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Mali or Gaktai is a Papuan language spoken in East New Britain Province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

Dialects

There are two dialects of Mali:

• Arongda dialect (standard dialect; with two groups), spoken in the mountains, including in Marunga village (4°58′13″S 152°02′37″E / 4.970382°S 152.043503°E / -4.970382; 152.043503 (Marunga Village)) in Sinivit Rural LLG, East New Britain Province
• Abilta dialect, spoken along the coast

Phonology

The phonology of the Mali language:

Consonants

Vowels

Noun classes

Mali makes use of noun classes. Below are some Mali noun class paradigms, using the noun root amēng ‘tree’ as an example:

Noun class	Singular	Dual	Plural	Gloss
Masculine (m)	amēng-ka	amēng-iom	amēng	‘slender tree’
Feminine (f)	amēng-ki	amēng-vem	amēng	‘large full grown tree’
Diminutive (dim)	amēng-ini	amēng-ithom	amēng-ithong	‘stick’
Reduced (rcd)	amēng-ēm	amēng-vam	amēng-vap	‘tree stump’
Flat (flat)	―	―	―	―
Excised (exc)	amēng-igl	amēng-iglem	amēng-igleng	‘plank’
Long (long)	amēng-vēt	amēng-imelēm	amēng-imelēk	‘pole’
Extended (ext)	amēng-ia	amēng-inēm	amēng-inēk	‘large log’
Count neutral (cn)	amēng			‘wood or trees’

Bibliography

• Stebbins, Tonya N. (2011). Mali (Baining) grammar. ANU, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 415. ISBN 9780858836297.
• Stebbins, Tonya N.; Tayul, Julius (2012). Mali (Baining) dictionary: Mali-Baining Amēthamon Angētha Thēvaik. Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. p. 455. hdl:1885/9273. ISBN 9781922185006.

References

1. Mali at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Stebbins, Tonya N. 2011. Mali (Baining) grammar. (Pacific Linguistics, 623.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
3. United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
4. Palmer, Bill (2018). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area A Comprehensive Guide. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 796–807.
5. Stebbins, Tonya; Evans, Bethwyn; Terrill, Angela (2018). "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 775–894. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

• Languages of East New Britain Province
• Baining languages