Fuyug language explained

Fuyug
Region:	Papua New Guinea
Speakers:	14,000
Date:	2003
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans-New Guinea?
Fam2:	Goilalan
Iso3:	fuy
Glotto:	fuyu1242
Glottorefname:	Fuyug

Fuyug (Fuyuge, Fuyughe, Mafulu) is a language of Papua New Guinea spoken in the Central Province of the country. The language's 14,000 speakers live in 300 villages in the Goilala District.

Phonology

The usual orthographic convention used to transcribe Fuyug is to use a for pronounced as //ɑ//, e for pronounced as //ɛ//, y for pronounced as //j//, and the corresponding IPA characters for the remaining phonemes.

Vowels

Fuyug possesses five vowel phonemes.

		Back
Close	i	u
Mid	ɛ	o
Open		ɑ

The vowel pronounced as //ɛ// is pronounced as the diphthong pronounced as /[ɛi̯]/ when word-final as well as before a word-final consonant. For example, ateg ("truth") is pronounced pronounced as /[ɑˈtɛi̯ɡ]/ and ode ("where") as pronounced as /[oˈdɛi̯]/.

All vowels are nasalised before a nasal consonant, as in in ("pandanus") pronounced as /[ˈĩn]/, ung ("nose") pronounced as /[ˈũŋɡ]/, em ("house") pronounced as /[ˈẽĩ̯m]/.

Consonants

Fuyug has 14 consonant phonemes.

				Velar
	Voiceless	p	t	k
	Voiced	b	d	ɡ
	Voiceless	f	s
	Voiced	v
Nasal		m	n
Approximant		w	j
Liquid			l

The voiceless plosive are aspirated in a word-final position and before pronounced as //i//: endanti ("outside") pronounced as /[ɛ̃nˈdɑ̃ntʰi]/, oki ("fire") pronounced as /[ˈokʰi]/, eyak ("return") pronounced as /[ɛˈjɑkʰ]/.^[1]

The pronunciation of the liquid pronounced as //l// is in free variation between a lateral pronounced as /[l]/ and a flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/. However, with the exception of words of foreign origin where the word in the source language is written with an r, this is represented in the orthography as l.

Syllables

Fuyug syllables come in the shape (C)V(C)(C). There cannot be more than two consonants adjacent to one another word-internally and the only final clusters permitted are mb, nd and ng. Within a word vowels may not follow one another.

Stress

Stress in Fuyug is predictable. Stress falls on the final syllable in mono- and disyllabic words and on the antepenult in words of three of four syllables. Affixes do not alter the stressed syllable.

Morphophonology

Certain suffixes (notably the illative -ti) cause a change in the end of the word to which it is attached:

• m assimilates to n before t: im + -ti → inti ("in the eye")
• l is elided before t: + -ti → ("in the heart")
• Voiced plosives are devoiced at the end of a word when the following word begins with a vowel or a voiceless consonant: + → ("a road"), + → ("a lot of sand").
• an i is inserted between two consonant if the first is not l or a nasal: ev + -ti → eviti ("in the Sun"). With certain verbal suffixes an e is inserted: id + -ngo → idengo ("is sleeping").
• When a root with a final vowel has suffix or clitic attached to it that begins with a vowel, the first vowel is deleted: ne + -a → na ("he eats").

Grammar

Personal pronouns

Fuyug has personal pronouns for three numbers (singular, dual, plural) but not gender distinction.

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1st	na	da	di
2nd	nu	ya	yi
3rd	hu	tu	mu

These pronouns can take four different suffixes: the genitive -l or -le, the emphatic -ni, the comitative -noy and the contrastive -v.

Numerals

Numerals in Fuyug are very restricted, having only fidan ("one") and ("two"). The numbers 3, 4 and 5 are composed of 1 and 2:

• 3: ("two its other")
• 4: ("two and two") ;
• 5: ("two and two and its other").

After five English numerals are used (numbers less than five often do so as well). The quantifier ("a lot") is also used after three.

Bibliography

• Book: Bradshaw, Robert L. . 2007 . Fuyug Grammar Sketch . Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages . 53 . SIL-PNG Academic Publications . 9980-0-3353-3 .

Notes and References

1. The nasal phoneme pronounced as //n// assimilates before a velar consonant becoming pronounced as /[ŋ]/ : yangos ("rain") pronounced as /[jɑ̃ŋˈɡos]/.