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Word-building and Agglutination in South-Eastern Papua1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. Capell
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Extract

The Melanesian and non-MN languages alike belong to the group known as agglutinating, i.e. they are able to form compound words out of a number of elements, many of which are incapable of independent existence. In this they are not entirely different from the MN languages to the east of them, and yet there is a difference, and that not merely of degree but of kind. Prefixes and suffixes play their parts in these languages, as they do in SEP, but the power of adding indefinitely suffix to suffix is much more limited in insular MN than in SEP. Such a compound word as Suau ‘ita-komakomani-uyo-i-miu, take care of yourselves again, is hardly to be thought of, say, in Mota, Fiji, or Samoa.

Type
Papers Contributed
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , October 1938 , pp. 765 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1938

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References

page 2 note 765 See S. H. Ray, Melanesian Island Languages, chapter on “Root and Word in Melanesia”.

page 1 note 766 Rev.Churchward, S. M.A., A New Samoan Grammar, Melbourne, 1926, pars. 53 and 315.Google Scholar

page 1 note 767 Fly River delta, in the far west; see Ray, S. H., Kiwai Grammar, p. 10.Google Scholar

page 2 note 767 Astrolabe Bay, Northern New Guinea. See Hanke, A., Grammatik und Vokahularium der Bongu Sprache, in Archiv für das Studium deutscher Kolonialaprachen, Band viii, Berlin, 1909.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 1 note 771 Rev. Arnold, J. K., Grammar of the Language of Edugaura, par. 94.Google Scholar

page 1 note 775 The symbols f and R, as in the International Phonetic Script, indicate the voiced palatal plosive and the uvular r respectively.

page 1 note 776 DrStrong, W. M., ‘Notes on Roro and Mekeo Grammar,’ Zeit. fur Kolonial-spraehen, 1913–1914, pp. 285 ff.Google Scholar

page 1 note 777 Rev. Saville, W. J. V., “Mailu Grammar,’ Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1912–1913.Google Scholar

page 2 note 777 No specimens of this language have yet appeared in print. I owe my information on it to a MS. Kamanugu—Kâte—German Dictionary by the Rev. W. Bergmann, in typescript, 1936, a copy of which was kindly forwarded to me by Professor A. P. Elkin, of Sydney University. It is a very useful language for comparative purposes. The symbol s I use to indicate a sound written ĝŝ by Bergmann, which seems to have some resemblance to the Semitic velarized s, but his description is not quite satisfactory.

page 1 note 778 See Pilhofer, G., “Formenlehre der Kâte-Sprache,” Zeit.für Eingeborenenspraehen, 1927–1928, p. 39, and in the succeeding number of the same Journal, 1928–9, he gives equivalents in ten other dialects round about. It is the normal thing in this area.Google Scholar

page 1 note 780 See Haddon, A. C., Migrations of cultures in British New Guinea, Huxley Memorial Lecture, Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1920.Google Scholar