Eipo

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

[under construction]

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.

Sources

[under construction]

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

Phonology

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

[under construction]

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].

[under construction]

Pronouns

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

Verbal morphology

[under construction]

Heeschen (1978: 28, 1988: 257-258) gives subject desinences for Eipo final and medial verbs as follows:

present/futurehortativefar pastnear pastpotentialimperativemedial
1 sg.
2 sg.
3 sg.
1 pl.
2 pl.
3 pl.
1 dl.
2 dl.
3 dl.

Counting system

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-ɛ17 tɔᵘbnɛ-digin
shoulder 10 takɔ-baɾʲ-ɛ 16 takub-digin
side of neck 11 kɔklɔm-baɾʲ-ɛ15 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.

Loans from Northwest Mek

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 MekUna Ketengban
fear *ɪlɪl ɛlɛl ɛlɛl *ɪlɪl ɪlɪl
child *mɪ *mɪ mi mi
mountain *m[ɔ]tʊk mɔk mɔk mɔtʊkʷ-ɛ *m[ɔ]tʊkmʊtʊk 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 dʊ-nʲ-ɛ *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.