| Nalca | |
| Nativename: | Mek Nalca, Hmanggona |
| States: | Highland Papua Indonesia |
| Date: | 2013 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Trans–New Guinea |
| Fam2: | Mek |
| Fam3: | Northern |
| Iso3: | nlc |
| Glotto: | nalc1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Nalca |
Nalca (Naltya, Naltje) is a Papuan language spoken in Yahukimo Regency, Highland Papua, Indonesia. Alternative names are Hmanggona, Hmonono, Kimnyal (Kimyal). The latter is most often used for Korupun-Sela. Indonesian Kemendikbud classified Nalca as Mek Nalca, while Kimyal is used for Korupun-Sela.[1]
The Nalca language was an unwritten language until missionaries from the USA entered the area in the early 1960s. A literacy program was developed, and many people in the Nalca language group learned to read. Roger Doriot from the USA learned the language and completed the translation of the New Testament of the Bible in 2000.
Nalca belongs to the Eastern branch of the Mek languages, which is a family of closely related languages belonging to the larger grouping of Trans-New Guinea languages.
The Nalca language is spoken by about 16,000 people in the eastern highlands of West Papua.
Nalca has 15 phonemic consonants:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Laryngeal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
| Tap or flap | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||||
Nalca has five phonemic vowels:
| Close | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open-mid | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /ink/ |
Nalca is a generally isolating language, but exhibits an elaborate system of agglutination in verb formation.
The usual word order of Nalca is subject-object-verb (SOV).