The Marienberg or Marienberg Hills languages are a branch of the
Torricelli language family. They are spoken in a mountainous stretch of region located between the towns of
Wewak
Wewak is the capital of the East Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It is on the northern coast of the island of New Guinea. It is the largest town between Madang and Jayapura. It is the see city (seat) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wewak. ...
and
Angoram
Angoram is a town and seat of Angoram District in East Sepik Province in north-western Papua New Guinea. The area is noted for its rubber and Theobroma cacao, cocoa plantations and the town is situated on the Sepik River. The town is served by Ango ...
in the
Marienberg Hills of
East Sepik Province
East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size.
History
Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier b ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
.
Kamasau is the best documented Marienberg language.
Typology
Marienberg languages distinguish masculine and feminine genders, with feminine being the default unmarked gender.
Unlike all other
Torricelli branches except for the
Monumbo languages, word order in the Bogia languages is SOV, likely due to contact with
Lower Sepik-Ramu and
Sepik languages
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have ...
.
Languages
Foley (2018) provides the following classification, based primarily on morphological evidence.
*
Buna,
Blabla (
Elapi /
Samap)
*
Kamasau
*
Bungain
*
Muniwara,
Urimo,
Mandi (
Wiarumus)
Pronouns
Pronouns in selected Marienberg Hill languages:
:
References
*
{{Torricelli languages
Sepik Coast languages