Melpa language

Melpa
Native to Papua New Guinea
Region Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province
Native speakers
 (130,000 cited 1991)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 med
Glottolog melp1238[2]

Melpa (also written Medlpa) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Melpa has a voiceless velar lateral fricative, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). It is notable for its binary counting system.

DecimalMedlpa Interpretation
1 tenda "one"
2 ragl "two"
3 ragltika "two-one"
4 tembokak "four"
5 pömp tsi gudl "one past four"
6 pömp ragl gudl "two past four"
7 pömp ragltika gudl "two-one past four"
8 engak "eight"
9 pömp tsi pip "one past eight"
10 pömp ragl pip "two past eight"

References

  1. ↑ Melpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Melpa". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.


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