| Elseng | |
| Nativename: | Morwap |
| Region: | Papua, Indonesia: Jayapura and Keerom regencies - Abepura, Arso, Kemtuk Gresi, and Senggi districts; Lake Sentani area - south, southwest. |
| Speakers: | 300 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Iso3: | mrf |
| Glotto: | else1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Elseng |
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.[1]
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)[2] also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| prenas. | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Pronouns are:[3]
| sg | pl | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1excl | ka | kam | |
| 1incl | yo | ||
| 2 | so | sem | |
| 3 | yi | ||
Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[4] [3]
| ‘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),[5] [6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[7]
| 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 |
Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:[3]