| Kilmeri | |
| States: | Papua New Guinea |
| Region: | Sandaun Province |
| Coordinates: | -2.9163°N 141.298°W |
| Ethnicity: | 2,800 (2004) |
| Date: | 2004 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Border |
| Fam2: | Bewani Range |
| Fam3: | Poal River |
| Iso3: | kih |
| Glotto: | kilm1241 |
| Glottorefname: | Kilmeri |
Kilmeri, or bo apulyo is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea near the border with Indonesian Papua. It is not being learned by children.
Kilmeri is spoken around Ossima ward (-2.9163°N 141.298°W) in Bewani/Wutung Onei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.[1]
Speakers of Kilmeri refer to their own language as bo apulyo, meaning sound in the middle.
The two major dialect groupings have an estimated cognate percentage of 82% based on lexicostatistics.
Kilmeri distinguishes 18 consonants, 12 of which are phonemic.[4]
| Plosive | voiced prenasalised | b | d | ⌈g⌉ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless | p | k | ⌈ʔ⌉ | |||||
| Labialized | (pʷ̜) | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||
| Rhotic | ᵐʙ | r | ||||||
| Fricative | (β / ɸ) | ⌈f⌉ | s | |||||
| Lateral | l | |||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | j | ||||||
The exceedingly rare bilabial trill /ʙ/ is found in the areal-related Kwomtari and Sko languages, but not in other Border languages.[5] It likely developed from a prenasalized bilabial stop followed by a high back rounded vowel, hence why [mbu] occurs only in ten words.
Kilmeri has eight vowels, all of which are always short.
| High | i | u | ||
| Near-high | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| (Near) -low | æ | a |
The main syllable structure is CV with two preferred syllables.
The phonetic inventory easily translates into Latin letters. The near-low vowel uses ae and the near-high vowels use diacritics. Literate Kilmeri speakers much preferred the symbol p for the bilabial trill, but pp was selected to indicate two different phonemes.
| /b/ | b | |
| /d/ | d | |
| /k/ | k | |
| /l/ | l | |
| /m/ | m | |
| /n/ | n | |
| /p/ | p | |
| /ʙ/ | pp | |
| /r/ | r | |
| /s/ | s | |
| /ʋ/ | w | |
| /j/ | y | |
| /a/ | a | |
| /æ/ | ae | |
| /ɛ/ | e | |
| /i/ | i | |
| /I/ | î | |
| /ɔ/ | o | |
| /u/ | u | |
| /ʊ/ | û |
Kilmeri has eleven personal pronouns without gender distinction. [5]
| 1st INCL | ko | dedukoyo | nuko | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st EXCL | koyo | uke | ||
| 2nd | de | deyo | ine | |
| 3rd | ki ~ ke | kiyo | iki |
Kilmeri verb forms can express complex modality. Examples:[5]
| de-le | -go | ‘will probably go’ | |
| lam < le-m | go- | ‘might go’ | |
| lou < le-ou | go- | ‘go in vain’ | |
| lap < le-p | go- | ‘go!’ | |
| klam < k-le-m | -go- | ‘don’t go!’ | |
| loipap < le-ipe-p | go-first- | ‘go first, and then…’ |
Circumfixes can also be applied to verbs in Kilmeri.
Number agreement in Kilmeri is absolutive rather than accusative.[5]
In Kilmeri, intransitive verbs, as well as the two transitive verbs ‘eat’ and ‘throw down to’, agree with subjects in number. This pattern is also present in Amanab. These verbs are:[5]
| gloss | singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‘eat’ | ni | ile | |
| ‘throw down to’ | pakʊne | pakʊpi | |
| ‘come’ | pule | pulupi | |
| ‘die’ | sui | supuli | |
| ‘go’ | le | mole | |
| ‘sit’ | nake | mape | |
| ‘sleep’ | nui | sapi | |
| ‘speak’ | mui | molive |
However, number marking for transitive verbs, except for ‘eat’ and ‘throw down to’, refers to the number of the object, rather than the subject.[5]
| gloss | singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‘carry’ | wili | moli | |
| ‘carry hanging’ | lali | laluli | |
| ‘cook’ | si | sepi | |
| ‘cut’ | suke | sukeli | |
| ‘dig’ | rari | rararpi | |
| ‘erect’ | newe | newaupi | |
| ‘fetch someone’ | lakive | leki | |
| ‘fill’ | norive | nororpi | |
| ‘harvest’ | lapiye | lapapi | |
| ‘mark’ | lopi | lopapi | |
| ‘sharpen’ | merive | mererpi | |
| ‘take out’ | pulive | puloli | |
| ‘tear’ | pike | pikeki |