| Pouye | |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Region: | Sandaun Province |
| Speakers: | 960 |
| Date: | 2003 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Sepik languages |
| Fam2: | Ram |
| Iso3: | bye |
| Glotto: | pouy1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Pouye |
Pouye (Bouye) is a language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea, by a thousand people, and growing. It is spoken in the seven villages of Bulawa (-3.6658°N 142.0144°W), Kiliauto, Komtin, Maurom (-3.6832°N 141.8473°W), Wokien (-3.6978°N 141.9578°W), Wulme, and Yukilau (-3.6783°N 141.9255°W), which are mostly located within East Wapei Rural LLG.[1]
A grammar of the Pouye language is published here:https://www.sil.org/resources/archives/62023
This description follows Dede & Reuter (2011).[2]
Pouye has 12 consonants, of which three have constrastive secondary articulations (labialisation or palatalisation).
| Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| labialised | plain | palatalised | labialised | plain | ||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | /tʷ/ | pronounced as /link/ | /tʲ/ | /kʷ/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-close | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
The trial orthography is as in the IPA except for /tʷ tʲ kʷ j/ which are tw ty kw y and the vowels /ɨ ɪ ɛ ə/ which are i i e a. This causes ambiguity between /i ɨ ɪ/, /e ɛ/ or /a ə/ although the functional load on these contrasts is low.
Pouye allows maximally two consonants in a syllable onset and one consonant in the coda. The nucleus may be a single vowel or diphthong, but although CVVC and CCVC syllables are permitted, CCVVC syllables are unattested. Complex onsets may be maximally a plosive plus a trill or approximant, or the sequence /kt/, for instance in /kin.kti/ "small" (no other two-plosive sequences occur).
Stress is generally placed on the penultimate syllable, although exceptions do occur (/wɨlˈou̯k/ "snake") and if the penult is /wɨ/ or /wo/ the stress is pushed leftwards (/ˈka.wo.wi/ "white").
Several morphophonemic alternations occur in Pouye, both within phonological words and across word boundaries.
The nominal object marker -rɨ loses its initial consonant following /r/ or /l/ or a monosyllable ending in /n/:
/jar-rɨ/ → [jarɨ] who-OBJ "whom"Compare /wəlou̯k-rɨ/ → [wəlou̯krɨ] snake-OBJ. Similarly, the locative marker -ru is realised as [u] in fast speech following any plain alveolar consonant (/n l r t/)./pol-rɨ/ → [polɨ] Paul-OBJ "Paul"
/wan-rɨ/ → [wanɨ] 1SG-OBJ "me"
/tɨlpan-ru/ → [tɨlpanu] palm.floor-LOC "on the floor"Compare /ləu̯-ru/ → [ləu̯ru] house-LOC "to the house/village"./tau̯ wai̯l-ru/ → [tau̯ wai̯lu] tree tree.keel-LOC "on the tree keel"
/jɪprar-ru/ → [jɪpraru] chicken-LOC "on the chicken"
/pɨrɨt-ru/ → [pɨrɨtu] ground-LOC "on the ground"
When concatenation of morphemes would produce a sequence of two identical plosives, /ɨ/ is inserted between them epenthetically.
/t-tɪnri-ke-nɨn-a/ → [tɨtInrikenɨn]Likewise /ɨ/ is inserted to prevent the formation of non-permissible consonant sequences, i.e. sequences of three consonants where the last two do not form a valid onset as described above, or two such consonants word-initially.R-revenge-PRF-PAS-awhile
"Had had revenge"
/wilau̯k-mta/ → [wilau̯kɨmta] good-INT "great"Compare for instance /nam-ki/ → [namki] 1P-ACP "with us", where the sequence /mk/ appears intervocalically and can be syllabified to two distinct syllables without requiring epenthesis./n-kɨ/ → [nɨkɨ] IMP-get "get it!"
Two identical nasals, trills or laterals (/mm nn rr ll/) degeminate when brought together.
/t-ətɨn-nɨn/ → [tətɨnɨn] R-sew-PAS "has sewn"With the imperative prefix n-, epenthesis occurs prior to this rule, meaning that imperatives remain distinct./t-ɪl-lai̯/ → [tɪlai̯] R-weave-CONT "weaving"
/n-nək/ → [nɨnək] IMP-hold "hold!" *[nək]
Between two vowels at morpheme boundaries, a non-lateral approximant is inserted. Following /i ɨ ɪ e ɛ/, /j/ is inserted, and following /u o ə a/, /w/ is inserted.
/t-ake-ɨr/ → [takejɨr] R-see-around "look round"In exception to this rule, the hortative prefix pa- inserts /l/ before a vowel./ra-lə-atʲɨ/ → [raləwatʲɨ] REP-down-come "come down again"
/pa-i-nɨm/ → [palinɨm] HRT-go-P "let's go" *[pawinɨm]Note also the exception described below.
The low vowel /a/ is deleted before /e/ or /ɛ/ over morpheme boundaries.
/t-ja-ɛj-ɨr-wɨt/ → [tʲejɨrwɨt]R-up-COM-with-stand
"Come up and stand with"
The suffix -wo "only" is reduced to -o in penultimate position, i.e. when followed by another single monosyllabic suffix. This prevents stress shifting leftwards.
/wan-wo-kʷɨ/ → [waˈnokʷɨ] 1S-only-POS "my/mine only"Compare /wan-wo/ → [ˈwanwo] 1SG-only "I only" or /kʷ-atu-wo-ke-nɨn/ → [kʷatuwoˈkenɨn] QCK-hang.up-up-PRF-PAS "quickly hung up (sth.) and left", in which cases wo would not be stressed normally anyway.
When the prefixes na- (potential) or ya- (negative) precede the realis prefix t-, and this sequence precedes a morpheme beginning with a plosive, the realis prefix becomes r- via dissimilation of manner with the following plosive.
/ya-t-patɨ-tamu/ → [yarpatɨtamu]NEG-R-twist-break
"Didn‘t break"
With compound words, vowel harmony causes the open vowel /a/ in the first element to raise to /ə/ in the second element.
/mau̯-ləu̯/ → [məu̯ləu̯] bush-house "bush-house"
The alveolar plosive /t/ is inserted at the end of a word when the following word begins with /m/. If the first word already ends in /t/, then additional epenthesis of /ɨ/ occurs.
/pa-ki me/ → [pakit me] FCS-TMP say "then said"This and the following rule occur over word boundaries, as opposed to the previous rules which are all word-internal processes./lot mei̯pɨr-ke/ → [lotɨt mei̯pɨrke] Lot laugh-PRF "Lot laughed"
The trill /r/ is also deleted in fast speech in the word riyɨ "now" when the previous word ends in /n/.
/ja-t-i-nɨn rijɨ/ → [jatinɨn ͜ ijɨ] NEG-R-go-PAS now "still has not gone"
Pouye has borrowed a number of words from the lingua franca Tok Pisin. In these words the phonemes /b d ɡ v s/ can be retained, e.g. /sevenpela/ "seven" (cf. native /jilɨkalikir/). Morphophonemic rules generally apply to these words, and the trill deletion rule described above extends its environment to following /s/ as well:
/barnabas-rɨ/ → [barnabasɨ] Barnabas-OBJ "Barnabas"Note the loan phonemes /b/ and /s/.