[PapuanLanguages] Languages named "No"

Sun Feb 28 01:17:49 AEDT 2016

Joyce,

Our knowledge here overlaps. My wife Lea Brown and I have worked on 
Walman (on the coast) and Srenge (aka Aruop, spoken in Sibilanga). 
People in Sibilanga call Urim "Kalp", though I've also heard them call 
it Wrim.  If one goes directly south from Sibilanga, one reaches the 
highway at Monandin, one of the Yangum Mon speaking villages, and 
between SIbilanga and the highway one goes through Sengi, where they 
speak Yangum Dei. Yangum Dei is mutually intelligible with Yangum Mon 
though 'no' is 'iko' in Yangum Dei.

I have two students who are just completing dissertations on Mehek and 
Yeri (the latter called 'Yapunda' in the literature). I have a student 
beginning work this summer (i.e. summer in the U.S.) on Heyo, though my 
student who has worked on Mehek says that they pronounce it 'Eho'. I 
will have another student starting work next summer on Aro (called 
'Torricelli' in Ethnologue), which one speaker said is also called 
"Upper Kombio".

My wife and I have not been to PNG since 2012 though we will be going to 
Sibilanga for the summer next year.

The name 'Nabi' (or 'Nambi') is based on the word for 'no', but not 
Seleput or Urat.  And I can confirm that Eitiep is 'no' in that language.

While Kombio is like Urim in lacking the subject prefixes found in most 
Torricelli languages, both Aro and Eitiep (both in the higher Kombio 
group) have them.

Matthew Dryer

On 2/27/16 5:34 AM, Joyce Wood wrote:
> This is all so interesting; thank you everyone.
>
> My experience is near the Sepik Highway. In the Sandaun Province part 
> of Urim, it is as Matthew Dryer describes. People find it very useful 
> to refer to languages by their word for 'no', if they talk about their 
> neighbouring languages. In fact, (even) within dialect concerns, my 
> Urim friends would talk about their speech being "tokples Kalpm" as 
> opposed to the East Sepik Urim people who speak "(tokples) Kalpis" 
> (both of which mean 'no/nogat'.) They will readily acknowledge that 
> they are "wanpela tokples tasol" with the Kalpis speakers, but I've 
> rarely heard people actually use the name Urim. I think they vaguely 
> know that outsiders would call their language Urim/Wrim.
>
> Aiku (Yangum Mon) means 'nogat'
> (not sure about Eitiep, hope to find out)
> Kayik (Wanap) means 'nogat'
> Mende (Seim) means 'nogat'
> Heyo, Beli, & Yahang mean 'nogat' (don't quote me on that)
> Mehek apparently means 'nogat'
>
> Kombio apparently doesn't mean 'nogat'.
>
> - Joyce
>
> On 2/26/2016 4:47 PM, Lise Dobrin wrote:
>> The southwestern-most Arapesh language, Wəri (which is called that by 
>> its speakers), is the local word for 'no'. But no other Arapesh 
>> language follows that convention; instead, the language names are 
>> usually some variant of the form /buk/ or /bu'/. Still, people mostly 
>> refer to their own language as 'our talk'. This seems to fit with the 
>> common discursive pattern of 'be less specific when less specific 
>> will do'.
>>
>> Lise
>>
>>
>> On Feb 25, 2016, at 11:16 AM, Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu> wrote:
>>
>> The custom of using the word for ‘no’ as the name of the language is 
>> without exception in the region I work in northern PNG, in the 
>> vicinity of Aitape and inland from there.Most of the languages that 
>> follow this convention that I am aware of are Torricelli languages, 
>> but it includes Mehek, a Sepik language, and appears to include at 
>> least some of the Austronesian languages on the coast in this area.
>>
>> But I think it is also necessary to distinguish the names used by 
>> speakers for their own language and the names used by speakers of 
>> other languages.Namely, while the use of the word for ‘no’ is 
>> pervasive as the name used by speakers of other languages, speakers 
>> frequently have a different name for their own language, though they 
>> may use that name interchangeably with their word for ‘no’.
>>
>> Because words for ‘no’ are often cognate among related languages, it 
>> is often the case that there are similarities in the names among 
>> related languages and this can be a source of confusion for 
>> linguists. The following are all names for Torricelli languages based 
>> on their word for ‘no’ that appear to be cognate:
>>
>> Alu, Galu, Olo, Aro, Aruop, Oru
>>
>> I’m curious what the geographical expanse of this in PNG is. Bill 
>> Foley’s email implies that it extends well to the east of where I 
>> work, while Sasha Aikhenvald’s email implies that it doesn’t extend 
>> too far inland (though the Ndu languages do extend to the coast). It 
>> isn’t clear how far west it extends. It apparently does include the 
>> Skou language Barupu (Corris 2005) but it does not include Poko-Rawo, 
>> a Skou language spoken near Leitre between Vanimo and Aitape (at 
>> least as a name they use for their own language).
>>
>> Matthew Dryer
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2/24/16 11:31 PM, Aikhenvald, Alexandra wrote:
>>> This is not at all the case for any of the Ndu languages in the East 
>>> Sepik (nor for many of their neighbours).
>>>
>>> A few Huon-Finisterre languages base their name on the word for 
>>> what: Hannah Sarvasy (Hannah.Sarvasy at anu.edu.au) will be able to 
>>> provide all the details.
>>>
>>> As a matter of comparison - I am aware of at least one set of 
>>> languages in Amazonia, named after the form for 'no': Kurripako, 
>>> Karutana, Karo - all dialects of the Baniwa of Içana/Kurripako 
>>> continuum (North Arawak). Speakers are aware of this, and comment on 
>>> this.
>>>
>>> Sacha
>>>
>>> Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, PhD, DLitt, FQAAS, FAHA
>>> Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow
>>> Director of the Language and Culture Research Centre
>>> James Cook University
>>> PO Box 6811, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
>>> http://www.jcu.edu.au/faess/JCUPRD_043649.html
>>> mobile 0400 305315, office 61-7-42321117
>>> fax 61-7-4232 1880  http://www.aikhenvaldlinguistics.com/
>>> http://research.jcu.edu.au/lcrc
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: PapuanLanguages [mailto:papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au] On 
>>> Behalf Of Joyce Wood
>>> Sent: Thursday, 25 February 2016 2:29 PM
>>> To: papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au
>>> Subject: Re: [PapuanLanguages] Languages named "No"
>>>
>>> 'no' (English) / 'nogat' (Tok Pisin)
>>> is the naming convention for languages in the Sepik region of PNG. 
>>> See Laycock 1975 in Pacific Linguistics. Sorry this is not a full 
>>> citation.
>>>
>>> I've always wondered which came first: Laycock's written records, or 
>>> the language names? I used to think Laycock started it, but now I'm 
>>> thinking that the convention was established among the language 
>>> speakers themselves, long before Laycock visited there. Info anyone?
>>> - Joyce Wood
>>>
>>> On 2/25/2016 1:24 PM, Tom Honeyman wrote:
>>>> Hi All,
>>>>
>>>> I have often heard anecdotal evidence of a naming pattern, 
>>>> supposedly widespread, in various parts of both PNG and Australia 
>>>> of languages "named" for the word meaning “no” (or “no-having”, or 
>>>> the negator) in that language.
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure I have a memory of someone either publishing or at least 
>>>> blogging about this in the last 10 years or so, but I can't for the 
>>>> life of me find the source. “No” is of course not the only 
>>>> convention either.
>>>>
>>>> Can anyone please point me in the right direction?
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Tom Honeyman
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> PapuanLanguages at anu.edu.au
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