Melpa (Medlpa, Mbowamb) is a

Papuan language The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a ...

spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in

Mount Hagen Mount Hagen () is the third largest city in Papua New Guinea, with a population of 46,250. It is the capital of the Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea, Western Highlands Province and is located in the large fertile Wahgi Valley in central mainlan ...

and the surrounding

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

of Western Highlands Province,

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. Melpa is a Pandanus language used during

karuka The karuka (''Pandanus julianettii'', also called karuka nut and ''Pandanus'' nut) is a species of tree in the screwpine family (Pandanaceae) and an important regional food crop in New Guinea. The nuts are more nutritious than coconuts, and ar ...

harvest. Melpa has a

voiceless velar lateral fricative The voiceless velar lateral fricative is a rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa (see velar lateral ejective affricate). However, a simple fricative has only been reported from a few lan ...

, written as a double-barred el ( Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for its

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two values (0 and 1) for each digit * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical op ...

counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011).

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Numeral system

Media

Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe, who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and

Bob Connolly Bob Connolly is an Australian film director, cinematographer and author. He is best known for his documentaries produced over the past 30 years, including ''First Contact (1983 film), The Highlands Trilogy'' and ''Rats in the Ranks'', most of t ...

('' First Contact'', ''Joe Leahy's Neighbours'', and '' Black Harvest''). The documentary '' Ongka's Big Moka'' also has Melpa dialogue.

References

External links

Melpa laterals
*Kay Owens

section "The Melpa Counting System". ''Mathematics Education Research Journal'' vol. 13 (April 2001),
Melpa Phonology
{{Chimbu–Wahgi languages Chimbu–Wahgi languages Languages of Western Highlands Province Pandanus avoidance registers