Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Folopa is spoken by 2,500 people (2010) living in perhaps 17 villages west of Lake Tebera and east of Mount Murray, between the Erave River to the north and the headwaters of the Sirebi River and the Sireru River to the south, in the Kagua and Kikori subdistricts of Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands and Gulf provinces. Its closest relative is Dadibi to the northeast, with the more distantly related Pawaia and Witu spoken to the east and north respectively (Anderson 1989: 83, 2009: 1, 2010: 3.)
Brown (1919-1920) 113 comparative terms for Bara
Johnston (1919-1920) 126 comparative terms for Ibukairi
Lind (1921-1922) 94 comparative terms for Foraba
Lind (1921-1922) 102 comparative terms for Ro, Keai and Worugi
Chance (1923-1924) 112 comparative terms for Sesa
Franklin (1968) Gulf District
Franklin ed. (1973) 100 comparative terms for Sopese, Boro, Suri and Tebera
Anderson and Wade (1988) Folopa ergativity
Anderson (1989) Folopa existential verbs
Anderson (1994) sketch phonology of Folopa
Anderson and Anderson (1995, 2009) phonology of Folopa
Anderson (n.d.) survey vocabulary of Folopa provided in comparative spreadsheet form by Paul Whitehouse via Summer Institute of Linguistics in Ukarumpa
Anderson (2009) Folopa serial verbs
Anderson (2010) grammar and (pp. 97-107) vocabulary of Fukuta village
Anderson and Anderson (2009: 1-14) give 14 consonants and 7 vowels for Folopa of Fukuta as follows:
| m | n | |||
| p | t | k | ||
| b | d | |||
| s | h | ʍ | ||
| l | ||||
| w | ɾ | j |
| i | u | |
| e | o | |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| a |
Vowels are further distinguished by the presence vs. absence of nasalization:
| i | ĩ |
| u | ũ |
| e | ẽ |
| o | õ |
| ɛ | ɛ̃ |
| ɔ | ɔ̃ |
| a | ã |
Anderson (2010: 19-24) gives Folopa pronouns in two case forms as follows:
| absolutive | ergative/poss. | |
| 1 sg. | ẽ | jãlo |
| 2 sg. | jã | naʔao |
| 3 sg. | ã | ama |
| 1 pl. | dã | dã-nɛ |
| 2 pl. | diã | diaʔao |
| 3 pl. | atima | atima-nɛ |
| 1 dl. | dã-mo | da-mo-nɛ |
| 2 dl. | dia-ʔamo | dia-ʔamo-nɛ |
| 3 dl. | atima-ʔamo | atima-ʔamo-nɛ |
Those in the first set are absolutive in the strict sense, indicating subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs, those in the second functioning as agent subjects of transitive verbs and possessors. The same division of function is found in Fasu (Loeweke and May 1966: 26) and Rumu (Petterson 1989 ibid.) as well as Dadibi (MacDonald 1973: 126-127, 1976: 45-49.)
The duals are derived from the suffixation of /ʔamo/ to the plurals; cf. /tamo/ “two”.