Language name and location: Karawari, Papua New Guinea [Refer to Ethnologue]

语言名称和分布地区: 卡拉瓦里语( Tabriak 塔布里亚克语), 巴布亚新几内亚东锡皮克省

1. mban

2. simipay

3. simianmaw

4. samunum

5. suam

6. sambaymbia        (5+1)

7. sambasimipay      (5+2)

8. sambasimianmaw (5+3)

9. sambawsanɨm      (5+4)

10. sumburi

11. sumburiamban

12. sumburiasimipay 

13. sumburiasimianmaw

14. sumburiasamunum

15. sumburiasuam

16. sumburiasambaymbia

17. sumburiasambasimipay

18. sumburiasambasimianmaw

19. sumburiasambawsanɨm

20. sumburiŋɡar simipay 

Linguist providing data and dateː Prof. Borut Telban, Institute of Anthropological and

Spatial Studies, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and

Arts, Ljubjana, Slovenia. March 30, 2012.

提供资料的语言学家: Prof. Borut Telban, 2012 年 3 月 30 日.

Other comments: Karawari (called anduk apianak ‘our mouth’ by its over three thousand speakers) is spoken by approximately 3,000 speakers in eight main villages and countless bush camps in the area of the lower Karawari river (Yimaria), lower Konmei creek (Kwanmar), and upper Kangramai creek (Yiŋun) in the Sepik River (Ambiamai) basin of Papua New Guinea. There are four dialectal groups (the local names are in brackets): a) Konmei (Kwanmar,Siŋgara), Manjamai (Karɨŋgupa, Masamai), Kundiman (Kundiman); b) Meikerobi (Maiprokin), Kaiwaria (Kaiwarian), Kungriambun (Kuŋgriambun, Warɨpanai); c) Masandenai (Masɨndaŋgwan), and d) Ambonwari (Ambanwurin, Manjimakan). Being one of the languages of the Lower Sepik Family Karawari shows immense similarities with closely related Yimas language (well documented by William A. Foley) although the two languages are not mutually intelligible. The distinguishing characteristic of the Lower Sepik Family (belonging to a large group of New Guinean languages known as Papuan or non-Austronesian) is that all six languages of this family (Murik, Kopar, Angoram, Chambri, Yimas, and Karawari) are morphologically agglutinative, employing a large number of both prefixes and suffixes. The numeral system of Karawari is based on fingers and toes. There are two bases: five and ten (instead of additional twenty as it is the case in related Yimas language). Other higher numbers after 20 to 100 are as followingː 21. sumburiŋɡar simipaynyamban; 22. sumburiŋɡar simipaynyasimipay…; 29. sumburiŋɡar simipaynyasambawsanɨm; 30. sumburiŋɡar simianmaw; 40 sumburiŋɡar samunum; 50. sumburiŋɡar suam; 60. sumburiŋɡar sambaymbia; 70. sumburiŋɡar sambasimipay; 80. sumburiŋɡar sambasimianmaw, 90. sumburiŋɡar sambawsanɨm; 100. sumburiŋɡar sumburi.

Bodily counting goes as follows: one (only the thumb on the left hand is compressed), two (the forefinger covers the compressed thumb on the left hand), three (the middle finger and the forefinger cover the compressed thumb on the left hand), four (the middle finger, the forefinger and the third finger cover the compressed thumb on left hand), five (all the fingers cover the compressed thumb on the left hand), six (thumbs of both hands are put together, the fingers on the left hand are stretched, the fingers on the right hand are compressed), seven (hands as in number six and the forefinger on the right hand gets stretched), eight (hands as in number seven and the middle finger on the right hand gets stretched), nine (hands as in number eight and the fourth finger on the right hand gets stretched), ten (all the fingers are stretched while the thumbs and hands are pressed together as in prayer). Numbers from ten to nineteen are made of sumburi ‘ten’, conjunction -a- ‘and’, and a number from one to nine. For number twenty sumburi ‘ten’ gets marked for plural sumburiŋgar ‘tens’ while the number simipay ‘two’ follows. In short, twenty can be translated as ‘two tens’. The counting of the numbers from eleven to twenty begins at the small toe on the left foot. People rarely count over twenty in Karawari language but use Tok Pisin instead: e.g. 200 (tu handet), 1000 (tausen), 2000 (tu tausen). The numerals vary depending on what (noun) is counted. In the above example the suffix in mban ‘one’ and prefixes in simipay ‘two’ and simianmaw ‘three’ (and in higher numbers which include these three numbers) are those used in the nominal class to which yamɨndaŋ ‘finger’, as a part of the body, belongs. Another popular way of counting, and nowadays used in the Elementary School, is by referring to kɨnɨŋ ‘node’. In the past nodes that were tied on leaves marked the number of days, which had to pass before an event or meeting would take place. Whenever using ‘nodes’ the counting goes as follows: mbaŋ ‘one’, kripay ‘two’, krianmaw ‘three’. Again, all the higher numbers which include these three numbers also follow the nominal class to which kɨnɨŋ ‘node’ belongs. Adverbial numbers follow this pattern:kɨnɨŋ mbaŋgɨna ‘once’ (Lit. 'on one node'), kɨnɨŋgri kripanya ‘twice’ (Lit. 'on two nodes'). Let us also note that for counting humans number one is mban if male and mbanma if female, while numbers for two, iŋgɨnbay, and three, iŋgianmaw, are the same for men and women.

Karawari phonemic system

Karawari, a Papuan language spoken in Ambonwari village, is a four-vowel language: /a/, /ɨ/, /i/, /u/. Mid-vowels /e/ and /o/ are merged to /a/. There are two semivowels: /w/ and /y/. Bilabial voiced stop /b/ is usually preceded by bilabial nasal /m/ and in few cases by dental-apical /n/. The latter precedes dental voiced stop /d/. In short, /d/ and /b/ mainly appear in clusters and rarely as independent consonants. When they are not found in clusters then bilabial voiced stop /b/ is moved towards bilabial voiceless stop /p/, while dental voiced stop /d/ is moved towards dental voiceless stop /t/. While /p/ is often heard /t/ is heard only rarely. The reason for the lack of independent dental voiced stop /d/ as well as of dental voiceless stop /t/ seems to be due to the preference of majority of Ambonwari speakers who use dental fricative /s/ instead (it can be seen that all the numbers except mban ‘one’ begin with /s/ which is occasionally and only by some speakers replaced by /t/). Velar /ŋ/ indicates an 'eng' with /g/inaudible. When /g/ is heard after such a nasal, it is written as /ŋg/.