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Marangis language

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(Redirected from Watam language)
Marangis
Watam
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMadang Province, East Sepik Province
Native speakers
590 (2003)[1]
Ramu
Language codes
ISO 639-3wax
Glottologwata1253
ELPWatam

Marangis a.k.a. Watam is a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea. Like Bosmun, it shares a number of irregular plural markers with the Lower Sepik languages, supporting the proposal of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family.

It is spoken in the two villages of:[2][3]

Pronouns

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The pronominal system of Watam has a four-way distinction, with there being a paucal ("a few", "more than two") number for pronouns in addition to singular, dual, and plural.[4]

person singular dual paucal plural
1st yak aŋga apak ae
2nd u noŋgo niŋga ne
3rd ma miŋga miŋga min

Nouns

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Nominal plural formatives include:[4]

gloss singular plural
‘ear’ kwar kwair
‘elbow’ tutup tutpemb
‘buttocks’ tok toke
‘leg’ or orar
‘man’ namot namtar
‘girl’ namoŋ navgor
‘nose’ ŋgum gubeb
bandicoot maŋem maŋbar
sago wak wik
betelnut meɲjak miɲjik

Verbs

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Watam verbal conjugation for the verb ndo ‘to see’:[4]

tense verbal form
present ndo-ta
present ndo-ri
future ndo-na(n)
imperative ndo

References

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  1. ^ Marangis at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. ^ United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
  4. ^ a b c Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.