Anta

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

Anta (Anda) is spoken by approximately 150 people (2015) living in three villages, Ufarua (Uparua,) Fórzitho and Thamnḡakar (Damgar,) located along and to the west of the Morehead river in the Morehead subdistinct of Papua New Guinea's Western Province (Lyons 1913-1914: 193, Evans et al. forthcoming, q.v. Carroll 2014: 3, Döhler 2015: 3.)

Sources

Lyons (1913-1914: 193-194) 85 comparative terms for Wandatokwe of Tumgaka and Perem villages

Ray (1923: 337) pronouns, (p. 343) numerals and (p. 347-350) 20 comparative terms for Peremka after Riley

Riley (1930-1931: 832-850) 278 comparative terms for Peremka

O'Rear (1991) 118 comparative terms for Anda (Antha) of Uparua village

Bouvé (2000) 166 comparative terms for Anda of Ufarua village (collected in Sedéfi)

Evans, Arka, Carroll, Döhler, Kashima, Mittag, Quinn, Siegel, Tama and van Tongeren (forthcoming) miscellaneous notes and forms for Anta

Phonology

[under construction]

There is no published phonoogy of Anta. An analysis of available materials suggests a preliminary inventory of 18 consonants and 9 or 10 vowels for Anta as follows:

m n ŋ
t k
mb nd ndʒ ŋg ŋgʷ
ɸ θ s
w r j
i ʉ u
e [ə] ɵ o
[ɜ]
æ a [ʌ]

Pronouns

O'Rear (1991: 23-24) gives nominative pronouns for Anda as follows, with forms from Bouvé (2000: 11-12) presented for comparison. As in most other West Morehead River languages, number is indicated only in the first person:

O'Rear Bouvé
1 sg. t͜ʃe ˈt͜ʒɛ ~ ˈt͜ʒɪ
1 pl. ni ˈni
2 sg./pl.ɸœ ˈɸœ ~ ˈɸø
3 sg./pl.fi ~ ɸiˈɸi

Verbal morphology

[under construction]