Tifal language

Tifal is an Ok language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Tifal (Tifalmin), Urap (Urapmin) and Atbal (Atbalmin).

Geography

The Tifal language is bounded by the border with Irian Jaya to the west, Papuan speakers to the south, the Telefomin valley in the east, and the Sepik river to the north.

Orthography Phonemic Lowercase a aa b, p d e f i ii k l m n ng o oo s t u uu w y Uppercase A Aa B D E F I Ii K L M N O Oo S T U Uu W Y

Phonology

Consonants + Consonants Labial Alveolar Dorsal Plosive Nasal Fricative Approximant

is realized as word finally, as in syllable-coda position before a consonant, and elsewhere. is realized as in syllable coda before a consonant and elsewhere. is realized as intervocalically, e.g. : 'water container'. is intervocalically, in syllable coda before consonants, and elsewhere. is realized as before . is alveolar adjacent to back vowels and alveodental elsewhere. One dialect realizes as intervocalically.

Vowels + Vowels Front Central Back Close Mid Open

and rarely contrast.

+ Vowel allophones Phoneme Condition Allophone Realizationelsewhere word-initially and finally in open syllables, before , and between and before or ; between and

Phonotactics Syllable structure is (C)V()(C). The expression 'oh my!' may be an exception.

only occurs word-initially. only occurs syllable-initially. is always syllable-final.

Initial only occurs in some dialects. Initial occurs in two dialects, and may usually be interpreted as C+V.

and occur syllable-initially. Only one dialect allows syllable-coda .

Stress In inflected words stress lies on the last syllable of the verb stem. If there are long vowels stress falls on the first syllable in the word. If all vowels are short, stress falls on the last syllable. If it is closed stress falls on the first syllable.

Grammar

Nouns Nouns are not inflected but may mark possession. Body parts and kinship terms are obligatorily possessed, and some kinship terms require affixing. On other nouns possession is optional, except for proper names which are never possessed.

Pronouns

+ Pronoun stems Person Basic Emphatic 1 singular plural 2 singular m f plural 3 singular m f plural

+ Non-emphatic pronouns Suffix meaning: Poss. Subj. Definitive Inst. First with, and, also Suffix:

+ Emphatic pronouns Suffix meaning: Poss. Inst. 'only' 'like, simile' Suffix:

Verbs Tifal has a rich aspectual system. Verbs may be separated into four groups based on how they transform from continuative to punctiliar aspect. Some only have vowel and/or simple stem changes, some have suppletive stems, some change compound-final stems, and some which have allomorphs which add (or rarely ) to the stem.

Verbs also can be divided based on transitivity. Some require direct objects, some with optional objects, some with optional locational objects, and a few intransitive verbs.

+ Order of verb suffixes verb ben. ben. tense person mood statement-final marker

Tense and aspect Most final verbs mark tense, mood, and person, but most verbs can mark aspect and not tense and still be a final verb. + Tense-aspect suffixes Continuative Punctiliar pres 1 yesterday past 1- dist. past very remote past abilitative 1 1 near future 1 1 dist. future 1 1 "initial consonant of the customary or class changing marker is retained"

Tifal sentences are contain inflected verb-root-chains, often with a final fully conjugated verb. One must inflect for the amount of time between one verb in the chain and the next.

Deixis Marking spatial relation between verbs and their objects is obligatory. "up" must be clarified as either "upslope" or "upstream", "down" as "downslope" or "downstream", and "across" as "across land" or "across a river".

Kinship Tifal has dyadic kinship terms (terms referring to the relationship two or more people have to each other), which are present in less than 10 languages and not prevalent in Papua New Guinea. However, they are a salient feature of the Ok languages. Related terms are found in Oksapmin, Mian, and Telefol.

Tifal language

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