Ma Manda language

Sauk
Ma Manda
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMorobe Province
Native speakers
1,600 (2018)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3skc
Glottologsauk1252

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

  1. ^ Sauk at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
  2. ^ a b c Pennington, Ryan (2016). A grammar of Ma Manda: a Papuan language of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (PhD thesis thesis). James Cook University.