Tami language


Tami is an Austronesian language on the Tami Islands and in a few villages at the tip of the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is not closely related to the other Huon Gulf languages, but like other North New Guinea languages in Morobe Province, its basic word order is SVO.

Phonology

Tami distinguishes five vowels and the following consonants. Voiced obstruents do not occur in syllable-final position, while glottal stop only occurs at the end of a syllable.
BilabialLabiovelarDentalAlveopalatalVelarGlottal
Voicelessppwtk-c
Voicedbbwdj g
Prenasalizedmbmbwndnjŋg
Nasalmmwnŋ
Fricativev s
Liquidl
Approximantwy

Numerals

Traditional Tami counting practices begin with the fingers of the hands, then continue on the feet to reach '20', which translates as 'whole person'. Higher numbers are multiples of 'whole person'. Nowadays, most counting above '5' is done in Tok Pisin. An alternate form of the numeral 'one', dan, functions as an indefinite article. Distributive numerals are formed via reduplication: lualu '2 by 2', tolatol '3 by 3' and so forth.
NumeralTermGloss
1te'one'
2lu'two'
3tol'three'
4pat'four'
5lim'five, hand'
6lim ma te'hand and one'
7lima ma lu'hand and two'
8lima ma tol'hand and three'
9lim ma pat'hand and four'
10limantalu'hands both'
20damo monte'person whole'

Footnotes