Namia language

Namia (Namie, Nemia) is a Sepik language spoken in Namea Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It goes by various names, such as Edawapi, Lujere, Yellow River. Language use is "vigorous" (Ethnologue).

Namia
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Namea Rural LLG in Sandaun Province; East Sepik Province
Native speakers	6,000 (2007)[1]
Language family	Sepik Yellow River Namia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nnm
Glottolog	nami1256[2]

In Sandaun Province, it is spoken in Ameni (3.981559°S 141.766186°E / -3.981559; 141.766186 (Ameni (Tipas))), Edwaki, Iwane (3.906643°S 141.755439°E / -3.906643; 141.755439 (Iwani)), Lawo, Pabei (3.927006°S 141.776325°E / -3.927006; 141.776325 (Pabei)), and Panewai villages in Namea Rural LLG, and in the Wiyari area. It is also spoken in 19 villages of Yellow River District in East Sepik Province.[3][4]

Dialects

Namie dialect groups are:[5]

• Ailuaki: spoken in Yegarapi (3.870583°S 141.800527°E / -3.870583; 141.800527 (Yegarapi)), Yaru (3.85512°S 141.802378°E / -3.85512; 141.802378 (Yaru)), and Norambalip (3.814045°S 141.828438°E / -3.814045; 141.828438 (Normbalip)) villages
• Amani: spoken in Augwom (3.99286°S 141.716817°E / -3.99286; 141.716817 (Augwom)), Iwani (3.906643°S 141.755439°E / -3.906643; 141.755439 (Iwani)), Pabei (3.927006°S 141.776325°E / -3.927006; 141.776325 (Pabei)), Panewai, and Tipas (3.981559°S 141.766186°E / -3.981559; 141.766186 (Ameni (Tipas))) villages
• Wiari: spoken in Alai (3.910948°S 141.797074°E / -3.910948; 141.797074 (Alai)), Nami (3.896557°S 141.879322°E / -3.896557; 141.879322 (Nami)), Worikori (3.923558°S 141.879066°E / -3.923558; 141.879066 (Warkori)), Akwom (3.938724°S 141.833174°E / -3.938724; 141.833174 (Akwom)), and Naum (3.923731°S 141.833466°E / -3.923731; 141.833466 (Naum)) villages
• Lawo: spoken in Mokwidami (3.858705°S 141.744059°E / -3.858705; 141.744059 (Mokwedami)), Mantopai (3.708668°S 141.698706°E / -3.708668; 141.698706 (Mantopai)), Yawari (3.676068°S 141.729295°E / -3.676068; 141.729295 (Yawari)), and Aiendami (3.944326°S 141.806744°E / -3.944326; 141.806744 (Luwawo (Aiendami))) villages

Phonology

Namia has only 10 phonemic consonants:[6]

p	t	ʧ	k
m	n
	l
	r
w	j

/t/ and /r/ are in nearly perfect complementary distribution with each other.

There are 6 vowels in Namia:[6]

i		u
e	ə	o
a

Grammar

Unlike other Sepik languages, Namia has an inclusive-exclusive distinction for the first-person pronoun, which could possibly be due to diffusion from Torricelli languages.[6] Inclusive-exclusive first-person pronominal distinctions are also found in the Yuat languages and Grass languages.

References

1. Namia at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Namia". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
4. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
5. Steer, Martin (2005). Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University.
6. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.