx
ndu -n xwa- yax -àx
me -for - help -pos
ip.1sg -pp 1sg.ft.st- V-C -imp.st
'Help me!'
Unlike the common verb root, the limited action root is not compatible with the intensifier suffix -or and the suffix encoding progressive or durative aspect . Examples - again demonstrate the different uses of limited action root and common root, including the use of the intensifier suffix -or in.
thedjibáx
thà- djib -áx
it- throw -dp
3m.sg.ab- V-L -nm.sg
'He threw it away.'
sedjibáx
sa- djib -áx
- throw -dp
2/3pl.ab- V-L -nm.sg
'He threw them away.'
yedjibráx
ye- djibr -áx
- throw -dp
2/3pl.ab- V-C -nm.sg
'He threw them away.'
yedjibróráx
ye- djibr -or -áx
- throw -int -dp
2/3pl.ab- V-C -sfx -nm.sg
'He threw them away.'
Undergoer/Actor and Tense/Aspect marking on the verb
In construction, a verb is always prefixed and suffixed by Subject and Object markers, which respectively mark the Undergoer and Actor of the action referred to by the verb. In the case of transitive verbs, the subject markers are suffixed to the verb root, while the object markers are prefixed. In the case of intransitive verbs, the subject is marked via the same set of prefixes which serve as object markers with transitive verbs ; in addition, an invariant nominative suffix is attached to the verb root. Another marking pattern is observed with derived intransitive verbs. Here a detransitivising prefix is added to the transitive verb root and the transitive subject markers are also used as intransitive subject markers. Hence Boevé & Boevé 's remark on the hybrid nature of "the verbal case-marking system": when tracing the A/O and S marking of transitive and intransitive verbs, the marking pattern is ergative-absolutive; when comparing the marking pattern of transitive and derived intransitive verbs, the pattern is nominative-accusative.The Undergoer/Actor affixes carry information about Person, Number, sometimes Gender, Tense, Aspect and, in some cases, spatial deixis. When talking about events as being located in the past, present or future and when talking about these events from different viewpoints, different combinatorics between Undergoer prefixes and Actor suffixes apply. Table 5 below is a very simplified version of this combined Undergoer/Actor- and Tense/Aspect-marking verb inflection system. It is representative of the inflections on transitive and intransitive verbs. The prefix and suffix slots in Table 5 are the appropriate forms for third person singular referents. Note that for intransitive verbs, the Actor is always indicated via the verbal prefix set; the suffixes are invariant but morphologically they correspond to the third person singular Actor suffix of transitive verbs. The suffix slots that are zero-marked for the person/number value 'third person singular' are not necessarily zero-marked for all other person/number values ; e.g. for 'third person plural' you get -a for both suffix slots in No. 3 and 5. Also note that the verb root may occur in two different forms: 'common root' or 'limited action root'. In particular, the selection of verb root has an effect on the durative vs. non-durative reading of the action referred to. And finally, note that whenever we have past tense or future tense reference, the inflected verb form may be preceded by a time adverb: tó 'past' or yá 'future'.
| No. | Adverb | Prefix | Root | Suffix | T/A Translation | Comment |
| 1 | tó | thà- | C | -áx | X happened | Distant Past |
| 2 | tó | thàf- | C | -endeg | X was happening | Distant Past Progressive |
| 3 | thà- | C | -ø | X happens, X just happened, X is about to happen | Present, Recent Past: today, Near Future | |
| 4 | thà- | C | -o | X is happening | Present Progressive | |
| 5 | yá | thrà- | C | -ø | X will happen | Future |
| 6 | yá | thrà- | C | -o | X will be happening | Future Progressive: between now and distant future |
| 7 | tó | thàf- | C | -or -ox | X happened over there | Locative Distant Past |
| 8 | thà- | C | -or-o | X happens over there | Locative Present | |
| 9 | yá | thrà- | C | -or-o | X will happen over there | Locative Future |
| 10 | tó | thà- | L | -áx | X has happened | Distant Past Perfect: between a few weeks and a long time ago |
| 11 | tó | thà- | L | -ø | X has finished happening | Recent Past Perfect: between a few weeks ago and now |
| 12 | yá | thrà- | L | -ø | X will have happened | Future Perfect |
| 13 | tó | thà- | L | -ox | X has happened over there | Locative Distant Past Perfect |
| 14 | thà- | L | -o | X has just happened over there | Locative Recent Past Perfect | |
| 15 | yá | thrà- | L | -o | X will have happened over there | Locative Future Perfect |
Table 5: Tense/Aspect marking on transitive and intransitive verb roots.
Some further remarks on the verb forms in Table 5. Altogether, there does not seem to be an easy way of generalizing over the different tense/aspect markings in Arammba. Nevertheless, some tendencies can be stated:
- Future Tense is always indicated through the Future prefix set including thrà- ; except for Near Future where the future time reference is solely carried by the time adverb yá.
- The set of prefixes that include thà- is almost always used in context with Present Tense, but it also occurs on the C-root in context with Distant Past, perhaps with the implication that the action is still relevant to the present.
- The set of prefixes that include thàf- always have past reference and Boevé and Boevé refer to this prefix set as Past Completive.
- The suffix set including -áx always has Distant Past reference. Boevé & Boevé refer to this suffix set as Distant Past.
- The set of suffixes that is zero-marked for third person singular is always related to recent aast, present or future. In this context, the differences in meaning with the same pre- and suffixes occurring on either the common root or the limited action root: compare the C-forms in No. 3 and 5 with the L-forms in No. 11 and 12. The C-forms allow a durative, non-completive reading, while the L-forms always imply non-duration and completion.
- There are two sets of suffixes which never occur with the limited action root; namely the set including -endeg and the one including -o. Both are used on common verb roots in connection with Progressive Aspect. This incompatibility again underlines the non-durative semantics of the limited action root.
- For the Locative Tenses, both C- and L-roots are inflected with suffix sets including -ox and -o, respectively. However, only the C-root can take the intensifier suffix -or- which is inserted between verb root and locative suffix.
- And finally, the prefix sets on transitive verbs are divided into two classes: weak and strong. The weak prefix forms mark the arguments as being singular or paucal in number, whereas the strong prefix form is either used to indicate plurality or to mark the semantic role of the object referent as Recipient or Beneficiary. The third person singular prefixes given in Table 5 are of the weak form.
| Weak | Strong | ||
| Sg. | 1 | wà- | wa- |
| 2 | nà- | na- | |
| 3m | thà-/thè- | tha-/the- | |
| 3f | we- | wé- | |
| Pl. | 1 | ne- | né- |
| 2/3 | ya-/ye- | yá-/yé- | |
| Intr | we- |
Table 6: Imperfective verb prefixes for O and S function.
Distant Past with transitive verb root:
tó ñgànd-ñgàndfa tó thasoráx.
tó ñgànd ñgànd -fa tó thà- s -or -áx
past mud mud -from past it- take -int -dp
Adv N N -pp Adv 3m.sg.ab- V.C -int -nm.sg
'I dragged it out of the mud.'
yedjibráx
ye- djibr -áx
- throw -dp
2/3pl.ab- V-C -nm.sg
'He threw them away.'
Fànye tó yawàno nensaxuraxáx.
fànye tó yawàn -o ne- n- saxurax -áx
there past canoo -erg us- here- leave -dp
Adv Adv N -erg 1pl.ab- dir.- V-C -nm.sg
'There the car left us.'
gene tó weyñgáx fànsa:...
gene tó we- iñg -áx fànsa
I past she- trick -dp thus
erg.1sg Adv 3f.sg.ab- V.C -nm.sg Adv
'I tricked her as follows:...'
Distant Past with intransitive verb root:
Ndani táya mana yomáx
nda -ni táy -a mana ye- om -áx
us -gen. ancestor -suf when - live -dp
ip.1pl -pp N -pl Cjs 3pl.ab- V.C -nm
'When our ancestors lived...'
ngarú fàn weyawáx Muwar.
ngarú fàn we- ya -wáx Muwa -r
man those plenty- go -dp Muwa -to/for
N Dm 3.ab- V -nm.sg. N.pro -pp
'Those men went to Muwa.'
As the examples above also show, the subject referent is sometimes expressed only by the subject marker on the verb and ), whereas in other cases it is additionally expressed by a free Noun Phrase to ).
Abbreviations
- ab Absolutive
- ac Accompaniment
- Adj Adjective
- Adjr Adjectiviser
- Adv Adverb
- AdvT Adverb of Time
- Aff Affirmative
- al Alienable
- C Common root
- Cj Conjunction
- Cjs Conjuncion-subordinate
- cp Completive
- ct Continuous
- d Non distant past durative
- dir Directional
- Deg Degree adverb
- Dm Demonstrative
- dp Distant Past
- dsc Discourse
- dt Detransitiviser
- emp Emphasis
- erg Ergative
- f Feminine
- fc Focus
- ft Future
- gen Genitive
- i Imperfective
- ij Interjection
- imp Imperative
- iN Inalienable Noun
- inc Inchoative/ inceptive
- int Intensifier
- ip Inalienable Noun Prefix
- it Intransitive
- L Limited Action root
- lc Locative
- m Male
- N Noun
- NAC Non Active Complement
- Neg Negative
- nm Nominative
- nom Nominalized
- Npr Proper Noun
- Num Numeral
- p Past
- pers Personifier
- pf Perfect
- pg Progressive
- Ph Prohibitive
- pl Plural
- Pn Pronoun
- Pos Positive
- post Post Posed
- pp Post Positional clitic
- pr Present
- prt Particle
- ps Possessive
- pt Non distant past punctiliar
- Q Interrogative Pronoun
- Qt Quantifier
- R Relativiser
- rd Reduplicated
- rfl Reflexive
- sg Singular
- st Strong
- Th Theme
- tpc Topicalizer
- tr Transitive
- V Verb
- wk Weak