| Sauk | |
|---|---|
| Ma Manda | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Morobe Province |
Native speakers | 1,600 (2018)1 |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | skc |
| Glottolog | sauk1252 |
Sauk, or Ma Manda, is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea.
A detailed grammar of the language was published by Ryan Pennington in 2016.2
Grammar
Switch-reference
Ma Manda has a switch-reference system in which verbal suffixes on non-final verbs in a clause chain indicate whether the subject of the following clause is the same as or different from the current subject. The same-subject suffix is -ka (SS) and the different-subject suffix is -ng (DS).2
kadet
road
men=nang
mouth=LOC
ba-ka
come-SS
ngat-ng-tnang
be-DS-1NSG
tandonta-go-k
night-RP-3SG
kadet men=nang ba-ka ngat-ng-tnang tandonta-go-k
road mouth=LOC come-SS be-DS-1NSG night-RP-3SG
'While we were coming on the main road, (it) became night.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
In this example, the same-subject suffix -ka on ba ('come') indicates that its subject is identical to that of ngat ('be'). The different-subject suffix -ng on ngat signals that the subject changes before the following impersonal clause tandonta-go-k ('it became night').2
References
References
- Sauk at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Pennington, Ryan (2016). A grammar of Ma Manda: a Papuan language of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (PhD thesis thesis). James Cook University.
External links
External links
- "Organised Phonology Data" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-07-10. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
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