Welcome to the Kewabi (Aliya) language Presentation………….. Mendi – Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Wanpis Pokea, B/Ed Graduate, University of Goroka wpokea@gmail.com/ wanpiswallacepokea@yahoo.com.au

Introduction The Kewabi (Aliya) language is one of the small languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken by almost 1000 people living in the remote parts of Southern Highlands Province, especially in the Kagua/ Erave electorate. This presentation will focus on the basic grammatical features of the Kewabi language including phonology, morphology and syntax.

Source: Ethnologue.com

1. Phonology 1.1. Consonants / l/ as in lapo 'two' The Kewabi language has the following consonants. / l/ as in lapo 'two' /m/ as in musa 'to lift it up' /k/ as in kalu 'head' /n/ as in mena 'pig' /p/ as in paita 'to sleep' /r/ as in rara 'medicine leaf' /w/ as in wasa 'to look for' /s/ as in papasi 'kinship term' /b/ as in banapa 'lets go' /d/ as in dia 'no'

1.2. Vowels FRONT CENTRAL BACK / i / ipa 'water' /u/ musa ‘lift it up' HIGH / i / ipa 'water' /u/ musa ‘lift it up' MID / ɛ / ame 'brother' /o/ popo ‘steam’ LOW /e/ keke 'tongue' kebo ‘big' /a/ apa ‘father’

1.3. Length. The vowels of monosyllabic words are always phonetically long: /saa/ ‘put it’, /i/ ‘faeces’; /o/ ‘scabs’; /u/ ‘sleep’.

1.4. Syllable structure In the Kewabi language, the syllable patterns are V, VV, CV, and CVV. E.g. V u 'sleep' a.ka 'teeth' a.do.a 'to wait‘ VV ai.pa 'native salt‘,ai.na ‘related brothers’ CV pu 'go‘/Urine’ pi.ki 'center post' CVV pea 'to make' ka.mea 'to smell'

1.5. Suprasegmentals (stress) In the Kewabi language, different syllables can be stressed. There is no fixed stress. Examples; 1st Syllable = pi-ra “ means sit down” 2nd Syllable = la-me-ya ‘ means they being talking Final Syllable = a-ne-pu-li ‘where are you going’?

2. Morphology Kewabi morphemes can be divided into Root morphemes; e.g. anda ‘ to see’ (present tense) Derivational morpheme, e.g. le-anda (eyeglass) Inflectional; e.g. anda-lo ‘have seen’ (present Perfect tense)

By far the most frequent types of affixes in Kewabi are prefixes and suffixes. E.g. le-anda, anda-lo The Kewabi language does not have infixes, circumfixes or reduplication.

3. Syntax 3.1. Verb classes There are four verb classes in Kewabi The verb classes are determined by the shape of the V stem: Class I: Va ada ‘to see’ Class II: Vla pola ‘to crack’ Class III: Vtya/Vra; patya ‘to sleep’ pira ‘to sit down’ Class IV: Vaa rumaa ‘to distribute’

The Kewabi language has an SOV structure. ama nana ripina mother child hold S O V 'the mother holds the child'

Pronoun number person gender 1. Personal pronouns subject object Kewabi singular 1st male/female I me Ni 2nd you Ne 3rd male he him Nipi female she her plural we us Naa male/female/ they them Nimu

2. Possessive pronouns number person gender subject object Possessive Kewabi singular 1st male/female I me My/Mine Ni nei 2nd you yours Ne nei 3rd male he him his Ipi nei female she her hers plural we us Ours Na nai Yours Ne nai male/female/neuter they them Theirs Imu nei

Tenses There are four tenses in the dialect: 1. Present Tense Na-lo. ‘I am eating.’ 2. Future Tense Na-lua ‘I will eat.’ 3. Past Tenses Na-wo. ‘I just ate.’ immediate past tense Na-su. ‘I ate long time ago.’ remote past tense

Numerals The Kewabi language can be counted using base -5 numeral system. For example; Numeral in English Translation in Kewabi 1 ‘egali’ 2 ‘lapo’ 3 ‘repo’ 4 ‘mala’ 5 ‘su’ 6 ‘ki menda na egali’

7 ‘ki menda na lapo’ 8 ‘ki menda na repo’ 9 ‘ki menda na mala’ 10 ‘ki lapo’ 11 ‘ki lapo na egali’ 12 ‘ki lapo na lapo’ 13 ‘ki lapo na repo’ 14 ‘ki lapo an mala’

Conclusion The Kewabi (Aliya) language is too isolated, and it has therefore not been described by any linguists. More research needs to be done on the Kewabi language. Reference hpp//www. Ethnologue.com

Thank you for your attention! Any questions?