Usarufa

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

Usarufa is spoken by approximately 1,000 people (1973) living 30 miles southwest of Kainantu in the Kainantu subdistrict of Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands Province (McKaughan 1973: 179, Bee and Glasgow 1973: 190.) Usarufa is closely related to Awiyaana (Auyana,) but the two are not mutually intelligible (McKaughan and Marks 1973: 181.)

Many Usarufa are multilingual, with Fore, Kanite, Keyagana and Kamano of the Goroka family being the most widely known second languages (Bee 1964: 2, 1973: 205, 225.)

Sources

Bee and Glasgow (1962: 112-127) phonology of Mairapaqa village, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 190-203)

Bee (1964) phonology, masters thesis, reprinted in Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 4 (1965: 39-68) and McKaughan ed. (1973: 204-224)

Bee (1965) grammar of Orona village

Bee (1965: 1-37) 60 Usarufa reflexes of proto-Kainantu, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 739-768)

Bee (1973: 225-323) grammar, a revised version of Bee (1965)

Bee, compiler (1973: 390-400) texts

Kerr (1973: 769-799) Usarufa reflexes of proto-Kainantu kin terms

Chenoveth (1992) sketch phonology

Phonology

Bee (1964, 1973: 204-224) gives 9 consonants and 5 (6) vowels for Usarufa as follows:

m n
p t k ʔ
w ɾ j
i u
e ɐ o
[ɑ:]

(n.b. Bee gives /ɐ/ as /ə/)

This is a substantial simplification of the 18-consonant system presented in Bee and Glasgow (1962, 1973: 190-203) in which clusters (below) are treated as unit phonemes.

Stops /p t k/ are lightly aspirated initially. Intervocalic peripheral stops /p k/ are lenited to voiced fricatives [β ɣ] <b g>. /t/ is specified as alveodental [t̪], reflecting its origin in /*s/, and according to Bee can be realized as [s] in words which have cognates with /s/ in other Kainantu langages.

Alveolar flap /ɾ/ is realized as lateral [ɺ] following high front /i/ or when preceded by /ɐ ɑ:/ and followed by /i e ɐ ɑ:/.

Glides /w j/ are slightly fricated.

Glottal stop /ʔ/ is, like cluster-initial /N/ [m n ŋ], best viewed as an archiphoneme /C/ (Bee's <Q>) resulting from the merger of syllable-final stops. Accordingly, /ʔ/ does not occur initially, only /N ʔ/ occur syllable finally, and, since word-final /N/ has been dropped, only /ʔ/ occurs word-finally. The combinatory rules which determine the qualities of clusters, including those resulting from suffixaton, are are follows (Bee 1973: 218-219, 1973: 743.):

class final V m n p t k ɾ w j
ø ø V m n β t ɣ ɾ w j
N ø nV m: n: ʔp ʔt ʔk ʔk ʔk ʔt
C ʔ ɾV/ʔV ʔm/ʔ ʔn ʔp ʔt ʔk ʔk ʔk/ʔw ʔj

Long low central /ɑ:/ is interpreted as a sequence /ɐɐ/ <aa>.

Each syllable takes one of three tones, low, high or falling.

Pronouns

Bee (1973: 241-244) gives pronouns for Usarufa in five case forms as follows:

base formunmarkednon-focus singular focusexclusive reflexive
1 sg.kè- kè-mɐ́ kè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀ kè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾìʔ
2 sg.è- è-mɐ́ è-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀ è–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾìʔ
3 sg.wè- wè-mɐ́ wè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀ wè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾìʔ
1 pl.kè- kè-tɑ́:́ kè–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-tɑ̀:̀
2 pl.kè- kè-ɾɐ́wɐ́ʔkè–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-tɑ̀:̀
è–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-tɑ̀:̀
3 pl.jè- jè-mɐ́ jè-ɾɐ́wɐ́ʔwè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-tɑ̀:̀
1 dl.kè- kè-ɾɐ́tɐ́ kè-ɣɐ́ɾɐ́ʔ kè–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾɐ̀tɐ̀
2 dl.kè- kè-nɐ̀kɐ̀ è-ɣɐ́ɾɐ́ʔ kè-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾɐ̀tɐ̀
è-nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾɐ̀tɐ̀
3 dl.jè- jè-nɐ́kɐ́ wè-ɣɐ́ɾɐ́ʔ wè–nɐ̀mɑ́:̀-ɾɐ̀tɐ̀

Verbal morphology

[under construction]

Bee (1965, 1973: 269-278) …