Misplaced Pages

Mian is an Ok language spoken in the Telefomin district of the Sandaun province in Papua New Guinea by the Mian people. It has some 3,500 speakers spread across two dialects: West Mian (a.k.a. Suganga), with approximately 1,000 speakers in around Yapsiei, and East Mian, with approximately 2,500 speakers in and around Timeilmin, Temsakmin, Sokamin, Gubil, Fiak and Hotmin.

Phonology

Phonologically, Mian is very similar to other Papuan languages in the size of its phoneme inventory, but it nevertheless has some peculiarities, such as its contrast between a plain and a pharyngealized . It is also a tonal language.

Vowels

Mian has six vowels, including the pharyngealized open front vowel.

Mian also has four diphthongs:

/ɛ/ is realized as in word-initial low-tone syllables, elsewhere.

/a/ is realized as in unaccented syllables, in word-initial low-tone syllables beginning with a consonant, elsewhere.

/o/ is realized as in word-initial low-tone syllables and in syllables ending in a voiceless plosive or , elsewhere.

/u/ is realized as in word-initial low-tone syllables, elsewhere.

Consonants

Mian has 16 consonants:

/b/ is realized as word-initially, or syllable-finally, elsewhere.

Examples: banǒn lower arm, mǎab frog, teběl ant

/t/ is realized as before vowels, or syllable-finally.

Examples: tam temple, mát gall bladder

/k/ is realized as before vowels, or syllable-finally, sometimes between vowels, before .

Examples: kemin to do, manggěk bee, okok work, kaawá steel axe

/ɡ/ is realized as word-initially, elsewhere.

Examples: gát mole, manggěk bee

/ɡʷ/ is realized as word-initially, elsewhere.

Examples: gwaán spider, gwalgwal twins

Tones

Mian has five tonemes:

The tones of Mian are very complex, as they are subject to various phonological processes, and furthermore, they can be used for indicating various grammatical aspects, especially in connection with verbs, where the tones are crucial for understanding.

Consider the two verb forms below, being non-hodiernal and imperfective respectively:

dolâbībe I wrote

dolâbibe I am writing

Nouns

Large objects in Mian are feminine, while small objects are masculine.

imen-e

taro-M

imen-e

taro-M

‘small/one taro’

imen-o

taro-F

imen-o

taro-F

‘large taro/large quantity of taro’

References

1. ^ Fedden, Olcher Sebastian (2007). A Grammar of Mian, a Papuan Language of New Guinea (PhD thesis). University of Melbourne. hdl:11343/39327.
2. Mian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Suganga at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
3. Endangered Languages Project data for Suganga.
4. Foley, William A. (2018). "The morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages". 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. 895–938. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

Further reading

• Fedden, Sebastian (2011). A Grammar of Mian. Mouton Grammar Library 55. Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-026419-7.

Digital resources

• Fedden, Sebastian; Timothy Feist; Matthew Baerman; Greville G. Corbett; Gunter Senft (2015). Mian and Kilivila Collection. University of Surrey. doi:10.15126/SMG.30/1.

• Languages of Sandaun Province
• Languages of East Sepik Province
• Ok languages
• Tonal languages