Namo Me

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Namo Me, known in the literature as Fasu or West Kutubu, is spoken by approximately 1,200 people (1981) living southwest of Lake Kutubu in Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands and Western provinces. Namo Me /nāmo mé/ means “real speech” or, in Loeweke and May's gloss, “true-essence language.” The term Faso, or “Fasu” as designated in government documents, properly refers to one clan of Namo Me speakers (Loeweke and May 1966: 6-8, May and Loeweke 1981: 5, May 1992: 1.) The Namo Me themselves call their region Namo-Uri or Namo-Hou (Franklin and Voorhoeve 1973: 153.)

Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973: 153, q.v. 152) distinguish three West Kutubu languages as follows:

West Kutubu

Fasu

Some

Namumi

Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973: 154) give lexicostatistical figures for West Kutubu languages as follows:

No Some materials are available to us at this time. The apparently closer lexical relationship between Some and Namumi is consistent with May and Loeweke (1981: 8,) who distinguish only two variaties of Namo Me, one north of the Aiyo river and one south of it.

May and Loeweke (1965) phonology

Loeweke and May (1966, 1980) grammar

May and Loeweke (1981) dictionary of Namo Me of Kaipu village

May (1992) sketch phonology

Franklin ed. (1973: 557-559) 100 comparative terms for Fasu and Namumi

Franklin (2001) comparative notes on Kutubuan and Engan

Shaw (1986: 71) 100 comparative terms for Namumi

Loeweke and May (1966: 12-16, May 1992) give 11 consonants and 5 vowels for Namo Me of Kaipu as follows:

Vowels are further distinguished by the presence vs. absence of nasalization:

Loeweke and May (1966: 26) give Namo Me pronouns in three case forms as follows:

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