Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
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Eipo is spoken by … living in the valley of the Eipo river, or Eipomek, … (Heeschen 1978: 6-7, Heeschen 1998: 16-18.) Eipo has been significantly influenced and borrowed basic vocabulary from languages of the northwest Mek subgroup.
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Heeschen (1978) grammar sketch, comparative notes and (pp. 41-44) 101 comparative terms for Eipo
Heeschen (1978) Eipo grammar sketch (unobtained)
Heeschen and Schiefenhövel (1983) Eipo dictionary
Heeschen (1992) …
Heeschen (1998) Eipo grammar
Heeschen (1978: 21-23, 1998: 117-139, Heeschen and Shiefenhövel 1983: 9-15) gives as many as 16 consonants and 5 or 7 vowels for Eipo as follows:
| m | n | ŋ | |
| [p] | t | [c] | k |
| (m)b | (n)d | [g] | |
| f | s | ||
| [ɾ] | |||
| w | l | j |
| i | u | |
| [ɪ] | [ʊ] | |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| a |
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Voiced stops /(m)b (n)d/ … [mɓ nɗ] …
Non-stops /w j/ … [β ʝ] …
Four diphthongs are recognized as follows:
| ɛⁱ | ɔᵘ | |
| aⁱ | aᵘ |
Diphthong /ɔᵘ/ has the phonological variants [ɔᵘ ɔⁱ œ].
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Heeschen (1998: 148-153) gives Eipo pronouns … as follows:
| nominative | |||
| 1 sg. | na | na-di | |
| 2 sg. | an | an-di | |
| 3 sg. | ɛl | ||
| 1 pl. | nun | ||
| 2 pl. | angun | ||
| 3 pl. | sik | ||
…
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Heeschen (1978: 28, 1988: 257-258) gives subject desinences for Eipo final and medial verbs as follows:
| present/future | hortative | far past | near past | potential | imperative | medial | |
| 1 sg. | |||||||
| 2 sg. | |||||||
| 3 sg. | |||||||
| 1 pl. | |||||||
| 2 pl. | |||||||
| 3 pl. | |||||||
| 1 dl. | |||||||
| 2 dl. | |||||||
| 3 dl. |
…
Eipo has a body-part counting system of the type characteristic of the central west New Guinea region, in which, excepting one, two, and three, the term for the number is generally the same as that for the body part which is touched during tallying. Counting begins from the left pinkie at one, proceeding to the thumb and then up the left side of the body until reaching the top of the head, then proceeding downward on the right side of the body as follows (Heeschen and Shievenhövel 1983: 18, Heescben 1998: 213-215):
| left side | right side | |||
| [pinkie] | 1 | tɔn | 25 | sɛsɛlɛkʲaba |
| [ring finger] | 2 | bɛtinʲ-ɛ | 24 | bɛtinʲaba |
| [middle finger] | 3 | winilʲ-ɛ | 23 | winilʲaba |
| index finger | 4 | dum-baɾʲ-ɛ | 22 | dum-digin |
| thumb | 5 | faŋɔ-baɾʲ-ɛ | 21 | fam-digin |
| wrist (pulse) | 6 | nakɔ-baɾʲ-ɛ | 20 | nakub-digin |
| forearm | 7 | tɛk-baɾʲ-ɛ | 19 | tɛk-digin |
| elbow (inside) | 8 | fin-baɾʲ-ɛ | 18 | fin-digin |
| upper arm | 9 | tɔᵘbnɛ-baɾʲ-ɛ | 17 | tɔᵘbnɛ-digin |
| shoulder | 10 | takɔ-baɾʲ-ɛ | 16 | takub-digin |
| side of neck | 11 | kɔklɔm-baɾʲ-ɛ | 15 | kɔklɔm-digin |
| ear | 12 | ɔ-baɾʲ-ɛ | 14 | ɔ-digin |
| top of skull | 13 | mɛk-baɾʲ-ɛ | — | — |
This system differs from those of Una (Louwerse 1988: 77-79,) Yale Kosarek (Heeschen 1992: 23) and West Sela (Godschalk 1993: 52-53) in skipping the temple, such that top of the skull indicates 13 rather than 14, thus the right pinkie indicates 25 rather than 27 (Godschalk 1993: 52-53.) Mek's temple and crown counting points are indicated in Mountain Ok (CITE) and Wambon (de Vries and de Vries-Wiersma 1992: 44-48) at the eye and nose respectively, suggesting Eipo's system to be a defective version of a 27-point original.
A number of Eipo words with basic meanings can be shown to be loans from Northwest Mek upon the basis of phonological correspondences which characterize some or all Northwest languages, but would otherwise be irregular. A priori, the most likely lender is Nalca immediately to the west. As the differences between Northwest Mek languages are slight, the much better attested Kosarek (Heeschen 1992) is presented here as its exemplar, with Una forms from Louwerse (1988) and Ketengban from Sims, Sims, Basini, Difur and Uropka (1990.) In some instances, both borrowed and inherited versions are attested as doublets:
| Mek | Kosarek | Eipo (loan) | Eipo (native) | East Mek | Una | Ketengban | |
| fear | *ɪlɪl | ɛlɛl | ɛlɛl | *ɪlɪl | ɪlɪl | ||
| child | *mɪ | mɛ | mɛ | *mɪ | mi | mi | |
| mountain | *m[ɔ]tʊk | mɔk | mɔk | mɔtʊkʷ-ɛ | *m[ɔ]tʊk | mʊtʊk | mutu |
| hit/kill | *pɔ-(b)- | ɔ-(b)- | ɔ-(b)- | *pɔ-(b)- | ɔ-(b)- | ɸɔ- | |
| pain | *pʊk | ɔk | ɔkʷ-ɛ | *pʊk | … | ɸu | |
| speak | *[pl]ɛ-(b)- | lɛ-(b)- | lɛ-(b)- | *pɛ-(b) | ɛ-(b)- | ɸɛ- | |
| pinkie/one | *tɛlɛk | sɛlɛk | sɛ-sɛlɛk | tɛlɛk- | *tɛlɛk | [sɛl-sɛlɛk-] | tɛl-tɛlɛk |
| older (brother) | *dʊ | dɔ | dɔ | dʊ-nʲ-ɛ | *dʊ | dʊ | du |
| 2 sg. | *kan | an | an | *kan | kan | kan | |
| woman | *gɪl | kɛl(-abɔ) | kɛl-apɔ | kɪl | *gɪl |
Since the expected form of many words is the same in both subgroups, there are likely more loans which are phonologically indistinguishable from legitimate retentions from proto-East Mek.