Studies in Irian Languages, Part II

The Meyah grammatical system is not highly complex, but it does have a greater number of verbal
inflections than its East Bird's Head neighbors. Meyah is a SVO language with person-number
agreement on possessed nouns and verbs. Alienable nouns are generally marked by the fossilized
alienable noun class marker m- as in: mek 'pig', meg 'tree', mod 'house'. Adjectives and inalienable
noun stems can function as predicates in that they can take the same person-number, aspect, and
mode inflections that verb stems take and can be negated by sentence final negative guru 'not': di-en-
eteb [dineteb] guru 'iSG-DUR-large not' (I am not big). Adjectival stems function attributively
following noun heads. However, verbs do not function attributively.

Meyah does have a rather complex morphophonemic system involving coalescence between
prefix vowels and stem vowels. The prefixes indicating person-number, aspect, mode, and
instrument are all (CV) structures. Meyah verb, adjective, and inalienable nouns stems have an

'The data in this text was collected under the auspices of a cooperative agreement between SIL International and

the Department of Social Affairs, Republic of Indonesia.
^Government organized population centers.
^Mansibaber is a derogatory name used by Biak/Numfor language speakers.

initial vowel limited to /e, a, o/. When a person-number prefix is attached to one of these stems, its
final vowel coalesces with a front or back vowel [-Low] of the stem or intervening prefix. The
resulting vowel then becomes [-HHigh Front] or [-l-High Back] as in (1-2).

(1) bi-et [bit] bi-en-et [binet] bi-e-n-t [bint] bi-em-et [bimet]
2SG-eat 2SG-DUR-eat 2SG-PERF-eat 2SG-M0D-eat

You eat. You are eating. You have eaten. You might eat.

(2) di-ofij [dufij] di-en-ofij [dunofij] di-o-m-fij [dumfij] di-em-ofij [dumofij]
iSG-help iSG-DUR-help iSG-PERF-help iSG-MOD-help

I help. I am helping. I have helped. I might help.

The vowel -a is dominant and does not coalesce. Therefore, if the stem vowel is -a, the prefix
vowel is elided, and if the prefix vowel is a-, then the stem vowel is elided as in (3).

(3] Bi-agot [bagot] Na-ofij [nafij]

2SG-speak iDU.INC-help

You speak. We two help.

The time of an event is indicated through the use of temporal adverbs that usually occur initially
in the sentence as in (4), but can occur at the end. Verbal inflections include durative en, perfective
aspect infix -N- (nasal), inceptive aspect ej-, modal em-, and instrument er- as illustrated in (4-6).

(4) Monog di-em-eja jah Manokwan
tomorrow iSG-MOD-go to Manokwari

Tomorrow I might go to Manokwari.

(5) Bua bi-n-t mat insa ke-uma
you 2SG-PERF-eat food ANA NOM-that

S/he had eaten that food.

(6) Era meiteb er-of mega
use machete INST-fell tree

S/he uses a machete to fell the tree.

Meyah uses a three term system for demonstrative and spatial deixis. The deictic stems are
prefixed by nominalizer ke- or adverbializer si- as in (7).

(7) ke-if [kef] 'this' si-if [sif] 'here'

ke-uma [koma] 'that' si-uma [suma] 'there'

ke-unj [konj] 'that yonder' si-unj [sunj] 'there yonder'

The uninflected stems in (7) function as clitics attaching to nouns or prepositions such as:

(8) a. orka meic-if eker gij mod-uma

bring ladle-this sit in house-that

S/he brings this ladle. S/he sits in that house.

b. ojuj-if eja jah-uma

descend-here go to-there

72

S/he descends here. S/he goes there.

Me3'ah locative deictic constructions include demonstrative and locative adverb stems that
denote elevational orientation to the deictic center such as:

(9) ke-imba this below si-imba there below
ke-inda this above si-inda there above

Movement toward or away from the deictic center is indicated by en 'come' and eja 'go', as in
(10). When these stems function adverbially they remain unmarked as 3SG.

(10) Di-ecira jah mei okoka ke-imba eja
iSG-travel to river okoka NOM-below go

I travel going (away) to Okoka river village down below.

"N

ISSN 0126 -2874

NUSA

LINGUISTIC STUDIES OF INDONESIAN
AND OTHER LANGUAGES IN INDONESIA

VOLUME 47, 2000

STUDIES IN IRIAN LANGUAGES

PART II

Edited by
GER P. REESINK