| Moi | |
| States: | Indonesia |
| Region: | Southwest Papua |
| Speakers: | 4,600 |
| Date: | 1993 |
| Ref: | e18 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | West Papuan? |
| Fam2: | Bird's Head |
| Fam3: | West Bird's Head |
| Iso3: | mxn |
| Glotto: | moii1235 |
| Glottorefname: | Moi (Indonesia) |
Moi is a West Papuan language of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | ||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
[ʔ] is in free variation with /k/ in word-final position.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Close-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Open-mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
/i, u/ can also be heard as [ɪ, ʊ].[1]
Verbs agree with the grammatical subject for person, number and, in the third-person, for gender. There are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and non-human. For the third person plural, the gender distinction applies only for human vs. non-human. For the first person plural, there exists a two way clusivity distinction. The agreement markers are prefixes on the main verb. [2]
| Singular | Plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1p. | t- | Incl. | Excl. | ||
| w- | m- | ||||
| 2p. | n- | ||||
| 3p. | Masculine | w- | y- | ||
| Feminine | m- | ||||
| Non-human | p- | n- | + Moi subject agreement prefixes | ||
Along with agreement prefixes cross-referencing the grammatical number of the subject, the verb stem itself can reflect number too: there may be one stem allomorph with front vowels (singular agreement) and one with back vowels (plural agreement).
H:humanPROX:proximal
As can be seen in the examples (1d) and (1f) and elaborated on by Menick, elements corresponding to prepositions in English share characteristics with verbs, which is why the conclusion can be made that the lexical category of adpositions is absent in Moi.
Inalienable nouns are obligatorily marked by prefixes for the possessor agreement (see example (1h) ara n-eesin 'breadfruit fruits', literally 'breadfruit tree its fruits')
To negate a clause, the particle dau following the verb is used:
The same particle can also negate a noun phrase:
The verb -ein indicates perfective aspect. It can also be indicated by the means of the suffix -s appended to the verb, cf ex. (1f) above.