Elseng language

"Tabu language" redirects here. For Tabu dialect, see Konyak language.
Elseng
Morwap
RegionPapua, Indonesia: Jayapura and Keerom regencies - Abepura, Arso, Kemtuk Gresi, and Senggi districts; Lake Sentani area - south, southwest.
Native speakers
300 (2018)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3mrf
Glottologelse1239
ELPElseng

Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu[2]) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" ‘Morwap’ is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.[1]

Elseng is spoken in Omon village, Gresi Selatan district, Jayapura Regency; it is also called Tabu or Tapu.[3]

Classification

Laycock classified Elseng as a language isolate but noted pronominal similarities with the Border languages. Ross included it in Border because of these similarities but noted that it does not appear to share any lexical similarities with the family. However, this may be an effect of the paucity of data on Elseng. Foley similarly classifies Elseng as an isolate.[2]

An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)[4] also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.

Phonology

Consonants:[2]
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive voiceless p t k
voiced b g
prenas. ᵐb ᵑɡ
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative voiceless f s
voiced v
Approximant w l j
Vowels:[2]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ə
Open a

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[2]

sg pl
1excl ka kam
1incl yo
2 so sem
3 yi

Basic vocabulary

Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][2]

Elseng basic vocabulary
gloss Elseng
‘bird’ bisyas
‘blood’ sakwos
‘bone’ wok
‘breast’ pan
‘ear’ waskwos
‘eat’ tou
‘egg’ syungwin
‘eye’ nafon
‘fire’ bət
‘give’ venenggiʔ
‘go’ gele
‘ground’ mo
‘hair’ nimbias
‘hear’ sɨkwen
‘leg’ poksən
‘louse’ ku
‘man’ seseu
‘moon’ məm
‘name’ tin
‘road, path’ mol
‘see’ nɨnggwen
‘sky’ kuil
‘stone’ səpak
‘sun’ ningnaf
‘tongue’ mosən
‘tooth’ an
‘tree’ sək
‘water’ vetev
‘woman’ saun

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]

gloss Elseng
head walambiap
hair nimbias
ear mo; uskŋs
eye naf
nose sənpokep
tooth an
tongue mɔs; mɔsən
leg pokəs
louse ku
dog wəs
pig wo
bird bisjas; bisyas
egg suŋun
blood wətwən
bone ok
skin son; sɔn
breast pan
tree sək
man sisɛu; sisew
woman saɔ
sun ninaf
moon mɔm
water wətel; wətəl
fire bot; bɔt
stone səpat
road, path mul
eat to

Sentences and phrases

Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:[2]

(1)

ka

1

makən

POSS

teti

father

ka makən teti

1 POSS father

‘my/our father’

(2)

waso

man

amsan

good

waso amsan

man good

‘good man’

(3)

tele

father

si

garden

fa-san

work-?

tele si fa-san

father garden work-?

‘Father is working (his) garden.’

(4)

tele

father

bas

?

to-san

eat-?

tele bas to-san

father ? eat-?

‘Father is eating.’

References

  1. ^ a b Elseng at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Burung, Wiem. 2000. A Brief Note on Elseng. SIL International Electronic Survey Reports 2000–001.
  4. ^ Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013).
  5. ^ Menanti, Jackie. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report on the Elseng Language in Sia-Sia Village, Keerom County, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished report. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
  6. ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
  7. ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
  8. ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.