Word-initial [h]-drop variation in Nmbo

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-277
Author(s):  
Eri Kashima
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Intergenerational Transmission ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Speech Corpus ◽  
Language Ecology ◽  
Speech Data ◽  
The Village

Abstract This paper presents a natural speech corpus-based study of word-initial [h]-drop from the Nmbo speech community of southern Papua New Guinea. It is a speech community within a traditional egalitarian multilingual language ecology sustained by a practice of virilocal exogamy, and there is strong intergenerational transmission of local vernacular languages. This study investigates the propensity of word-initial [h]-drop in nouns, based on Nmbo speech data of Kerake tribe people. The results from the Nmbo Sociolinguistic Corpus shows clear age-conditioned variation, with younger speakers showing a higher propensity for [h]-drop. Nmbo speakers residing both within and outside their Nmbo villages of origin appear to be partaking in the innovative [h]-drop. The origin of the [h]-drop appears to be from the village with a more multilingual profile, as would be predicted by the notion of a multilingual feature pool (Cheshire, Kerswill, Fox, & Torgersen, 2011, Mufwene 2001).

COMBINING ORAL TRADITIONS AND BAYESIAN CHRONOLOGICAL MODELING TO UNDERSTAND VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF OF PAPUA (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gulf Of Papua ◽  
The Village

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.

scholarly journals Relocating Florence Weiss’ Fieldwork Photography as Anthropological Practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Michèle Dick
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Black And White ◽  
The Village

During her 17 months of fieldwork (1972-74) in the village of Palimbei in Papua New Guinea, the Swiss anthropologist Florence Weiss took 5 674 black and white negatives and 4 794 col-our transparencies. Although the photographs were not taken at regular intervals, the average number of approximately 19 photographs per day gives an idea of the presence of photography in her fieldwork practice. Yet, Florence Weiss was not considered – or considered herself – a visual anthropologist. So, what kind of practice does her photography represent, and what role did it play in her wider fieldwork practice?

A new species of large green treefrog (Anura: Hylidae: Litoria) from northern New Guinea

Zootaxa ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1208 (1) ◽  
pp. 57 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHEN J. RICHARDS ◽  
PAUL OLIVER ◽  
CHRIS DAHL ◽  
BURHAN TJATURADI
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Green Frog ◽  
Green Treefrog ◽  
Lowland Forests ◽  
The Village ◽  
North Western ◽  
A New Species

A new species of large green frog of the hylid genus Litoria is described from northern New Guinea. The new species is superficially similar to Litoria graminea and L. infrafrenata. It can be distinguished from L. graminea by the possession of a poorly defined white labial stripe that does not extend beyond the ear, and from L. infrafrenata by the combination of comparatively small adult size (males 57.9–60.4 mm), fully webbed fingers and a call that is a long (0.7–0.9 s) deep guttural growl. It is known from lowland forests around the village of Utai in north-western Papua New Guinea.

Birds and places: What the lexicon reveals about multilingualism

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110231
Author(s):  
Christian Döhler
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Language Ecology ◽  
Recent Information ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ethnographic Approach ◽  
Plant Names ◽  
The Village ◽  
Past State

Aims and objectives: The paper describes the current multilingual language ecology and explores two subdomains of the lexicon in order to infer information about the extent and nature of multilingualism in the past. Methodology: The paper employs quantitative and qualitative analysis of a sociolinguistic questionnaire in the first part. The second part includes a qualitative analysis of lexemes in the domains of bird names and plant names, and then compares them with old ethnographic sources as well as recent information on the surrounding languages. Data: The data of this study come from original fieldwork by the author in the village of Rouku and surrounding villages collected between 2010 and 2016. It is supplemented by material from colleagues working on related languages (Evans, Kashima and Siegel). Findings: The method suggests that the type of multilingualism that was practiced in the past is similar to today. Originality: The study is novel in providing a description of multilingualism from the Southern New Guinea area. Moreover, it advances a lexicographic and ethnographic approach in reconstructing the past state of a language ecology. Implications: The main conclusion is that in the absence of written historical sources – a problem that one is almost always facing in New Guinea – it is possible to extrapolate from the lexicon of Komnzo to a past state of the local language ecology. Limitations: The method does not allow for dating the point in time for which the inferences can be made.

scholarly journals Word learning in the field: Adapting a laboratory-based task for testing in remote Papua New Guinea

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257393
Author(s):  
Karen E. Mulak ◽  
Hannah S. Sarvasy ◽  
Alba Tuninetti ◽  
Paola Escudero
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Word Learning ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Presentation Mode ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Null Result ◽  
The Village ◽  
Field Setting

Adapting laboratory psycholinguistic methods to fieldwork contexts can be fraught with difficulties. However, successful implementation of such methods in the field enhances our ability to learn the true extent and limitations of human behavior. This paper reports two attempts to run word learning experiments with the small community of Nungon speakers in Towet village in the Saruwaged Mountains, Papua New Guinea. A first attempt involved running a cross-situational task in which word-object pairings were presented ambiguously in each trial, and an explicit word learning task in which pairings were presented explicitly, or unambiguously, in each trial. While this quickly garnered a respectable 34 participants over the course of a week, it yielded null results, with many participants appearing to show simple patterned responses at test. We interpreted the null result as possibly reflecting the unfamiliarity of both the task and the laptop-based presentation mode. In Experiment 2, we made several adjustments to the explicit word learning task in an attempt to provide clearer instructions, reduce cognitive load, and frame the study within a real-world context. During a second 11-day stay in the village, 34 participants completed this modified task and demonstrated clear evidence of word learning. With this success serving as a future guide for researchers, our experiences show that it may require multiple attempts, even by experienced fieldworkers familiar with the target community, to successfully adapt experiments to a field setting.

scholarly journals Missing paradoxes and the evidential nature of things; Material objects in a cross-cultural perspective

1970 ◽  
pp. 107
Author(s):  
Bente Wolff
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Village People ◽  
The Village

«[The] Father brought salt with him, he poured it on the hands and [the village people] tasted it. He gave them rice, and they thought it was ants' eggs. He gave them soap, and they cooked it. When they took it out [of the pot) it was melting. And he gave them boots, and they thought it was mermaid's' legs, so they cooked it. After cooking, they took it out to eat it, but it was really hard [so) they said: «the mermaid's leg is too hard to eat!» This story is about the first white missionaries in the Mekeo village Eboa in lowland Papua New Guinea. I heard it told by the clan chief Opu Ame in 1991. As always when this story was told, it caused great amusement among those listening. It describes how the grandparents of today's villagers had their first inexperienced encounter with the white peoples things at the turn ofthe century.

scholarly journals Beyond the Village: Local Politics in Madang, Papua New Guinea

Man ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Andrew Strathern ◽  
Louise Morauta
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Local Politics ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The Village
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