Ese is a language of
Oro Province
Oro Province, formerly (and officially still) Northern Province, is a coastal Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province in the Southern Region, Papua New Guinea, Southern Region of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital is Popondetta. The provinc ...
,
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 ...
. Although it is also known as Managalasi, which the
Summer Institute of Linguistics
SIL Global (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics International) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, to expan ...
regards as pejorative possibly because it is a corruption of
Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of its capital city, Port Moresby.
It is a simplified version of Motu, from the Austronesian language famil ...
phrase meaning the equivalent of "know nothings", the term "Upper Managalasi" indicates
Ömie, another member of
Baraic languages. Dialects are Muaturaina, Chimona, Dea, Akabafa, Nami, Mesari, Averi, Afore, Minjori, Oko, Wakue, Numba, Jimuni, Karira. Perhaps 40% of speakers are monolingual.
It is spoken in the Kawawoki Mission area of
Popondetta
Popondetta (sometimes spelled Popondota) is the capital of Oro (Northern) Province in Papua New Guinea.
In 1951 the city became the focus of relief efforts after nearby Mount Lamington erupted and killed 4,000 people.
Popondetta is near to ...
.
[
]
Phonology
Consonants
* Allophones of phonemes /β, tɕ, dʑ, ɾ/ exist as , ts, ɖʐ, ɺ
Vowels
* A central vowel sound can be heard as a result of /i/ preceding /u/.
* Allophones of /e, a, o/, exist as ə ɔ
* A semivowel sound occurs when /u/ precedes a stressed vowel.
Further reading
*Parlier, James. 1970. ''Managalasi sentences''. Manuscript. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG.
*Parlier, Judith and James Parlier. 1981. ''Managalasi Dictionary''. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG.
References
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Koiarian languages
{{papuan-lang-stub