Mpur (also known as Amberbaken, Kebar, Ekware, and Dekwambre) is a language isolate spoken in and around Mpur and Amberbaken Districts in Tambrauw Regency of the Bird's Head Peninsula, New Guinea. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the West Papuan languages, based on similarities in pronouns, Palmer (2018), Ethnologue, and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.

Locations

In Tambrauw Regency, ethnic Mpur people reside in Kebar District, Kebar Timur District, Manekar District, Amberbaken District, Mubrani District, and Senopi District. Villages include Akmuri, Nekori, Ibuanari, Atai, Anjai, Jandurau, Ajami, Inam, Senopi, Asiti, Wausin, and Afrawi.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in Mpur are:

Consonants
LabialAlveolarPalatalVelar
Nasalmn
Plosivevoicelessptk
voicedbd
Affricatet͡ʃ
Fricativeɸs
Semivowelwj

Vowels

Mpur has five vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/.

Tones

Mpur has a complex tonal system with 4 lexical tones and an additional contour tone, a compound of two of the lexical tones. Its tonal system is somewhat similar to the nearby Austronesian languages of Mor and Ma'ya. The neighboring language isolate Abun is also tonal.

Mpur has four lexical tones. There is also a fifth complex contour tone formed as a phonetic compound of two lexical tones. An example minimal set is given below.

  • bé ‘but’ (high tone)
  • be ‘in’ (mid tone)
  • bè ‘fruit’ (low tone)

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Miedema & Welling (1985), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

glossMpur (Arfu dialect)Mpur (Kebar dialect) head èbuamèbuam hair byamburbuambor eye éyamyam tooth èbirbir leg pirikèipèt louse iːmèyim dog p(y)èrpir pig duaoduaw bird iw (ip)if egg buabua blood éfarfar bone éipip skin (è)fièkfièk tree perahuperau man dèmonipmamir sun putput water warwar fire yityèt stone biːtbit name mukemuk eat èryètbarièt one tutu two dokirdukir

Further reading

  • Odé, Cecilia (2002). "A Sketch of Mpur". In Ger P. Reesink (ed.). Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head. Pacific Linguistics. Vol.524. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp.45–107. doi:. hdl:. ISBN9780858834941.

Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp.15–66. doi:. ISBN0858835622. OCLC.

External links

  • Materials on Karnai are included in the open access collections and held by Paradisec.
  • Audio and video recording are also available at .