Elseng language
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Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu) 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.
Elseng is spoken in Omon village, Gresi Selatan district, Jayapura Regency; it is also called Tabu or Tapu.
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.
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013) also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.
Phonology
| 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 |
Pronouns
Pronouns are:
| sg | pl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1excl | ka | kam |
| 1incl | yo | |
| 2 | so | sem |
| 3 | yi |
Basic vocabulary
Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):
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), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
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:
ka
1
makən
POSS
teti
father
ka makən teti
1 POSS father
‘my/our father’
waso
man
amsan
good
waso amsan
man good
‘good man’
tele
father
si
garden
fa-san
work-?
tele si fa-san
father garden work-?
‘Father is working (his) garden.’
tele
father
bas
?
to-san
eat-?
tele bas to-san
father ? eat-?
‘Father is eating.’