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Gumawana (sometimes also referred to by the exonym Gumasi) is an Austronesian language spoken by people living on the Amphlett Islands of the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.

Classification

Gumawana is an Austronesian language of the North Papuan Mainland-D'Entrecasteaux branch.

Geographic distribution

Gumawana is spoken by some 470 people in the small Amphlett Islands of Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay Province. The language is spoken on the four inhabited islands of the archipelago: Nubogeta, Gumawana, Omea, and Bituma. Gumawama has been influenced by the nearby Dobu language, and speakers of Gumawana often have knowledge of other neighboring Papuan Tip languages.

Dialects

Gumawana had three dialects: Nubogeta, Omea, and Bituma. The last speaker of the Omea dialect died in April 1988. The Bituma dialect is very different from the Nubogeta dialect of Nubogeta and Gumawana islands in both syntax and lexicon.

Phonology

Gumawana has 11 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes.

Olson represents the labio-dental consonant as bilabial in later works, and also includes the palatal approximant .

Syllables have a (C)V structure.

Grammar

Clauses in Gumawana have a basic order of SOV. Oblique noun phrases occur between the direct object and the verb.

Koloto-ya-di

man-REF-3PL

weniya

dog

si-duduwe

3PL-call.TR

Koloto-ya-di weniya si-duduwe

man-REF-3PL dog 3PL-call.TR

'The men called the dog.'

References

1. Gumawana at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. ^ Olson, Clif (1992). "Gumawana (Amphlett Islands, Papua New Guinea): grammar sketch and texts" (PDF). Pacific Linguistics. Series A. Occasional Papers. 82: 251–430.
3. Olson, Cliff (1992). Organised Phonology Data: Gumawana (Gumasi) Language [GVS], Esa'ala – Milne Bay Province (PDF) (Report). SIL. Retrieved 17 May 2023.

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