Tifal language

Category:Articles with short descriptionCategory:Short description is different from Wikidata
Tifal
Tifalmin
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionSandaun Province, Telefomin District
Ethnicityincl. Urapmin
Native speakers
4,000 (2003)[1]
Dialects
  • Tifal–Urap
  • Atbal
Language codes
ISO 639-3tif – inclusive code
Individual code:
urm – Urap
Glottologtifa1245  Tifal
urap1239  Urapmin
ELP
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Category:Languages which need ISO 639-3 comment

Tifal is an Ok language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Tifal (Tifalmin), Urap (Urapmin) and Atbal (Atbalmin).

Geography

The Tifal language is bounded by Papuan and Irian Jaya speakers to the south and west, the Telefomin valley in the east, and the Sepik river to the north.[2]

Orthography

Phonemic ɑCategory:Pages with plain IPAɑːCategory:Pages with plain IPAbCategory:Pages with plain IPAdCategory:Pages with plain IPAeːCategory:Pages with plain IPAfCategory:Pages with plain IPAiCategory:Pages with plain IPAiːCategory:Pages with plain IPAkCategory:Pages with plain IPAlCategory:Pages with plain IPAmCategory:Pages with plain IPAnCategory:Pages with plain IPAŋCategory:Pages with plain IPAoCategory:Pages with plain IPAoːCategory:Pages with plain IPAsCategory:Pages with plain IPAtCategory:Pages with plain IPAuCategory:Pages with plain IPAuːCategory:Pages with plain IPAwCategory:Pages with plain IPAjCategory:Pages with plain IPA
Lowercase aaab, pdefiiiklmnngooostuuuwy
Uppercase AAaBDEFIIiKLMNOOoSTUUuWY

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Plosive b t d k
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative f s
Semivowel w j
Liquid l
/b/Category:Pages with plain IPA is realized as [pʰ] word finally, as [p] in syllable-coda position before a consonant, and [b] elsewhere.
/t/Category:Pages with plain IPA is realized as [t] in syllable coda before a consonant and [tʰ] elsewhere.
/d/Category:Pages with plain IPA is realized as [ɾ] intervocalically, e.g. /didab/Category:Pages with plain IPA: [dɪˈɾʌpʰ]Category:Pages with plain IPA 'water container'.
/k/Category:Pages with plain IPA is [ɣ] intervocalically, [k] in syllable coda before consonants, and [kʰ] elsewhere.
/s/Category:Pages with plain IPA is realized as [ʂ] before /u/Category:Pages with plain IPA.
/l/Category:Pages with plain IPA is alveolar adjacent to back vowels and alveodental elsewhere.[3] One dialect realizes /l/Category:Pages with plain IPA as [r] intervocalically.

Vowels

Vowels
FrontCentralBack
Close i iːu uː
Mid eːo oː
Open ɑ ɑː

/o/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /oː/Category:Pages with plain IPA rarely contrast.[4]

Vowel allophones[5]
Phoneme Condition Allophone Realization
elsewhere
/i/Category:Pages with plain IPA word-initially and finally [i] [ɪ]
/a/Category:Pages with plain IPA [a] [ʌ]
/u/Category:Pages with plain IPA [u] [ʊ]
/eː/Category:Pages with plain IPA in open syllables, before /m/Category:Pages with plain IPA, and between /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /p/Category:Pages with plain IPA [eː] [ɛː]
/o/Category:Pages with plain IPA before /n/Category:Pages with plain IPA or /ŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA; between /t/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /k/Category:Pages with plain IPA [ɔ] [o]

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)V(ːCategory:Pages with plain IPA)(C). The expression kwiin takanCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text 'oh my!' may be an exception.

/d/Category:Pages with plain IPA only occurs word-initially.[6] /f/Category:Pages with plain IPA only occurs syllable-initially.[7] /ŋ/Category:Pages with plain IPA is always syllable-final.[8]

Initial /l/Category:Pages with plain IPA only occurs in some dialects. Initial /kw/Category:Pages with plain IPA occurs in two dialects, and may usually be interpreted as C+V.

/w/Category:Pages with plain IPA and /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA occur syllable-initially.[9] Only one dialect allows syllable-coda /j/Category:Pages with plain IPA.[10]

Stress

In inflected words stress lies on the last syllable of the verb stem. If there are long vowels stress falls on the first syllable in the word. If all vowels are short, stress falls on the last syllable. If it is closed stress falls on the first syllable.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns are not inflected but may mark possession. Body parts and kinship terms are obligatorily possessed, and some kinship terms require affixing. On other nouns possession is optional, except for proper names which are never possessed.[11]

Pronouns

Pronoun stems[12]
Person Basic Emphatic
1 singular ni-/na-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text nala-/nalal-/-nilaCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
plural nuu-/no-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text nuulu-/nulul-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
2 singular m kab-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text kaltab-/kalab-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
f kub-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text kultub-/kulub-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
plural kib-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text kiltib-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
3 singular m a-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text ala-/alal-/al-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
f u-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text ulu-/ulul-/ul-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
plural ib-/i-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text iltib-/ilib-/ilal-/il-Category:Articles containing Tifal-language text
Non-emphatic pronouns[13]
Suffix meaning: Poss. Subj. Definitive Inst. First with, and, also
Suffix: -mi~niCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -i~-diCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -yoCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text taCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -siik/-siinCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text soo/soonoCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
Emphatic pronouns[14]
Suffix meaning: Poss. Inst. 'only' 'like, simile'
Suffix: -mi~niCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text taCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -kalCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text tabCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text

Verbs

Tifal has a rich aspectual system.[15] Verbs may be separated into four groups based on how they transform from continuative to punctiliar aspect. Some only have vowel and/or simple stem changes, some have suppletive stems, some change compound-final stems, and some which have allomorphs which add -(a)laa-minCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text (or rarely -daa-laa-minCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text) to the stem.[16]

Verbs also can be divided based on transitivity. Some require direct objects, some with optional objects, some with optional locational objects, and a few intransitive verbs.[17]

Order of verb suffixes[18]
verbben.ben.-laaCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language texttensepersonmoodstatement-final marker

Tense and aspect

Most final verbs mark tense, mood, and person, but most verbs can mark aspect and not tense and still be a final verb.[19]

Tense-aspect suffixes[20]
ContinuativePunctiliar
pres -b/mCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text1 -dCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
yesterday past 1-m-som/-a-somCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -bCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
dist. past -a-sCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
very remote past -bisCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text -sCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
abilitative 1-m-amCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text 1-d-amCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
near future 1-m-okomCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text 1-d-okomCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
dist. future 1-m-okobCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text 1-d-okobCategory:Articles containing Tifal-language text
  1. "initial consonant of the customary or class changing marker is retained"

Tifal sentences are contain inflected verb-root-chains, often with a final fully conjugated verb. One must inflect for the amount of time between one verb in the chain and the next.[21]

Deixis

Marking spatial relation between verbs and their objects is obligatory. "up" must be clarified as either "upslope" or "upstream", "down" as "downslope" or "downstream", and "across" as "across land" or "across a river".[21]

Kinship

Tifal has dyadic kinship terms (terms referring to the relationship two or more people have to each other), which are present in less than 10 languages and not prevalent in Papua New Guinea. However, they are a salient feature of the Ok languages. Related terms are found in Oksapmin, Mian, and Telefol.[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tifal at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only contentCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
    Urap at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only contentCategory:Language articles citing Ethnologue 18
  2. ↑ Boush 1975, p. 0, Introduction.
  3. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, pp. 8–9.
  4. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, p. 22.
  5. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, pp. 17–19.
  6. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, p. 3.
  7. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, p. 7.
  8. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, p. 8.
  9. ↑ Boush & Boush 1974, p. 9.
  10. ↑ SIL 1994, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Boush 1975, pp. 3–5.
  12. ↑ Boush 1975, p. 6.
  13. ↑ Boush 1975, p. 7.
  14. ↑ Boush 1975, p. 8.
  15. ↑ Fedden, Sebastian. "Aspectual stem distinctions in the Mian verb" (PDF). Leipzig University.
  16. ↑ Boush 1975, pp. 10–12.
  17. ↑ Boush 1975, pp. 13–16.
  18. ↑ Boush 1975, p. 16.
  19. ↑ Boush 1979, p. 1.
  20. ↑ Boush 1975, pp. 22–23.
  21. 1 2 Bercovitch, Eytan. "On Learning a New Guinea Language". Language-Learning-Advisor.com. Archived from the original on 2023-03-26. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
  22. ↑ Loughnane, Robyn (2008). "The Oksapmin Kinship System". University of Sydney. Archived from the original on 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2009-05-21.

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Steinkraus, Walter. 1969. 'Tifal phonology showing vowel and tone neutralization.' Kivung 2:1
  • Healey, Phyllis, and Walter Steinkraus. 1972. 'A Preliminary Vocabulary of Tifal with Grammar Notes.' Language Data Microfiche AP 5, S.I.L., Huntington Beach, v + 117 pp. ISBN 0-88312-305-3
  • Steinkraus, Walter. 1962–63. Manuscripts. SIL, Ukarumpa.
  • Boush, Al. 1974–79. Manuscripts. SIL, Ukarumpa.
Category:Languages of Sandaun Province Category:Languages of Western Province (Papua New Guinea) Category:Ok languages
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