Tanggu

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

Tanggu (Tangu, Tanggum) is spoken by 3,000 people (1992) living in ten villages south of Bogia and east of the Ramu River in the Bogia subdistrict of Papua New Guinea's Madang province (Lotterman 1992: 1, q.v. Capell 1951-1952: 132.) Its nearest relative is Igom immediately to the west, with which it shares a 65% lexicostatistical resemblance (Z'graggen 1971: 80.) According to Lotterman, Tanggu is spoken in three dialects, Siriken, Kuma and Wagi.

The staple crops of the Tanggu people are yams, mami yams, taros and bananas (Burridge 1969: 40-41, 42.)

Sources

Capell (1951-1952: 141-143) grammar notes and (pp. 201-203) 81 comparative terms for Tanggum

Z'graggen (1969, 1971: 79, 90-91) 13 comparative terms for Tangu

Z'graggen (1972) comparative vocabulary of Tangu

Z'graggen (1975) …

Burridge (1969) …

Lotterman (1992) sketch phonology of Tanggu (Nai)

Foley (2005: 119-121) 60 comparative terms for Tangu

Additionally, a survey vocabulary of Tanggu of Ada was provided in digitalized form by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ukarumpa, however it is undated and unattributed.

Phonology

Lotterman (1992) gives 16 consonants and 4 vowels for Tanggu as follows:

m	n	ɲ	ŋ
p	t	s	k
mb	nd	ndʑ	ŋg
β	r	j	ʁ

i	ɨ	u
	a

Pronouns

Capell (1951-1952: 142) gives Tanggum pronouns in three case forms as follows, with Z'graggen's (1972) and Foley's (2005: 119) Tangu nominative forms included for comparison. The accusative is distinguished only in the first person singular:

	Capell			Z'graggen	Foley
	nominative	accusative	genitive	nominative	nominative
1 sg.	ku	na	ku-ka	kʊ-aβ	ku
2 sg.	nu	—	nu-ka	nʊ-aβ	nu
3 sg.	ma:n	—	ma:n-ka	mʌn	man
1 pl.	nai	—	[etc.]	nʌɪ	nai
2 pl.	ni	—		ni-aβ	ni
3 pl.	manda	—		manda; danda	manda
1 dl.	naŋgi	—		naŋgi	naŋgi
2 dl.	nuŋgi	—		niŋgi	niŋgi ≈ nuŋgi
3 dl.	mapai	—		maɲaɪ	mapai

Counting system

Capell (1951-1952: 143) gives five numbers for Tanggum as follows:

1	unu'am
2	munai
3	munezina'ga:ka
4	deapaimapai
5	de:zinaga