Anêm may be related to neighboring Ata and possibly to Yélî Dnye. Stebbins et al. state that further data on Anêm and Ata would be useful for exploring the possible connection between them.[2]
Anêm is also spoken by small numbers of people, mostly of Anêm descent, scattered among the surrounding villages. There are two main dialects.
Akiblîk, the dialect of Bolo, was near functional extinction in 1982, the youngest speaker then being about 35 years old. The main dialect is spoken in the other villages named above. There are about 800 speakers.
Anêm is notable for having at least 20 possessive classes.[5][6]
Syntax
Anêm is an accusative language with unmarked subject–verb–object word order in plain statements. Yes/no questions are indicated with an intonation contour rather than alterations in word order. Negation (not, not yet, don't) and completive aspect (already) are indicated by modality markers which occur in clause-final position. Tense is not indicated directly. There are three distinctions of mood (realis, irrealis and hortative). Realis refers to something that has happened or is happening; irrealis refers to future tense and hypotheticals; and hortative (only in third persons) is used in commands.
Anêm nouns are distinguished syntactically for gender, masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns are followed by demonstratives or relative pronouns that begin with /l/ while feminine nouns are followed by demonstratives or relative pronouns that begin with /s/. In addition, both subject prefixes and some object suffixes agree in gender with the noun they refer to:
Masculine and feminine gender forms of demonstratives:
Doxa
person
lê
the.M
u-ko-lo.
REAL.he-see-him
Doxa lê u-ko-lo.
person the.M REAL.he-see-him
'The man saw him.'
Doxa
person
sê
the.F
i-ko-lo.
REAL.she-see-him.
Doxa sê i-ko-lo.
person the.F REAL.she-see-him.
'The woman saw him.'
Gender agreement by subject prefix and object suffix:
Onu
people
lê
the.M
i-kê-lêm.
REAL.they-see-her.
Onu lê i-kê-lêm.
people the.M REAL.they-see-her.
'The people saw her.'
There are 20 possession classes in Anêm. Meanings vary depending on the assigned noun class, as shown in the examples below, with ki ‘hair’ as the noun root.[2]
Thurston, William R. 1982. A comparative study in Anem and Lusi. Pacific Linguistics B-83. Canberra: Australian National University.
References
^Anêm at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ abcdStebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". 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. 775–894. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^ abcThurston, William. 1982. A comparative study of Anêm and Lusi. Pacific Linguistics: Series B, 83. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
