Mairasi language
Mairasi is a Papuan language of the Bomberai Peninsula of West Papua, Indonesia.
The Northeastern dialect may be a distinct language.Phonology
Consonants:
Vowels:Pronouns
Mairasi possessor prefixes are:Morphology
Noun phrase case markers in Mairasi:
Some examples:
- ovuru-t /machete-INSTR/ ‘with a machete’
- weso ar /house LOC/ ‘in the house’
- mundu evi /village ALL/ ‘to the village’
Possessors
Mairasi possessor prefixes:
Examples of inalienable possessors:
- ee-rovo /1PL.POSS-hand/ ‘our hands’
- na-iambi /3SG.POSS-skin/ ‘his skin’
Directionals
Mairasi has two directional suffixes, which are only used with movement verbs.
- -aʔi ‘up, inland’
- -ari ‘down, seaward’
Examples of directional suffixes in use:
- o-is-aʔi /1SG.SBJ-stand-up/ ‘I stand up’
- o-fon-ari /1SG.SBJ-sit-down/ ‘I sit down’
Animacy
is marked by the adjective modifier n-, as exemplified by the contrast in the following two noun phrases.
Vowel changes can modify the number of animate nouns:
