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Namia (Namie, Nemia) is a Sepik language spoken in Namea Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It goes by various names, such as Edawapi, Lujere, Yellow River. Language use is "vigorous" (Ethnologue).

In Sandaun Province, it is spoken in Ameni (3°58′54″S 141°45′58″E / 3.981559°S 141.766186°E / -3.981559; 141.766186 (Ameni (Tipas))), Edwaki, Iwane (3°54′24″S 141°45′20″E / 3.906643°S 141.755439°E / -3.906643; 141.755439 (Iwani)), Lawo, Pabei (3°55′37″S 141°46′35″E / 3.927006°S 141.776325°E / -3.927006; 141.776325 (Pabei)), and Panewai villages in Namea Rural LLG, and in the Wiyari area. It is also spoken in 19 villages of Yellow River District in East Sepik Province.

Dialects

Namie dialect groups are:

• Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (3°52′14″S 141°48′02″E / 3.870583°S 141.800527°E / -3.870583; 141.800527 (Yegarapi)), Yaru (3°51′18″S 141°48′09″E / 3.85512°S 141.802378°E / -3.85512; 141.802378 (Yaru)), and Norambalip (3°48′51″S 141°49′42″E / 3.814045°S 141.828438°E / -3.814045; 141.828438 (Normbalip)) villages
• Amani: spoken in Augwom (3°59′34″S 141°43′01″E / 3.99286°S 141.716817°E / -3.99286; 141.716817 (Augwom)), Iwani (3°54′24″S 141°45′20″E / 3.906643°S 141.755439°E / -3.906643; 141.755439 (Iwani)), Pabei (3°55′37″S 141°46′35″E / 3.927006°S 141.776325°E / -3.927006; 141.776325 (Pabei)), Panewai, and Tipas (3°58′54″S 141°45′58″E / 3.981559°S 141.766186°E / -3.981559; 141.766186 (Ameni (Tipas))) villages
• Wiari: spoken in Alai (3°54′39″S 141°47′49″E / 3.910948°S 141.797074°E / -3.910948; 141.797074 (Alai)), Nami (3°53′48″S 141°52′46″E / 3.896557°S 141.879322°E / -3.896557; 141.879322 (Nami)), Worikori (3°55′25″S 141°52′45″E / 3.923558°S 141.879066°E / -3.923558; 141.879066 (Warkori)), Akwom (3°56′19″S 141°49′59″E / 3.938724°S 141.833174°E / -3.938724; 141.833174 (Akwom)), and Naum (3°55′25″S 141°50′00″E / 3.923731°S 141.833466°E / -3.923731; 141.833466 (Naum)) villages
• Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (3°51′31″S 141°44′39″E / 3.858705°S 141.744059°E / -3.858705; 141.744059 (Mokwedami)), Mantopai (3°42′31″S 141°41′55″E / 3.708668°S 141.698706°E / -3.708668; 141.698706 (Mantopai)), Yawari (3°40′34″S 141°43′45″E / 3.676068°S 141.729295°E / -3.676068; 141.729295 (Yawari)), and Aiendami (3°56′40″S 141°48′24″E / 3.944326°S 141.806744°E / -3.944326; 141.806744 (Luwawo (Aiendami))) villages

Phonology

Namia has only 7 phonemic consonants:

Namia consonant inventory

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar
Plosive	p	t	k
Nasal	m	n
Tap		r
Lateral		l

Some analyses present /tʃ/ as an eighth phoneme, although its distribution is predictable. and in some cases /r/ are positional variants of /t/, as described in the table below.

Word-initially may be heard in place of expected in rapid speech if the previous word ends in a vowel. In no environment do more than three phonemes contrast, meaning that a fourth oral coronal /tʃ/ is not required. only occurs following high vowels /i/ or /u/ (e.g. 'lazy') where it can be seen as an allophone of /t/. In most environments only two phonemes contrast, suggesting that /r/ only recently diverged from /t/.

There are 6 vowels in Namia:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open	a

The glides occur as allophones of /i u/, e.g. /iapu/ 'Sepik river', /uəla/ → 'house'.

Grammar

Unlike other Sepik languages, Namia has an inclusive-exclusive distinction for the first-person pronoun, which could possibly be due to diffusion from Torricelli languages. Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005) and Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

gloss	Namia
head	magu
ear	mak
eye	eno
nose	nəmala; nɨmala
tooth	pinarɨ; pinarə
tongue	lar
leg	liː; lipala
louse	nanpeu
dog	ar; ara
pig	lwae
bird	eyu
egg	puna
blood	norə
bone	lak
skin	urarə
breast	mu
tree	mi
man	lu
woman	ere
sun	wuluwa
moon	yem
water	ijo; ito
fire	ipi
stone	lijei
name	ilei
eat	(t)
one	tipia
two	pəli

References

1. Namia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
4. Steer, Martin (2005). Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University.
5. ^ Feldpausch, Becky; Feldpausch, Tom (2009). Phonology essentials of the Namia language. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
6. ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
7. Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
8. Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66.
9. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.

• Yellow River languages
• Languages of East Sepik Province
• Languages of Sandaun Province