Bukiyip language


Bukiyip, or Mountain Arapesh, is an Arapesh language spoken by around 16,000 people between Yangoru and Maprik in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. Bukiyip follows the SVO typology. The Arapesh languages are known for their complex noun-phrase agreement system.

Classification

There are two primary dialects of Bukiyip Chamaun-Yabonuh and Ilipeim-Yamil and two minor dialects Buki and Lohuhwim. Given significant variation among dialects, linguist Robert Conrad suggests that Bukiyip is likely part of dialect chain that also involves other Arapesh languages. The dialects may be further generalized as Coastal Arapesh and Mountain Bukiyip.

Phonology

Syllable structure

Syllabic stress is usually placed on the penultimate syllable, which has a higher pitch.
There are four contrastive intonation contours.
  1. Final Intonation - falling pitch on the last syllable, followed by a pause
  2. Non-final Intonation - level mid pitch on the last syllable, followed by a pause
  3. Interrogative Intonation - level mid/high pitch on the last word
  4. Imperative Intonation - high pitch and heavy stress throughout clause with a rapid pitch drop on the last syllable

    Consonants

written as: p, t, k, b, d, g, s, ch, j, h, m, n, ny, l, r, w, y

Vowels

Initial vowels clusters: ou, au, ai, ia
Medial vowel clusters: e, a, i, o, uu, úo
Final vowel clusters: eo, ou, uu
FrontCentralBack
High
Mid
Low

written as: i, e, a, o, u, æ, é, ú

Morphophonemics

Bukiyip has 18 basic rules for morphophonemic shifts.
  1. VcCalv → VfCalv
  2. w + ú → u, ú + w → uw, i + ú → i
  3. ny + u → nyú
  4. ú + CrVr → uCrVr, eCrVr → oCrVr
  5. a + CVc → éCVc
  6. Vc + C + w → VrCw, where Vc is not a,
  7. Cw + Vr → CVr
  8. i# + i → i
  9. #w + é → #wo
  10. m# + ú → mu
  11. #Vc +tVr → otVr
  12. e# + úk → eik
  13. C# + CVc → CVcCVc
  14. ú + C# + u → uCu
  15. ú# + C + u# → oCu#
  16. VrCr# + ú → VrCru
  17. u# + ú → uwu
  18. ú# + u → o
The above rules use the following abbreviations:
Vr - rounded vowels
Vc - central unrounded vowels
Vu - unrounded vowels
Vf - front vowels
C - consonant
Calv - alveopalatal consonants
Cr - rounded consonants
  1. - morpheme boundry in phonological word

    Words

Nouns

There are 18 noun classes with a closed set of suffixes of the form: noun nucleus + number.
V1 is the first vowel in a medial vowel cluster, V2 is the second vowel in a medial vowel cluster.

Pronouns and demonstratives

and demonstratives must agree with the noun class and have singular and plural forms, pronouns also encode proximal and distal information.
Possesive pronouns have the form: pronoun + -i + unú

Verbs

Verb structure

Verbs have a complex structure of affixes encoding mood, object, benefactive, and direction which either have their own classes or must agree with the noun class. The structure is:
Subject + Mood + Object + Verb Nucleus + Object 2 + Benefactive + Directional.
Object 2 and Benefactive may not occur in all verbs.

Verb subject prefixes

Mood marker

All verbs. The realis mood concerns events that have happens in the past and present. The irrealis mood concerns future events and events that did not happen in the past. The imperative mood and interrogative mood are formed by clausal transformations.

Verb object suffixes

Verb root classes

Class 8 has a second object while class 4 only has one.

Adjectives

consist of a root word followed by the appropriate noun-class suffix.

Adverbs

There are three adverb classes in Bukiyip: 'natimogúk' in the irrealis mood and '-nubu' and '-gamu' in the realis mood. All adverbs are inflected, and may have free or bound stems depending on which modifier slot they are placed in the clausal, phrase, or sentence syntax.

Counting system

There are two basic numeral roots 'atú-' and 'bia-'. These numeral prefixes are added to noun root words and then undergo a morphological process that combines them. For example:
atú + -p + utom → atum → otum
or
bia + -ch + batowich → biech
The numeral root 'nobati-' is an exception to this assimilation pattern. In addition to the atú- and bia- numeral roots, there is also a stem éné- meaning one, an, or some depending on context.

Phrases

There are 23 phrase formations in Bukiyip.

Verb phrases

1. Modified Verb Phrase: Modifier + Head + Modifier
2. Repeated Verb Phrase: Head + Modifier + Head + Modifier
3. Coordinate Verb Phrase: Head + Head + Modifier
4. Motion Verb Phrase: Head + Head + Modifier

Noun phrases

5. Modified Noun Phrase 1: Modifier + Modifier + Possessive + Head
6. Modified Noun Phrase 2: Modifier + Head
7. Apposition Noun Phrase: Head + Apposition + Identification
8. Coordinate Noun Phrase: Head + Head + Coordinate

Modified noun phrases

9. Possessive Phrase: Head + Possessive
10. Limiter Phrase: Head + Limiter
11. Intensive Phrase: Head + Intensifier
12. Instrumental-Benefactor Phrase: Benefactive + Head
13. Similarity Phrase: Similarity bwidou + Head + Similarity
14. Accompaniment Phrase: Head + Accompaniment

Locative phrase

15. Locative Phrase 1: Locative + Head + Identifier
16. Locative Phrase 2: Head + Locative
17. Locative Phrase 3: Head + Head

Temporal phrase

18. Temporal Phrase 1: Head + Temporal
19. Temporal Phrase 2: Modifier + Head
20. Serial Temporal Phrase: Head + Head

Numeral phrase

21. Numeral Phrase: Head + Head + Head

Interrogative phrase

22. Interrogative Phrase: Modifier + Head

Adjective/adverb phrase

23. Adjective Phrase: Head + Head