Tapei

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

[under construction]

Tapei, also known as Lower Arafundi, is spoken by … people (…) living in at least two villages, Auwim and Angarat, located just west of the Arafundi river, a tributary of the Karawari which in turn feeds the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea's East Sepik Province just across the border from Enga Province to the south (….) Its nearest relative within the Arafundi River family is Nanubae imediately to the north, which Hoenigman and Foley consider to be a dialect of the same language (….)

Haberland (1966: 62-64) 90 comparative terms and (p. 66) number systems for Alfendio of Auvim and Angarat villages

Foley (2017: 232-238) pronouns and grammar notes for Lower Arafundi of Auwim village

Foley (2017: 235-236) gives 15 consonants and 7 vowels for Lower Arafundi of Auwim village as folows:

Palatal stop /c/ can be realied as fricative [s], as is its equivalent in Awiakay (q.v. Hoenigman 2015: 289-292.)

Foley gives the apical non stop as <r>. We assume this to represent /ɾ/ because it is not distinguished from [l] and its equivalent in Awiakay is /ɺ/.

Foley (2017: 232-233, 237) gives pronouns for Lower Arafundi in three case forms as follows. Cecond and third persons are distinguished from one another only in the singular:

(Foley's possessives are here designated as alienable and inalienable based upon comparison with Hoenigman's 2015: 294-295 Awiakay forms)

Foley (12017: 237-238) gives subject desinences for Lower Arafundi of Auwim village in three tense forms as follows. The formant /-ip-/ in the present tense indicates progressive aspect. Unlike like pronouns (above,) these subject desinences do not distinguish duals from plurals or the first person plural from the second and third peron plural: