Central Maia

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

[under construction]

Central Maia, often called merely Maia and also known as Saki or Banar or Banara, …Maia /maja/ means “what?” Saki (….) Banara is the name of a mission station on the coast and is also used to refer to Miani (Tranel 1952: …, q.v p. 452.)

Sources

Capell (1951-1952: 188-192) sketch grammar of Banar and (pp. 203-205) 83 comparative terms for Banara

May and Loeweke (1982) comparative phonology of Maia

May (1994) sketch phonology of Maia (unobtained)

Easton (2002) phonology of Maia (unobtained)

Easton (2002) sketch phonology of Maia after May (1994)

Hardin (2002) grammar of Maia of Wagedav, Urumarav and Turupav (Turupuav) villages

Hardin, Loeweke, May, Price, Richardson, Richardson and Weisenburger (2007) dictionary of Maia of Wagedav, Urumarav and Turupav (Turupuav) villages

Sullivan (2005: 315-319) 298 terms for Iraka and (319-320) 81 terms for Tok Maia after Weisenburger (n.d.)

Pick (2020: 156-158) sketch grammar of Maia after Hardin (2002,) (pp. 215-228) Wagedav reflexes of proto-North Adelbert and (429-229) proto-Kaukombar drawn from Hardin, Loeweke, May, Price, Richardson, Richardson and Weisenburger (2007)

Phonology

May and Loeweke (1982: 3-4, ibid.) give 13 consonants and 5 vowels for Maia as follows:

m	n̪
p	t̪	s̪	k
b	d̪		g
	l
β	r	ʝ

i		u
e		o
	a

To these Hardin (2002: 10-13) adds a velar nasal /ŋ/ in brackets, an addition found also in Easton (2002 after May 1994) where it is presented as a normal phoneme and said to be merged with /n̪/ in the “north-eastern village,” presumably the one upon which May and Loeweke's inventory was based.

Word-finally, voiceless stops /p t̪ k/ are realized as aspirated [pʰ t̪ʰ kʰ].

Bilabial voiced fricative /β/, systemically equivalent to non-stop /w/, is realized as [β] word-finally, when followed by front vowels /i e/, and when following /i e/ or lowe central /a/ and followed central /a/, and as [w] when followed by rounded vowels /u o/ or following /o u/ and followed by /a/. Hardin (2002: 10-13) lists /β w/ as distinct phonemes.

Rhotic apical non-stop /r/ is realized as a flap [ɾ] when occuring between vowels at the onset of an unstressed syllable; elsewhere it is a trill [r].

There are no consonant clusters.

Hardin (2002: 10-13) asserts mid vowels to be low-mid /ɛ ɔ/ rather than /e o/, a question which is not addressed in May and Loeweke (1982.)

Vowel sequences are intepreted as sequences rather than as diphthongs. The folowing sequences have been found:

	i	u	e	o	a
i	—	—	ie	io	ia
u	ui	—	ue	uo	ua
e	ei	—	—		ea
o	oi	—	—	—	oi
a	ai	au	ae	ao	—

The three vowel sequences /iai/, /uia/, /uae/, /uai/, /eiu/, /eia/, /aiu/ and /aia/ are also found.

Stress is constrastive and most commonly falls on the first syllable.

Pronouns

Hardin (2002: 13, 50-51, 69-74, ibid.) gives pronouns for Maia in eleven case forms, the bases of which can be divided into two sets as follows:

	I	II
1 sg.	ʝɔ(-)	i-ˈ
2 sg.	n̪ɔ(-)	n̪i-ˈ
3 sg.	ɔ(-)	u-ˈ
1 pl.	i(-)	ˈi-
2 pl.	n̪aɛ(-) ~ n̪i-	ˈn̪i-
3 pl.	wi-	ˈwi-

Case forms based upon set I free pronouns are as follows:

	nominative	emphatic	topic	alienable	exclusive
1 sg.	ʝɔ	ma-ʝɔ	jɔ-n̪ɔ	ʝɔ-n̪ɔr	-n̪ɔ
2 sg.	n̪ɔ	ma-n̪ɔ	n̪ɔ-n̪ɔ	n̪ɔ-n̪ɔr	n̪ɔ-n̪ɔr-aka
3 sg.	ɔ	ma-ɔ	ɔ-n̪ɔ	ɔ-n̪ɔr	ɔ-n̪ɔr-aka
1 pl.	i	ma-i	i-n̪ɔ	i-n̪ɔr	i-n̪ɔr-aka
2 pl.	n̪aɛ	ma-n̪aɛ	n̪aɛ-n̪ɔ	n̪i-n̪ɔr	n̪i-n̪ɔr-aka
3 pl.	wi	ma-wi	wi-n̪ɔ	wi-n̪ɔr	wi-n̪ɔr-aka

(Hardin does not list the topic forms in the pronoun sections, but they are exemplied in the texts and appear to correspond to Central Mala's nominatives.)

Unsuffixed nominatives can be used to indicate subjects, objects or alienable possessors. Alienable possessives, which Hardin labels “intensified,” can also be used as emphatics meaning “I myself”, etc.

Case forms based upon set II bound pronouns are as follows:

	inalienable	object	dative	reflexive	dual	numbered
1 sg.	i-ˈ	i-ˈ	i-ˈs̪ibɛ	i-ˈmu	—	—
2 sg.	n̪i-ˈ	n̪i-ˈ	n̪i-ˈs̪ibɛ	n̪i-ˈmu	—	—
3 sg.	u-ˈ	u-ˈ ~ Ø-	u-ˈs̪ubɛ	u-ˈmu	—	—
1 pl.	ˈi-	ˈi-	ˈi-s̪ibɛ	ˈi-mu	ˈi-rabɛ	ˈi-mi
2 pl.	ˈn̪i-	ˈn̪i-	ˈn̪i-s̪ibɛ	ˈn̪i-mu	ˈn̪i-rabɛ	ˈn̪i-mi
3 pl.	ˈwi-	ˈwi- ~ Ø-	ˈwi-s̪ibɛ	ˈwi-mu	ˈwi-rabɛ	ˈwi-mi

Verbal morphology