Studies in Irian Languages, Part II

A distinctive feature of the language is a word-final labio-velar consonant, written as gb, as in the
name of the language. This is analyzed as a velar stop, whose rounding is caused by the preceding high
back vowel.

Verbs and inalienable nouns, the latter include items with initial / or u, are prefixed to indicate person
and number of subject and possessor, respectively. Third person singular is zero on verbs and mf^- on
nouns, lowering high stem vowels: ind-ums 'iSG-ear', m-oms '3SG-ear*; ab-ir '2SG-voice', m-er '3SG-
voice'. There is an inclusive-exclusive opposition for first person plural and dual. The dual is marked by

the vowel a, for all persons. Verbs can further be prefixed by em- for irrealis (IRR), and a- for instrument.
The irrealis is obligatory on verbs in negated clauses, as in (1). Main verbs in clauses which are
introduced by a sequential conjunction appear to prefer the irrealis marking, as in (107)-(109] of the text.

( 1 ) Em-em-es ugwodi ingin (a) ero

lEXC-IRR-shoot cuscus some not

We did not shoot any cuscus.

Instruments cannot be expressed as clausal constituents. They are given in a preceding clause or
extra-clausal constituent, and then marked by the verbal prefix a- which substitutes the stem vowel e of
the verb etkwa 'cut up' in (2) or the initial o of the vowel sequence ou in the verb ouma 'buy* in (3).

( 2 ] En eic kep ta a - (e) tkwa h weij

3SG take machete INS-cut.up pig

He takes a machete (to) cut up the pig.

(3) Len l-oho besa l-Q-(o)umQ mine
they 3PL-carry bird. of. paradise 3PL-INS-buy cloth

They carry birds-of-paradise (to) buy (ceremonial) cloths with them.

A few physiological states are expressed through experiential verbs, in which some noun functions as
a third person subject and the experiencer is marked by an object suffix to the generic verb eh[Q) 'do'.
Some examples are: dukurij-ebe-d 'I am cold'; mus-ebe-b 'you have a cold (are coughing)'; cicir-ebe-m 'we
are sleepy'; sfljr-ebe-r *they are hungry'. The irrealis marking is placed between the subject noun and the
verb, as in (4).

(4) Dani or-em-ebe-d-ero

I thing-IRR-do-lSG-not

I am not sick

The nominalizing clitic g- is used to make nouns out of verbs or adjectives, as in the title of the New
Testament Allah m-en g-os dou menau 'God 3SG-possess NOM-hold for new' ir. which the verb +
preposition os dou 'hold for' means 'to promise' is nominalized. It can also be encliticized to words like
the generic noun ara '(some)thing, what' or free pronouns len 'they' and yen 'you. PL': areg is used to
introduce relative clauses, as in (5), while the pronouns convey 'those who', 'you who', as exemplified in
(158)of the text.

(5)

Mine are-g dan ind-ina eic dou

dan

cloth what-REL I iSG-father take to

me

kaba dan d-a-fojufo don in-sowa

then I iSG-INS-pay I iSG-wife

The cloth which my father gave me I used to buy my wife.

Quite a number of verbs appear to contain a nominalized element, as in acgeic 'to request', in which g-
eic 'NOM-take' seems to be a grammaticalized incorporated form of the verb 'to take', which means 'give'

when occurring with the preposition dou 'to', as in (5). The form ac could be the Instrument prefix o-
plus ec, which seems to have a very generic meaning 'movement forwards', as it has the following
specific meanings: with high tone: 'sneeze, peel (banana), open (door), light (a fire), shoot'; with a low
tone: 'walk, pick (fruit). Obviously, this is still rather speculative.

Less speculative is the presence of this nominalizing clitic on the demonstratives, w^hich seem to specify
the cardinal directions, two of which have clearly elevational meanings: gada 'that up, west', gaib 'that
down, east', gaba 'that. north', and goc 'that. south'. These four are in complementary distribution with
gini 'this' and ingga 'that'.

As has become clear from the examples, Sougb, just as most other Papuan languages of the Bird's
Head has a rather strict SVO word order in the clause. The negative adverb is always sentence-finally,
requiring the verbs in its scope to be marked by the prefix em- for irrealis. For further details, the reader
is referred to Reesink (2000a).

"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