Foi language
| Foi | |
|---|---|
| Region | Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | 6,000 (2015)[1] |
Papuan Gulf ?
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | foi |
| Glottolog | foii1241 |
Foi, also known as Foe or Mubi River, is one of the two East Kutubuan languages of the Trans-New Guinea family spoken along Lake Kutubu and Mubi River, located in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea.[1] Dialects of Foi are Ifigi, Kafa, Kutubu, Mubi.[2] A Swadesh list for the Foi language was documented by The Rosetta Project in 2010.[3] The estimated number of Foi speakers as of 2015 is between 6,000 and 8,000.[4]
Grammar
Syntax
Source:[5]
Foi is a
Foe adopts the usage of focused objects as sentence-initial. In noun phrases, Foi follows the pattern of Noun + Quantifier and Adjective + Noun.
Adverbial phrases are marked postpositionally by clitics in Foi.
Foi also has a series of evidentials to mark the verbal aspect of seen, unseen, deduced, possibility, and mental deduction.
Morphology
Source:[5]
The subject or focus transitive in a sentence is marked with -mo as shown in example (1) below.
no-mo
I-FOC
agira
sweet.potato
nibi'ae
eat.did
'I ate the sweet potato'
Where the focus is on the person who is eating the sweet potato.
| Base Form | Marked for Subject or Focus Transitivity | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 sg. | na(no) | no-mo |
| 2 sg. | naʔa | nomaʔa-mo |
| 3 sg. | jo | jo-ø |
| 1 pl. excl. | jia | jia-mo |
| 1 pl. incl. | jija | jija-mo |
| 2 pl. | haʔa | hemaʔa-mo |
| 3 pl. | jaʔa | jaʔa-ø |
| 1 dl. excl. | jage | jage-mo |
| 1 dl. incl. | jaʔa | jaʔa-ø |
| 2 dl. | hagaʔa | hagemaʔa-mo |
| 3 dl. | hagera | hagera-mo |
Lexical
Foi has separate words for today and yesterday, as well as two, three, four and five days prior and hence.[5]
Pronouns
Source:[5]
Singular, dual, and plural are distinguished in personal pronouns. In addition, Foe also marks clusivity for first-person pronouns.
| singular | dual | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | inclusive | na(no) | jaʔa | jija |
| exclusive | jage | jia | ||
| 2nd person | naʔa | hagaʔa | haʔa | |
| 3rd person | jo | hagera | jaʔa | |
It was not made clear if a reported minimal distinction in the first-person plural form between the inclusive jia and exclusive jija is real.
Phonology
Vowels
Foi features 5 vowels.
Consonants
The 16 consonants including the glottal stop used in Foi are:
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal
|
m | n ñ | ||||
Stop
|
b | t d | k g | ʔ | ||
| Fricative | f v | s | h | |||
Approximant
|
w | j | ||||
| Trill | r |
Allophonic variation of [t], [d] and [r] is common.[5]
The vowel /y/ was mentioned as a consonant by Franklin, suggesting that the research was phonetically noted in Americanist phonetic notation. [5] The table above has been amended according to the standards of International Phonetic Alphabet.
Body-part counting system
Foi adopts the body-part counting system. This feature can also be found in approximately 60 Trans-New Guinea Languages such as Fasu and Oksapmin. [5]
Counting typically begins by touching (and usually bending) the fingers of one hand, moves up the arm to the shoulders and neck, and in some systems, to other parts of the upper body or the head. A central point serves as the half-way point. Once this is reached, the counter continues, touching and bending the corresponding points on the other side until the fingers are reached. [6]
| Number | Gloss | Translation | Number | Gloss | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 'little finger' | mena-gi | 20 | 'side of nose' | to | |
| 2 | 'ring finger' | ha-gi | 21 | 'eye' | i | |
| 3 | 'middle finger' | i-gi | 22 | 'cheekbone' | bobo | |
| 4 | 'index finger' | tugu-bu | 23 | 'ear' | kia | |
| 5 | 'thumb' | kaba | 24 | 'upper neck' | fufu | |
| 6 | 'palm' | tama | 25 | 'lower neck' | heno-go | |
| 7 | 'wrist' | bona-gi | 26 | 'collarbone area', | keno | |
| 8 | forearm' | kwebo | 27 | 'shoulder' | ki | |
| 9 | 'inside elbow' | karo-habo | 28 | 'upper middle arm' | ame-ni | |
| 10 | 'upper middle arm' | ame-ni | 29 | 'inside elbow' | karo-habo | |
| 11 | 'shoulder' | ki | 30 | forearm' | kwebo | |
| 12 | 'collarbone area', | keno | 31 | 'wrist' | bona-gi | |
| 13 | 'lower neck' | heno-go | 32 | 'palm' | tama | |
| 14 | 'upper neck' | fufu | 33 | 'thumb' | kaba | |
| 15 | 'ear' | kia | 34 | 'index finger' | tugu-bu | |
| 16 | 'cheekbone' | bobo | 35 | 'middle finger' | i-gi | |
| 17 | 'eye' | i | 36 | 'ring finger' | ha-gi | |
| 18 | 'side of nose' | to | 37 | 'little finger' | mena-gi | |
| 19 | 'ridge of nose' | kisi |
Language status
According to
Further reading
- Rule, Murray. 1993. The Culture and Language of the Foe: The People of Lake Kutubu, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Merewether, New South Wales: Chevron Niugini.
References
- ^ a b c Foi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- )
- ^ Foi Swadesh List. The Rosetta Project.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - JSTOR j.ctt16wd0gx.6
- ^ doi:10.15144/PL-514.
- OCLC 1041880153.)
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External links
- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Foe