Mekeo language

Mekeo is a language spoken in Papua New Guinea and had 19,000 speakers in 2003. It is an Oceanic language of the Papuan Tip Linkage. The two major villages that the language is spoken in are located in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea. These are named Ongofoina and Inauaisa. The language is also broken up into four dialects: East Mekeo (or "Bush Mekeo"); Northwest Mekeo (or "Kovio"); West Mekeo and North Mekeo. The standard dialect is East Mekeo. This main dialect is addressed throughout the article. In addition, there are at least two Mekeo-based pidgins.

Mekeo
Native to	Papua New Guinea
Region	Central Province
Native speakers	20,000 (2015)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic Papuan Tip Central Papuan Tip Nuclear West Central Mekeo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mek
Glottolog	meke1243
Mekeo
Coordinates: 8.24°S 146.59°E / -8.24; 146.59

Phonology

Numerous different analyses of Mekeo phonology have been made. This section follows the description in Jones 1998 as this covers all four main dialects.

Consonants

The four dialects of Mekeo have notably different consonant inventories, although all are marked by small inventories of between six and eight consonants. Northwest Mekeo is notable being the only known language with no coronal phonemes, violating what was previously thought to be a linguistic universal:

Northwest Mekeo consonant inventory^,

		Labial	Palatal	Velar
Obstruent	voiceless	p		k
	voiced	β		ɡ
Nasal		m		ŋ
Approximant		w	j

/ɡ/ is realised as [dzʲ] before /i/, and /ŋ/ as [n] in the environment of /i/ or very rarely as a free variant in other positions. Otherwise coronals only appear in baby talk and loans. /β/ is in free variation with [v] and [b]. /w j/ vary with [o̯ ɛ̯ˤ].

West Mekeo has a similar inventory but with /l b/ in place of /j β/:

West Mekeo consonant inventory

		Labial	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	voiceless	p		k
	voiced	b		ɡ
Nasal		m		ŋ
Semivowel		w	j

[β] is seen as an allophone of /b/. Similarly to Northwest Mekeo, /ɡ ŋ/ become coronals around /i/. /l/ is velarised to varying degrees.

East Mekeo has only seven consonants:

East Mekeo consonant inventory

	Labial	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p		k	ʔ
Fricative	f
Nasal	m		ŋ
Approximant		l

/ʔ/ is subject to occasional loss. /f/ may be realised as any of [ɸ β f v]. /k/ may be realised as [tsʲ] or [tʃ] before /i/ although this is not the case for all speakers. /ŋ/ is realised as [n] under the same conditions as other dialects.

North Mekeo has even fewer, with just six consonants:

North Mekeo consonant inventory

	Labial	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	b		ɡ
Fricative	β
Nasal	m		ŋ
Approximant		l

/β/ varies with [f] and [ɸ]. /k/ becomes [tsʲ] or [dʒ] before /i/. /ŋ/ has the same variation.

Intrusive consonants

In all dialects, an "intrusive consonant" is inserted between the vowels /i/ and /a/ in sequence.

• In Northwest Mekeo, /ia/ → [ija]~[ia]
• In West Mekeo, /ia/ → [ida]
• In North Mekeo, /ia/ → [iza~isa~iʒa~iʃa], and likewise /io/ → [izo] etc.
• In East Mekeo, /ia/ → [isa], /io/ → [iso] and /ua/ → [ufa]

While the latter example inserts an existing phoneme in the language (/f/ in East Mekeo), the other examples are all allophonic.

Consonant correspondances

The dialects of Mekeo show the following regular correspondences of consonant phonemes:

Mekeo consonant correspondences

Northwest	β	p	w	g	k	m	ŋ	j
West	b	p	w	g	k	m	ŋ	l
North	b	β		g		m	ŋ	l
East	p	f		k	ʔ	m	ŋ	l

Vowels

All dialects of Mekeo have five vowel phonemes, shown on the table below:

Mekeo vowel inventory (all dialects)

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		ɑ

Morphology

Pronouns and person markers

In Mekeo, personal pronouns primarily refer to humans; however, the third-person forms can also be used for animals and other objects as well. Mekeo uses a range of different pronouns for different situations. The following table shows all the main personal pronouns for East Mekeo. This includes unmarked, emphatic and reflexive personal pronouns. Note that the emphatic pronouns are not common in East Mekeo as they compete with another more common topicaliser, au-ŋa. For example, the preferred form for the first person singular would be lau- au-ŋa. In the following table, 1, 2 and 3 indicate the person, SG and PL indicate whether the example is singular or plural and I and E stand for inclusive and exclusive.

	Unmarked	Emphatic	Reflexive
1SG	lau	lau-ŋa	ʔifo-u
2SG	oi	oi-ŋa	ʔifo-mu/ʔifō
3SG	isa	isa-ŋa	ʔifo-ŋa/ʔifo-ŋa-mo
1PL.I	iʔa/isa	iʔ-ŋa/isa-ŋa	ʔifo-ʔa
1PL.E	lai	lai-ŋa	ʔifo-mai
2PL	oi	oi-ŋa	ʔifo-mi
3PL	isa	isa-ŋa	ʔifo-i/ʔifo-ʔi

Examples

The following examples demonstrate the use of some of the above personal pronouns in context.

1

E-ʔifo

3SG-self

(East Mekeo)

 

E-ʔifo

3SG-self

'S/he is one of a kind.'

2

Maa-mu

Eye-2SG

umu

charcoal

koà

likeness

lopia-ŋa

beautiful

(East Mekeo)

 

Maa-mu umu koà lopia-ŋa

Eye-2SG charcoal likeness beautiful

'Your eyes are beautiful, like charcoal.'

3

Oi,

2SG

nao

European

koa,

likeness

ioi-mu

same-2SG

(East Mekeo)

 

Oi, nao koa, ioi-mu

2SG European likeness same-2SG

'You are like a European.'

4

ia

elsewhere

e-lao

3SG-go

afu

place

ioi-na

different-3SG

e-lao

3SG-go

(East Mekeo)

 

ia e-lao afu ioi-na e-lao

elsewhere 3SG-go place different-3SG 3SG-go

'He has gone elsewhere.'

Grammar

Possessive constructions

Possession in Mekeo has two morpho-syntactic distinctions: direct or indirect constructions. Direct possession concerns kinship relations and 'part of a whole relations' and these kind of relations are cultural in origin. Indirect possession covers a more general possession of alienable property.

Direct possession

Direct possession relies on relational terms that often form closed subsystems such as kinship terms. In Mekeo, the two relation terms involved in each equation are joined by another term that operates like a transitive verb. The third term is the 'relator' and must be marked for agreement with one of the other terms in the equation. The relator follows the subject and/or the object. The relator is marked for the person and number of the second term or the object.

5

SUBJECT

Isa

s/he

OBJECT

lau

I

RELATOR

ama-u

father-1SG

(East Mekeo)

 

 

SUBJECT OBJECT RELATOR

Isa lau ama-u

s/he I father-1SG

'He is my father.'

Indirect possession

Expressing alienable possession in Mekeo requires the prefix E- and its various realisations (including zero). This morpheme is then optionally preceded by a free or bound pronoun and then the compulsory suffixed by a pronominal suffix which indicates the person and number of the possessor.

6

Eŋaʔi-na

that

lau

I

e-u

POSS-1SG

foʔama

food

(East Mekeo)

 

Eŋaʔi-na lau e-u foʔama

that I POSS-1SG food

'That is my (vegetable) food.'

The negative is expressed with negators maini, aibaia and laa'i:

7

E-u

POSS-1SG

foʔama

food

laa'i

not

(East Mekeo)

 

E-u foʔama laa'i

POSS-1SG food not

'I have no food'

The following is an example of an alternation of the cliticisation process:

8

Inaʔina

this

auŋa

TOPIC

iʔa

we.I

ʔa

POSS.1PL.I

eʔa

house

(East Mekeo)

 

Inaʔina auŋa iʔa ʔa eʔa

this TOPIC we.I POSS.1PL.I house

'This one is our house'

Another morpheme to express possession is the location pronoun KE- (realised as ke or ʔe). This pronoun expresses location or place:

9

Ke-u-ai

LOC-1SG-OBL

pokama

food

mako

much

(West Mekeo)

 

Ke-u-ai pokama mako

LOC-1SG-OBL food much

'I have lots of food.'

Negation

Mekeo expresses negation in three ways:

• through the negative particle aʼi, which negates nominal predicates;
• through existential negators, which differ between dialects; and
• through a negative verb prefix, which negates verbal predicates.

This three-way functional distinction between different types of negation is typical of Oceanic languages.

Nominal Negation

Nominal predicates (which consist of one or more nominals) are negated in two ways — through either the negative particle or proclitic aʼi, or through existential negator particles.

The negative particle aʼi is found in all dialects of Mekeo, with ⟨ʼ⟩ pronounced as either a weak glottal stop or slight pause most dialects, or even not at all (/ai/) in East Mekeo. Aʼi negates a nominal predicate as seen in examples 10 and 11:

10

A'i

NEG

oʔo!

fat

(West Mekeo)

 

A'i oʔo!

NEG fat

'(It is) not fat!'

11

Tsi

tea

aʼi

NEG

mekia-ŋa

sweet-ASS

(East Mekeo)

 

Tsi aʼi mekia-ŋa

tea NEG sweet-ASS

'The tea is unsweet!'

Aʼi also occurs as a proclitic particle before nominals, as seen in examples 12 and 13. In this case is functions similar to the English prefixes 'non-' or 'un-'.

12

Ai-ofu

NEG-dirt

fa-mia

OBLG.1SG-become

(East Mekeo)

 

Ai-ofu fa-mia

NEG-dirt OBLG.1SG-become

'I would like to be spotless.'

13

E-mu

POSS-2SG

ŋope

fast

a'i-fou-ŋa

NEG-public-3SG

ŋa-mia

IMP.3SG-become

(East Mekeo)

 

E-mu ŋope a'i-fou-ŋa ŋa-mia

POSS-2SG fast NEG-public-3SG IMP.3SG-become

'Don't let your fast be public knowledge.'

All four dialects of Mekeo have existential negators: maini in North-West Mekeo, aibaia or aibaida in West Mekeo, aibaia or aibaiza in North Mekeo, and laaʼi in East Mekeo. The existential negators are sentence-final predicates — where a verb would otherwise be — and express denial of the existence, presence or identity of the preceding nominal predicate. Examples 14 to 17 show the existential negator of each dialect.

In both West Mekeo and Northern Mekeo, aibaia can be analyzed as a compound of a'i 'not' and baia 'mere'. These two dialects also have an intrusive consonant, so aibaia is often realised as /aibaida/ in West Mekeo and /aibaiza/ in North Mekeo.

14

Agaoā

spouse.3SG

maini

not

(North-West Mekeo)

 

Agaoā maini

spouse.3SG not

'He has no wife.' (lit. 'Wife.his not.')

15

Gaba-alaka

thing-one

aibaia

not

(West Mekeo)

 

Gaba-alaka aibaia

thing-one not

'It doesn't matter.' (lit. 'There is nothing.')

16

Tsuga

sugar

aibaiza

not

(North Mekeo)

 

Tsuga aibaiza

sugar not

'There is no sugar.'

17

Ava

some(-thing)

laa'i.

not

(East Mekeo)

 

Ava laa'i.

some(-thing) not

'It doesn't matter.' (lit. 'It is nothing.')

The existential negators can also function similarly to aʼi, so examples 14 and 16 above could alternatively be read as 'She is not his wife' (or 'He is not her husband') and 'This is not sugar' respectively.

Verbal negation

Verbal predicates (which consist of a verb word and its arguments) in Mekeo are negated by a negator prefix attached to the predicate's verb word. Within the verb word, the negator prefix is found between tense-aspect-mood prefixes and the subject marker, with an intrusive consonant before the subject marker in some dialects. This negator prefix negates the entire verbal predicate. The position of the negator prefix between the tense-aspect-mood prefixes and the verb base is generally common in Oceanic languages.

Example 18 shows the position of the negator prefix in the North Mekeo expression Fázobálifúa! 'Don't spill it!':

18

Fázobálifúa!

F-

OBLG-

ai-

NEG-

z-

B-

o-

2SG-

ba-

CA-

lifu

wrong

-Ø-

TH

-Ø-

-PF

-a

-3SG

(North Mekeo)

 

F- ai- z- o- ba- lifu -Ø- -Ø- -a

OBLG- NEG- B- 2SG- CA- wrong TH -PF -3SG

'Don't spill it!'

Examples 19 to 22 show the negator prefix in all four Mekeo dialects. Jones tentatively reconstructs the negator prefix in Proto-Mekeo as */aʔi/, cognate with Motu asi and both descended from Proto-Central-Papuan */ati/.

19

A-e-io.

NEG-3SG-go

(North-West Mekeo)

 

A-e-io.

NEG-3SG-go

'(S)he has not gone.'

20

Ai-j-i-ao.

NEG-B-3SG-go

(West Mekeo)

 

Ai-j-i-ao.

NEG-B-3SG-go

'(S)he has not gone.'

21

Ai-z-e-ao.

NEG-B-3SG-go

(East Mekeo)

 

Ai-z-e-ao.

NEG-B-3SG-go

'(S)he has not gone.'

22

A-e-lao.

NEG-3SG-go

(North Mekeo)

 

A-e-lao.

NEG-3SG-go

'(S)he has not gone.'

In North-West Mekeo, the existential negator maini (see example 14) also occurs before some verbs to negate them in either the past tense or in the prohibitive mood. This occurs in addition ae-, creating a double negative, as seen in example 23. Jones suggests that this may be to reduce ambiguity where the prefix ae- has otherwise assimilated with the verb stem; other dialects have an intrusive consonant between the negator prefix and verb stem, as shown in example 24 from West Mekeo.

23

maini

not

ae-a-io

NEG-1SG-go

(North-West Mekeo)

 

maini ae-a-io

not NEG-1SG-go

'I didn't go.'

24

ai-d-ao

NEG-B-1SG.go

(West Mekeo)

 

ai-d-ao

NEG-B-1SG.go

'I didn't go.'

Demonstratives and spatial deictics

List of abbreviations used for examples in this section

Abbreviation	Meaning
ASS	Assertion/Predication Marker
B	Buffer Consonant
CNT	Continuative Aspect Marker
DX	Deictic Particle
PF	Perfect-Perfective Aspect
OBL	Oblique Function
SG	Singular

Demonstrative sentence structure

According to World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) writer Matthew S. Dryer, Mekeo is a mixed language type, meaning it does not follow a demonstrative-noun, or noun-demonstrative sentence structure, but has both.

Mekeo is spoken in the central province of Papua New Guinea. Kaki Ae is a neighbouring language of Mekeo. It is spoken to the north-east of where Mekeo is spoken. Kaki Ae has a demonstrative-noun sentence structure. Clifton describes Kaki Ae's noun phrase structure as Demonstrative-Place-Noun-Adjective-Numeral-Limiter, where the demonstrative precedes the noun, which is in accordance with the data on WALS.

According to Maino, Aufo and Bullock, Mekeo follows the following noun phrase structure: Demonstrative-Possessive/Noun/Adjective-Numeral/Quantifier.

Proximal demonstratives in the four dialects of Mekeo

According to Jones, in Mekeo, there are three "degrees of proximity… represented in three of the four dialects". These four dialects are NWMek (North West Mekeo), WMek (West Mekeo), NMek (North Mekeo) and EMek (East Mekeo).

Location	NWMek	WMek	NMek	EMek
Here	i-ke	Namo	Namo	i-na
There	e-ke	Na-ba/e-ŋa	E-ŋa	e-ŋa
Yonder	u-ke	e-ŋa-ke-ŋa-ina	e-ŋa-ke-ŋa-i-na	e-ŋa-ʔe-ŋa-i-na

According to Maino, Aufu and Bullock, there are two demonstratives egaina and inaina/l’ina. "These can refer to singular or plural, near or far", and is represented in the Tentative Grammar Description with the following table.

inaia	This, these
I’ina	This, those
Ega’ina	That, those

These can be represented through the following examples, provided by Jones.

Ike auke NWMek

Inaia auke-ŋa WMek

Naimo auke-ŋa WMek

Inaina amuʔe-ŋa EMek

this dog-3SG.ASS

'This (is a) dog.'

This noun phrase can be expanded by adding a suffix that marks the person and number of the deictic pronoun.

25

Amuʔe

Dog-3SG

eʔle,

small

la-isa

1SG-see

(East Mekeo)

 

Amuʔe eʔle, la-isa

Dog-3SG small 1SG-see

'The small dog, I saw it'

Inaina has been dropped as the this has been changed to the, and eʔle ('small') has been added.

There can also be a second modifier, attached before the adjective:

26

Eŋaina

that

amuʔe-ŋa

dog-3SG

eʔele-ŋa,

small-3SG

la-isa

1SG-see

(East Mekeo)

 

Eŋaina amuʔe-ŋa eʔele-ŋa, la-isa

that dog-3SG small-3SG 1SG-see

'That dog, the small one, I saw it'

The demonstrative 'that' (Eŋaina is evident here, along with the third-person singular noun dog and adjective. The second modifier -ŋa has been attached to eʔele ('small').

Deictic particles

There also exists deictic particles (DX) in Mekeo, illustrated in the West Mekeo example below:

27

Nga-e

DX-CNT

katsia-ŋa-ai

soil-3SG-OBL

(West Mekeo)

 

Nga-e katsia-ŋa-ai

DX-CNT soil-3SG-OBL

'in that place'

Anaphoric and exophoric use of demonstratives

Mekeo uses both anaphoric and exophoric use of demonstratives, and clear anaphors are rare in Mekeo. Anaphoric strategies are not always effective in their identification according to Jones. Jones utilises the phrase "deictic reinforcement" for Mekeos use of personal pronouns or demonstrative pronouns to refer back to what has just been mentioned. Demonstrative pronouns are used for four reasons: to announce a new topic, to return to a previously mentioned topic, to announce a new topic specifically so as to not confuse with already established topics, and to "emphasise the presumed accessibility of a referent to the hearer".

An example of anaphoric demonstrative is shown in East Mekeo:

28

Eŋa’ina

That

amuʔe!

dog-3SG

(East Mekeo)

 

Eŋa’ina amuʔe!

That dog-3SG

'That is a dog!'

According to Jones, the comma represents the "actual or potential pause" within the sentence.

Exophoric use of demonstratives

An example of exophoric use of demonstratives is highlighted by Jones:

29

ini,

bird

bani-na

wing-3SG

(West Mekeo)

 

ini, bani-na

bird wing-3SG

'As for the bird, its wing!'

According to Jones, this sentence "translates to 'As for the bird, its wing!', that is as for the bird, it is its wing that is here important/salient/relevant".

Jones points out that there is an "implicit deictic argument it/that". For exophoric topics, when kin terms are used the topic is always a personal pronoun.

30

Isa,

he

lau

I

ama-u

father-1SG

(East Mekeo)

 

Isa, lau ama-u

he I father-1SG

'He is my father OR he/him, my father'

The personal pronoun isa is used.

Deictic predicates

Deictic predicates occur when the reference is not given. For example, the following response would be given to the question "Which dog do you mean?"

31

Amuʔe

dog

eŋaʔi-na

that-3SG

(East Mekeo)

 

Amuʔe eŋaʔi-na

dog that-3SG

'That's the dog (The dog is the one)'

The demonstrative eŋaʔi-na is used in the example above.

There is variation among the four dialects:

32

Ike

Inaia

Namo

Inaina

this

auke

auke-ŋa

auke-ŋa

amuʔe-ŋa

dog-3SG.ASS

(NWMek)

(WMek)

(WMek)

(EMek)

 

Ike auke

Inaia auke-ŋa

Namo auke-ŋa

Inaina amuʔe-ŋa

this dog-3SG.ASS

'This (is a) dog.'

33

Papie

woman

aŋa’o

one

la-isa

1SG-see

au-ŋa

one-3SG

fe’a

basket

e-pua-i-s-a

3SG-carry-PF-B-3SG

(East Mekeo)

 

Papie aŋa’o la-isa au-ŋa fe’a e-pua-i-s-a

woman one 1SG-see one-3SG basket 3SG-carry-PF-B-3SG

'I saw a woman (who was) carrying a basket'

The placement of commas in important in the Mekeo language. Jones highlights that if a comma had been placed after Papie aŋa’o, then the translation would shift to "a woman who was carrying a basket".

Trade language

Imunga Trade Language
Native speakers	None
Language family	Mekeo-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	imun1234

Ioi Trade Jargon
Native speakers	None
Language family	Mekeo-based pidgin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	ioit1234

Jones (1996) reports two forms of pidgin Mekeo used for trade: the Imunga Trade Language and the Ioi Trade Jargon.

External links

• OLAC has a list of resources in and about the Mekeo language
• Paradisec has a number of collections that include Mekeo language materials

Further reading

• Amala, Arthur; Magaiva, Alphonse; Deelen, Leanie van (2015). Tentative Grammar Description for the Mekeo Language. Papua New Guinea: SIL.