Very Tentative Notes on Grammar, Linguistics and Translation

Very Tentative Notes on Grammar, Linguistics and Translation

for the Domung [dev] language

spoken in Madang Province

Written by Phil King with Simon Kwasɨk, Nosingke Gaup and Noel Diru

June 2015

Table of contents

Table of contents

License

Copyright

ABBREVIATIONS

1 INTRODUCTION

2 WRITING SYSTEM AND SOUNDS

3 NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES

3.1 Pronouns

3.1.1 Translation Issues for Pronouns

3.2 Nouns

3.2.1 Singular and Plural Nouns

3.2.2 Translation Issues for Singular and Plural Nouns

3.3 Adjectives

3.3.1 Normal Adjectives

Size

Colour

Other attributes

3.3.3 Translation Issues for Adjectives

3.4 Demonstratives and Articles

3.4.1 Articles

3.4.2 Demonstratives

3.5 Basic Noun Phrase Structure

3.5.2 Translation Issues for Noun Phrases

3.6 Possession

3.6.1 Translation Issues for Possession

4 PREPOSITIONS / POSTPOSITIONS

5 VERBS

5.1 Person and Number Marking

5.1.1 Subject Marking

5.1.2 Object Marking

5.1.2.1 Verbs with no object marking

5.1.2.2 Verbs which mark whether the object is singular or plural

5.1.2.3 Verbs which mark whether the object is singular or plural, and first, second or third person

5.2 Tense

5.2.1 Present tense

5.2.2 Recent past tense

5.2.3 (Distant) past tense

5.2.4 Future tense / irrealis

5.2.5 Translation Issues Related to Tense

5.3 Aspect

5.4 Medial Verbs

5.6.2 Translation Issues for Medial Verbs

6 CLAUSES

6.1 Transitive clauses

6.1.1 Examples

6.1.2 Translation Issues for Transitive Clauses

6.2 Intransitive clauses

6.2.1 Example

6.4 Semantic roles

6.4.5 Location

6.4.6 Source / destination

6.4.7 Instrument

6.4.8 Accompaniment

7 SENTENCES

7.1 Conjunctions

7.1.1 Examples

APPENDIX A: Verb tables

APPENDIX B: Text used for analysis

License

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I/we are doing this work freely, to help my/our language community and others like it. I/we want to make sure that my/our community and others can benefit from my/our work. I/we give this permission for anyone to use this work, but only if they follow the rules of the “Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share Alike License”. In simple English, those rules are 1) My name must appear on any copies of this work, so people know I was the one who did it. 2) No one may use this work for making money in business, without my permission. 3) Anyone may build upon this work, but they must then share the resulting work the same way I am sharing.

Copyright

(who can give different permissions)

All my/our contributions to materials listed below are Copyright Phil King, Simon Kwasɨk and Nosingke Gaup. That means if someone wants permission to do something different from what it says above, they must ask this copyright holder.

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ABBREVIATIONS

1First person

2Second person

3Third person

DSDifferent subject marker

DUDual

IRRIrrealis

LOCLocation

OBJObject

PLPlural

POSSPossessive

PRESPresent

PST(Distant) past (more than one day ago)

RECRecent past (yesterday or today)

SBJSubject

SGSingular

SSQSame subject marker, sequential (‘and then’)

SSSame subject marker

1 INTRODUCTION

Language name: Domung [dev]

Classification: Trans-New Guinea, Finisterre-Huon, Finisterre, Yupna

Location of Language Group: Finisterre mountains, Madang province close to the border with Morobe province

Name(s) of contributor(s): Simon Kwasɨk, Nosingke Gaup
Period during which this information was collected: May 2015

Location where most data has been collected: Ukarumpa
Text used to help produce this description: See Appendix B

These notes are very tentative, and have been written by Phil King during the five-week long Translators’ Training Course at Ukarumpa, at which the two Domung speakers, Simon Kwasɨk and Nosingke Gaup, were participants. The course itself focused on other assignments, so the data for this grammar was just collected and written up in a very few spare moments between other sessions. The analysis is based on one natural text written by Nosingke Gaup and a selection of elicited sentences. However, it is hoped that this will be a useful starting point for anyone working on translation in the language, or offering consultant help. Wes Reed’s Yopno Grammar Essential, Craig and Pat Spaulding’s Phonology and Grammar of Nankina, and James Slotta’s handout on Coding the nonspatial setting in Yopno (Nian/Nokopo Dialect): Finite verb morphology and nonfinite verb constructions were all incredibly helpful in providing grammatical background for the languages in this area, although I did not have time to study them in detail. I expect this document to contain many errors and inconsistencies, and it has not been checked by a linguistic consultant, yet I hope it is helpful for others to build upon in the future.

2 WRITING SYSTEM AND SOUNDS

The two non-English letters that are used in the writing system are:

<ɨ> a close central vowel, a bit like the vowel sound in English ‘the’ but with your mouth closer together.

<ŋ>a voiced velar nasal, the sound at the end of the English word ‘sing’.

An alphabet development worksheet and spelling guide were written in [xxx], but there are still some difficulties in spelling. Here are a few of them:

a) Whether or not to use an ɨ after another vowel and before some consonants. For example, the words pek / peɨk ‘carried’, peŋ / peɨŋ ‘scraped’, it / iɨt / yiyɨt ‘made’ have been written with or without the ɨ in different places.

b) Whether a <k> or a <g> should be used in certain circumstances, such as between two vowels. For example, the word for ‘garden’ has been written as wago / wako /wakgo in different places.

c) Whether to use of the letter <y> to separate vowels or not. For example, it is a challenge to know whether to write yiyɨk, iyɨk or iɨk for ‘he made’.

Choosing where to make a break between words is also difficult. This is particularly true for the following cases:

a) Little bits that come after words (suffixes or clitics) and have a grammatical meaning, such as da ‘SOURCE’, nɨ ‘3SG.POSSESSIVE’, on ‘LOCATION’. Sometimes these are written as part of the previous word, and sometimes they are written as a separate word.

b) Parts that come before words (prefixes), particularly ɨŋ ‘SINGULAR OBJECT’ and pɨŋ ‘PLURAL OBJECT’. Sometimes these are written as part of the following word, and sometimes they are written as a separate word.

3 NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES

3.1 Pronouns

Domung pronouns are shown in the chart below.

Pronouns are words like ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘they’, which stand in place of other noun phrases. These are some words that are useful for talking about pronouns and other aspects of Domung grammar.

1st person (1) = the speaker. English ‘I, we’

2nd person (2) = the listener. English ‘you’

3rd person (3) = neither the speaker nor the listener. English ‘he/she/it/they’

Singular (SG) = just one person/thing. English ‘I/he/she/it’

Dual (DU) = two people/things. English ‘we two, you two, they two’

Plural (PL) = more than two. English ‘we/they’

In Domung, there are separate pronouns for talking about one person (me or you) doing something (singular); two people (we-two or you-two) doing something (this is called ‘dual’); and three or more people (we or you) doing something (this is called ‘plural’).

However, there are no normal pronouns for the third person. That is, there is no natural equivalent to the English words ‘he/she/it’ (singular), ‘they two’ (dual) or ‘they’ (plural). Instead, words like no mɨn ‘that person’ or ‘those people’ are used in some situations.[1]

TABLE 1: Pronouns

These pronouns can be used for the subjects of a sentence (usually the person who is doing the action), as in example (1).

(1) nakbaŋɨ-nokatUkarumpao-gɨmat

1SGelder.brother1SG.POSSwithUkarumpacome.up2/3DU.PST

́I came to Ukarumpa with my elder brother (before yesterday)’

They are also used for the object of a sentence, showing who an action happened to, as in example (3).

(2) nakn-ɨ-yak

1SG1SG.OBJhit3SG [need to check the verb root here – what is really left?]

́he hit me’

3.1.1 Translation Issues for Pronouns

Domung has different pronouns for two people (dual) compared to three or more people (plural) doing something. English does not have this difference. This means translators always need to think when translating words like ‘we’, ‘you’ and ‘they’ in English whether the context says this is two people or more than two people, and then use the correct words in Domung.

3.2 Nouns

3.2.1 Singular and Plural Nouns

In English, plural nouns are often shown by the suffix ‘-s’ at the end of the word. We have not found any examples of Domung nouns that change for singular, dual or plural.

For example, yagwan tam ‘tanget leaf’ is the same in example (3), where it refers to one leaf and in example (4), where it refers to two leaves.

(3) yagwantamrukrukkwayɨkpentek

yagwantamrukrukkwayɨkpent-e-k

tangetleafredonebilumonstayPRES3SG

’A red tanget leaf is on the bilum’

(4) yagwantambɨroŋɨyɨkbintemɨrak
yagwantambɨroŋɨyɨkbint-e-mɨrak
tangetleaftwobiluminstayPRES2/3DU
'Two tanget leaves are in the bilum’

However, suffixes at the end of the verb clarify whether a subject noun is singular, dual or plural. In example (3), the –k suffix clarifies that the subject is third person singular (one leaf), and in example (4), the mɨrak suffix clarifies that the subject is dual (two leaves).

3.2.2 Translation Issues for Singular and Plural Nouns

Since English does make a difference between singular and plural nouns, but Domung does not, translators may need to make sure that the translation communicates in some other way whether a noun is singular or plural if it is important in the source text, such as by using a number with the noun.

3.3 Adjectives

3.3.1 Normal Adjectives

Adjectives are words which describe a noun. Adjectives might describe the size, shape and colour of something, the age or feelings of a person, or the appearance of a place.

Some English Adjectives are: ‘big, small, round, square, triangular, red, blue, green, tall, short, young, old, happy, sad, stressed, relaxed, rocky, wet, dry, hot’ and ‘cold’. There are many more!

Examples (5) – (7) show some adjectives in Domung.

Size

(5) yɨrɨtammoyikɨtaŋ
yɨrɨtammoyikɨtaŋ
thingleafsmallbit
‘ A fairly small leaf of something’

(6) buwatmatepsɨnɨkwa
buwatmatepsɨnɨkwa
eelbigveryone

‘a very big eel’

Colour

(7) yagwantamrukrukkwa

yagwantamrukrukkwa
tangetleafredone

’A red tanget leaf’

Other attributes

(1) yagwantamsakɨrikɨkwa

yagwantamsakɨrikɨkwa
tangetleafsmoothone

’A smooth tanget leaf’

In all of these examples the adjective comes after the noun it describes, which is the opposite order to English.

In English, words like ‘very’ and ‘a bit’ can be used to describe the strength of an adjective. For example a book may be ‘very interesting’ or a child may be ‘a bit small’.

In Domung, the word sɨnɨ ‘very’ can be used after an adjective to make it stronger, as in example (6).

The word kɨtaŋ ‘bit’ can be used after an adjective to make it less strong, as in example (5).

3.3.3 Translation Issues for Adjectives

In English adjectives come before the noun they are describing, whereas in Domung they come after the noun they are describing. Translators need to remember to use the natural Domung order for adjectives.

3.4 Demonstratives and Articles

In English, an indefinite article tells us that an item is one of a set of things (for example, a car). A definite article tells us that we are supposed to know which member of the set it is (the car) or that it is the only one of its kind (the sun). Many PNG languages do not have articles, but some do. A demonstrative (often called a “pointing” word) points you towards the place where the people or things are. They might be near the person speaking (for example this dog), or somewhere away from the person who is speaking (for example that man), or in some other direction or place.

3.4.1 Articles

We have not found a clear example of an article in Domung.

3.4.2 Demonstratives

The Domung demonstrative no ‘that / those’ refers to things at some distance from the speaker in space or time. Some examples are given in (8) – (9).

(8)nopup
thatchicken
‘that chicken’

(9)nomɨnsɨrɨptokanaŋɨnɨŋɨnɨŋiyɨt
thosepeoplegroup.tolikesaidsaidstayed
‘those people used to be called like this…’

By contrast, the demonstrative kan ‘this / here’ are used for things that are closer to the speaker, as in examples (10) – (11).

(10)kanyagwantammatepkwa
thistangetleafbigone
‘This big tanget leaf’

(11)Naŋɨnɨŋɨŋɨnomɨrakdinkanyomenkorɨpsɨnɨyakɨndi
like thissaidandthey (2) saidyou(two)thisareaquiet verystay
‘They said this, and they (2) said, “You (2) stay very quietly in this area”’.

Whereas no and kan come before a noun they are linked to, katon comes after the noun.

3.5 Basic Noun Phrase Structure

A noun phrase is a group of words that together describe a particular object, such as ‘those two big noisy dogs’ in English. Usually there is a common order for the different parts of speech in a noun phrase. In English, the order is: DEMONSTRATIVE NUMERAL ADJECTIVE NOUN.

By contrast, in Domung, the usual order is:

DEMONSTRATIVE NOUN ADJECTIVE NUMERAL

This order is shown in example (12):

DEMONSTRATIVENOUNADJECTIVEADJECTIVENUMERAL
(12)noyagwantammateprukrukbɨroŋɨ
thattangetleafbigredtwo
‘those two big red tanget leaves’

In examples with more than one adjective, different orders for the adjectives are possible. Thus, in example (12) the order of adjectives can be changed to rukruk matep ‘red big’.

3.5.2 Translation Issues for Noun Phrases

The adjectives and numerals come before the noun in English, but after the noun in Domung. This means that translators need to make sure to change the order of the noun phrase into a natural order for Domung when they are translating.

3.6 Possession

Often people talk about something that belongs to someone else. In linguistics, the word ‘possession’ is used to talk about these kinds of examples.

Some things are very closely related to the person who owns them, such as parts of the body or family relations (these are called inalienable nouns). In Domung, a possessive suffix is added to these nouns to show who they belong to, as shown in Table 2. Notice that the word wago ‘work / garden’ must mean ‘work’ when it takes a possessive suffix (as in wagono ‘my work’), and in order to say ‘my garden’ the phrase nagasin wago is used, as described below the table.

It is significant that the possessive suffix for the 3rd person is the same, -nɨ, whether the object belongs to one, two, or many people.

TABLE 2: Possessive Suffixes

Other objects (such as house, chickens and gardens) are not so closely related to the person who owns them, and these are said to be alienable nouns: they can be separated from the person who owns them.

In Domung, this sort of possession uses a pronoun followed by the possessive word dasin before the possessed noun, as in example (13).

(13)nindasinyut dairon
nindasinyutdair-on
1PLPOSShouseclan.groupLOC
‘in our village’

Table 3 shows a more complete list for the example of wago, which has to mean ‘garden’ in this kind of phrase. In each case the normal pronoun combines with the word dasin to create a possessive form.

TABLE 3: Indirect possession for alienable nouns

3.6.1 Translation Issues for Possession

Since Domung does not make a difference between possession for something belonging to ‘him / her’ or ‘them’, but English does, translators may sometimes need to find other ways to make it clear whether something belongs to one person or many people.

4 PREPOSITIONS / POSTPOSITIONS

In English, words like ‘in’, ‘on’, and ‘under’ come before the noun they are related to, so they are called prepositions. In Domung, words like this come after the noun to which they are related, so they are called postpositions.

These are a very few examples of postpositions in Domung: pen ‘on’, bakɨrok ‘under’, bin ‘in’, as shown in examples (14) – (16).

(14)yagwantamrukrukkwayɨkpentek
yagwantamrukrukkwayɨkpent-e-k
tangetleafredonebilumonstayPRES3SG
‘A red tanget leaf is on the bilum’

(15)yɨrɨtammoyikɨtaŋkwayɨkbakɨroktek
yɨrɨtammoyikɨtaŋkwayɨkbakɨrokt-e-k
thingleafsmallbitonebilumunderstayPRES3SG
‘a small leaf is under the bilum’

(16)yagwantambɨroŋɨyɨkbintemɨrak
yagwantambɨroŋɨyɨkbint-e-mɨrak
tangetleaftwobiluminstayPRES2/3DU

5 VERBS

5.1 Person and Number Marking

5.1.1 Subject Marking

Many languages have markers on the verb to show who or what the subject is. The subject is usually the person doing the action of the verb.

In Domung, there are suffixes on the verb which give information both about the subject and the tense or aspect of the action (see sections 5.2 and 5.3). These suffixes are given in more detail under the sections about tense and aspect. Here, there are just some examples of verbs in the present tense (something that is happening now), showing the suffixes that are used. More complete verb tables are given in Appendix A. In Domung, there are many changes to the subject endings based on the particular verb, and these need to be documented more carefully.

It is important to note that in Domung the same markers are used for ‘you-two’ and ‘they-two’ doing something (second and third person dual), and for ‘you (plural)’ and ‘they’ doing something (second and third person plural). Because of this, only one row is given for second and third person dual, and for second and third person plural.