Adzera language - Wikipedia

Adzera
Region	Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	ca. 30,000 (2000 census)^[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea ? Ngero–Vitiaz ? Huon Gulf Markham Upper Adzera
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: `adz` – Adzera `zsu` – Sukurum `zsa` – Sarasira
Glottolog	`adze1240` Adzera `suku1264` Sukurum `sara1323` Sarasira
ELP	Adzera
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Vowels^[2]
	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid		o
Low	ɑ

The diphthongs /ɑi, ɑu/ occur, while other sequences of vowels are split over two syllables.

Consonants[edit]

Consonants^[2]
	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿtʃ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ
voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
prenasal vd.			ⁿdʒ
Fricative	f	s			h
Approximant	w		j
Rhotic		r

In the Amari dialect, palato-alveolar affricates /tʃ, ⁿtʃ/ and dʒ, ⁿdʒ are heard as only alveolar sounds [ts, ⁿts] and [dz, ⁿdz].^[3]

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

Writing system[edit]

A a	B b	D d	Dz dz	F f	G g	H h	I i	K k	M m	Mp mp	N n	Ndz ndz	Nt nt
ɑ	b	d	dʒ	f	ɡ	h	i	k	m	ᵐp	n	ⁿdʒ	ⁿt
Nts nts	Ŋ ŋ	Ŋk ŋk	Ŋʼ ŋʼ	P p	R r	S s	T t	Ts ts	U u	W w	Y y	ʼ
ⁿtʃ	ŋ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ	p	r	s	t	tʃ	u	w	j	ʔ

Grammar[edit]

Negation[edit]

Simple negation[edit]

Simple negation in Adzera is achieved by the word imaʔ 'no'. This word can be used on its own in response to a question, or paired with a negative sentence.^[5] For example:

The Amari dialect of Adzera is specifically noted for its use of namu for 'no' where all other Adzera dialects would use imaʔ. however, in Amari both words can be used interchangeably.^[5]

Negation of a noun phrase[edit]

The simple negative forms above can be used in a noun phrase after the noun to modify it. Such as mamaʔ namu 'No children'. This can also apply to a coordinated noun phrase, such as iyam da ifab 'dog and pig' where iyam da ifab namu would mean that there were no dogs and no pigs.^[6]

Negation of a verb phrase[edit]

Most negation is done through the verb phrase. For general circumstances, verbal negation is achieved by a verbal prefix anuŋʔ- And an optional negation particle u at the end of the sentence.^[6] For example:

However, for verbs in the imperativeorhortative forms, which take a prefix wa-orna- respectively, the negative is achieved by replacing their respective prefixes with a negative form ma- followed at the end of the sentence by a compulsory particle maʔ.^[7]

Coordinated verb negation[edit]

When two negative verbs or phrases are joined by da ‘and’ the first verb takes the negative prefix anuŋʔ-, and the negative particle u comes at the end of the whole sentence.^[8]

Negation with future tense[edit]

When negating a sentence in the future tense, the future tense prefix is replaced with the realis prefix. Any future time marking still remains. There is also a preference toward forming negative sentences in the future tense with an auxiliary verb saŋʔ 'be able, be enough' before the main verb of the sentence, suggesting a reluctance toward making negative statements about the future.^[9] For example:

When coordinating two sentences of future tense, the first verb phrase replaces the future prefix with the realis, but all following verb phrases retain their future tense marking.^[9]

Grammatical Abbreviations
NEG	Negative
1SG	1st Person Singular
REAL	Realis
PTCP	Participle
2SG	2nd Person Singular
COMP	Completive
IMP	Imperative