The Nalik language is spoken by 5,000 or so people, based in 17 villages in Kavieng District, New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. It is an Austronesian language and member of the New Ireland group of languages with a subject–verb–object (SVO) phrase structure. New Ireland languages are among the first Papua New Guinea languages recorded by Westerners.[2]
Laxudumau, spoken in the village of Lakudumau, is transitional to Kara, but is not intelligible to speakers of Nalik.
Speakers
Speakers of Nalik reside in a series of villages in northern central New Ireland. The Nalik speaking region is an approximately 30-kilometer (19 mi)-long band of the island that spans approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) wide and is flanked on its north by the Kara-speaking region and to its south by speakers of Kuot, the only non-Austronesian language on New Ireland.[2]
In the past, Lugagon, Fesoa, and Fessoa have been used to reference Nalik, which are all names of villages in the region.[3]
Phonology
Consonants
A Nalik phonology analysis was developed by Clive H. Beaumont.[4][5]
In West Coast and Southern East Coast dialects and when preceded by vowels, /p/ and /k/, two non-coronalvoicelessstops, are transformed into fricatives. Additionally, the voiceless fricatives become voiced.[2]
When immediately preceded by a vowel the following consonants change their voicing:
The following are examples of these characteristics:[2]
Ga vaan-paan
'I always go'
a mun faal
a vaal
the houses
the house
a buk sina
a yai zina
his book
his tree
a mun kulau
a xulau
the youths
the youth (singular)
Ga rain
Ga rabung tain
I see
I saw
Nouns
Nouns in Nalik are categorized as being uncountable or countable nouns. Nouns can be part of a noun phrase or can be an independent subject referenced in a verbal complex. When used as subjects, some uncountable nouns are co-referential with plural subject markers; however, those are the exceptions and are usually marked with singular subject markers. With uncountable nouns, numerical markers cannot be used. Countable nouns, however, can be singular or plural and can be modified by numerical markers.
Personal pronouns
person
singular
non-singular
first
ni
di (inclusive)
maam (exclusive)
second
nu
nim
third
naan
na(a)nde, na(a)ndi, na(a)nda
Variations in the third person non-singular pronouns are attributed to rapid speech and regional variants. In rapid speech naande often becomes nande. In the Northern Eastern Coast naande is the variant used. In the South East Coast naandi is the variant used. Naanda is used primarily by younger speakers from all areas.[2]
Personal pronouns can notably be utilized in the same way as related nouns such as 'a woman' (a ravin) being replaced with 'she' (naan).
A raivin ka na wut. ('The woman will come.')
Naan ka na wut. ('She will come.')
Numbers
The Nalik counting system is reflective of using one's hand to count and indicative of the style in which they do so. They begin with an open palm and bring individual fingers down per digit counted and the action of doing so is shown in their counting system. As such, the Nalik counting system contains elements of a base-five counting system; however, when proceeding past ten, the counting system uses elements of base ten.[2]
The word for the number five, kavitmit, can be analyzed as the phrase ka vit mit: ka being a third-person indicator, vit being a negation particle, and mit meaning 'hand'. It can, therefore, be translated to 'no hand' as all fingers have been lowered.
The numbers six through nine are also representative of this pattern. In these numbers, the phrase describes the act of lowering additional fingers.
Past ten, the counting system starts to use combinations of ten in multiples of a number one to nine. Higher numbers in the hundreds use "ten squared" as a base.
Nalik Number System
Number
Word
Number
Phrase
Meaning
1
azaxei
10
sanaflu
2
uru
20
sanaflu vara uru(a)
10 x 2
3
orol
30
sanaflu vara orol
10 x 3
4
orolavaat
40
(ka-)sanaflu vara lavaat
10 x 4
5
kavitmit
Meaning
50
kazanaflu va vitmit
10 x 5
6
ka-vizik-saxei
it goes down-one
60
kazanaflu va viziksaxei
10 x (5+1)
7
ka-vizik-uru(a)
it goes down-two
70
kazanaflu va vizikuru
10 x (5+2)
8
ka-vizik-tal
it goes down-three
80
kazanaflu va viziktal
10 x (5+3)
9
ka-vizik-faat
it goes down-four
90
kazanaflu va vizik faat
10 x (5+4)
100
kazanaflu vara zuai
10 x 10
Wh-questions
Interrogatives in Nalik occur in the same position as adverbs, prepositional phrases, and nouns, and bear the same grammatical relations. Several interrogatives are built off the base word ze, meaning 'what'.
Wh-question words
a ze
what
a ze + modifying NP
which
a zaa xo + saait 'also'
why (rhetorical)
kun a ze
why
pan a ze
with what, how, why
pan ko ze
why
faa
where
ang faa
which
lasang
when
nis
who
zis
whose
sa(a)
how
usfa
how many, how much
Word order
The Nalik language features an SVO sentence structure that is common to the languages of the New Ireland–Tolai languages.[2]
^ abcdefghVolker, Craig Alan, 1953- (1998). The Nalik language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN0820436739. OCLC35360833.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Beaumont, C. (1972). Papers in linguistics of Melanesia / No. 3. Tryon, Darrell Trevor,, Wurm, S. A. (Stephen Adolphe), 1922-2001. Canberra: Linguistic Circle of Canberra. ISBN0858830833. OCLC28991748.
^Volker, Craig A. (1994). Nalik grammar (New Ireland, Papua New Guinea). University of Hawaii.
Bibliography
Volker, Dr. Craig (1998). The Nalik Language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Peter Lang. ISBN0-8204-3673-9.