Amele (Amele: Sona) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Huar, Jagahala and Haija.
Amele is notable for having 32 possessive classes,[2] over 69,000 finite forms and 860 infinitive forms of the verb.[3]
Phonology
Amele has only 5 vowels: /i, ɛ, æ, u, ɔ/.[4]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Stop | voiceless | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | g | |||
| Fricative | f | s | ʝ | h | ||
| Approximant | l | |||||
Grammar
Amele has seven tense-aspect categories, including four past tenses:[5]
- past habitual
- remote past
- yesterday’s past
- today’s past
- plus present
- future
- relative future
References
- ^ Amele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ "WALS Online - Chapter Possessive Classification".
- ^ Anna Siewierska, Jae Jung Song (1998). Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam: John Benjamin B.V. p. 112. ISBN 90-272-2937-6.
- ^ Roberts, John R. (1987). Amele. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 0709942540. OCLC 14132880.
- ^ Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
External links
| Authority control databases: National |
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