Amele
Sona
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMadang Province
Native speakers
(5,300 cited 1987)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3aey
Glottologamel1241

Amele (Amele: Sona) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Huar, Jagahala and Haija.

Amele is notable for having 32 possessive classes,[2] over 69,000 finite forms and 860 infinitive forms of the verb.[3]

Phonology

Amele has only 5 vowels: /i, ɛ, æ, u, ɔ/.[4]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Stop voiceless t k ʔ
voiced b d g
Fricative f s ʝ h
Approximant l

Grammar

Amele has seven tense-aspect categories, including four past tenses:[5]

  • past habitual
  • remote past
  • yesterday’s past
  • today’s past
  • plus present
  • future
  • relative future

References

  1. Amele at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. "WALS Online - Chapter Possessive Classification".
  3. Anna Siewierska, Jae Jung Song (1998). Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake. Amsterdam: John Benjamin B.V. p. 112. ISBN 90-272-2937-6.
  4. Roberts, John R. (1987). Amele. London: Croom Helm. ISBN 0709942540. OCLC 14132880.
  5. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.


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