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Torricelli, Anamagi or Lou, is a Torricelli language of East Sepik province, Papua New Guinea. Drinfield describes it as containing three distinct, but related languages: Mukweym, Orok, and Aro.

Names

The Aro language is most often referred to by native speakers as anjəŋ aro, with anjəŋ meaning 'word' or 'speech' and aro meaning 'no'. It is common for languages in the Sepik region to name themselves after the word for 'no' in their languages. The dialect spoken in the villages of King and Kolembi can be called, anjəŋ arowe, as arowe is a word for 'no' in that dialect. There are two major dialects of Aro: anjəŋ səlep 'language of the Selep people', which is spoken in the villages of Selep, Brau, Mup, Fatundu, Wisamol, Afua, and Riworip, and anjəŋ mæləŋ 'language of the Meleng people', which is spoken in King and Kolembi.

Classification

Aro, Mukweym, and Orok are part of the Torricelli language family. While they are closely related and to an extent mutually intelligible, they are considered by native speakers to be distinct languages. Drinfield hypothesizes that they form part of the Kombioic branch of the Kombio-Arapeshan subgroup, along with Eitiep, Aruek, and Kombio.

Situation

Until recently, it was common for adults in the Aro community to be proficient in many languages, sometimes up to nine. However, with the dominance of Tok Pisin and English in the country, multilingualism has decreased and more children in the community are growing up speaking Tok Pisin instead of Aro. Around 15-30% of Aro men and 3-6% of women are fluent in English. The language is classified as endangered.

Phonology

Aro has eighteen consonants and nine vowels.

Consonants

Among the consonants, there is a four-way contrast in place of articulation (labial, alveolar, palatal, and velar) and a two-way contrast in voicing. Voiced plosives are always prenasalized after a sonorant and do not occur in word-final position.

The voiceless unaspirated palatal plosive /c/ can be realized as the voiceless unaspirated palatal affricate . The palatal nasal usually occurs at syllable onset, and the velar nasal usually appears at syllable codas. /f/ usually occurs at syllable onset.

Vowels

Aro has nine vowel phonemes. Each vowel has an inherent length, which affects stress placement. /ɨ/ and /ə/, are inherently short, /a/ /i/ and /u/ are inherently medium, and /æ/, /e/, and /ā/ are inherently long.

All diphthongs in Aro must have /i/ or /u/ as their second vowel, and any vowel except /u/ or /ā/ as the first vowel.

Phonotactics

The syllable structure of Aro is (CC)V(CC). Complex onsets and codas are possible, but only occur with a few select consonant phonemes. Reduplication is sometimes used to indicate verb pluractionality.

Stress

Stress indicates greater loudness and higher pitch. Syllables can have four different weights on a scale from one to four, with one being the lightest. A weight of one is assigned to syllable with a short vowel nucleus and no consonant coda. A weight of two is assigned to syllable with a short vowel nucleus and consonant coda. A weight of three is assigned to nuclei with a medium duration vowel or a diphthong of a short vowel ending in a glide. Finally, a weight of four is applied to nuclei with a long vowel or a diphthong consisting of a medium or long vowel and a glide.

Stress is generally given to the heaviest syllable of the last two syllables of the word. If the last two syllables are of equal weight, then stress is given to the penultimate syllable. The rightmost syllable of weight one is 'extrametrical' or invisible for stress rules.

Morphology

Pronouns

Aro has six personal and possessive pronouns:

Possessive pronouns occur postnominally.

Numerals

There are only three numerals in Aro: latən ‘one’, wiyeu ‘two’ and awɨyāl ‘three’. Numbers that are multiples of five are expressed with the expression ədal wobuk 'hand side' and are wobuk 'foot side' or by reduplicating other numerals. For example, seven is ədal wobuk wobuk wiyeu 'hand side side two'. Numerals generally appear post nominally and before the adjective.

Demonstratives

Demonstratives in Aro have severals meanings: the temporal, locative, pronominal, and adnominal ones. There are many demonstratives, some with similar meanings. There is a three-way proximity distinction: proximal, medial, and distal.

Prepositions

There are five prepositions: ka, similar to English 'of' and denoting possession, ki 'from', kap/kæp/kep 'similar to', nābət 'with', and paləu/pəlau 'about, for'.

ɨjɨk

woman

nābət

with

eyŋ

man

ø-arkɨt

NON1.PL-run.away.PLACT

ø-akwi

NON1.PL-go.PLACT

ø-alp

NON1.PL-go.toward

kwæm

village

ñābot

Nyambot

ɨjɨk nābət eyŋ ø-arkɨt ø-akwi ø-alp kwæm ñābot

woman with man NON1.PL-run.away.PLACT NON1.PL-go.PLACT NON1.PL-go.toward village Nyambot

The woman and the man ran away to Nyambot village.

Conjunctions

Nouns

In Aro, some nouns can be partially reduplicated in the first syllable to produce another noun. While not a form of plurality marking, this reduplication generally results in an increase in magnitude for the noun, as in fon 'bush/forest', and fəfon 'various forests and gardens surrounding a village'. Only four human nouns mark plurality, these being eyŋ ‘man/husband’, ɨjɨk ‘woman/wife’, bwaygɨp ‘male’, and lanɨŋ ‘child’. Nouns that are not part of this class generally mark plurality by inserting the word ānəŋ after a human noun or mwañəŋ after non-human nouns and a small amount of human nouns. The third-person plural pronoun fru may also be inserted at the beginning of the noun phrase to denote plurality. Semantically plural nouns trigger pluractionality in verbs and plurality in adjectives.

Kinship terms take on a distinct third-person possessor form separate from their 'default' form. Some, like ɨjɨk/lajɨk 'his wife', appear to derive from the default form, while others, such as mæŋ/laño 'mother', do not appear to share a root with the default form.

Verbs

There are three verbal prefixes: a detransitivizing prefix, a verbalizing prefix, and a causative prefix. The detransitive prefix t(ə)- can also serve as a reciprocal and rarely reflexive prefix. The prefix a- derives a verb from a noun or adjective, as in ayiprau 'steal' (from yiprau 'thievery'). Finally, the non-productive causative prefix eyg- indicates a transitive variant of an intransitive verb, as in eygarkou 'hang (transitive)' (from arkou 'hang (intransitive)). This prefix most likely derives from the verb ay 'put' and the non-first person singular prefix k(ə)-.

Pluractional in verbs denotes the presence of multiple events, whether by repetition or by the presence of multiple patients/objects. Some verbs in Aro have separate pluractional and non-pluractional stems. This is seen in the verb stems for 'die'.

ɨl

3SG

ø-kāwɨr

NON1.SG-die.NONPLACT

ɨl ø-kāwɨr

3SG NON1.SG-die.NONPLACT

He/she died.

fru

3PL

ə-tægər

NON1.PL-die.PLACT

fru ə-tægər

3PL NON1.PL-die.PLACT

They died.

Verbs are inflected for subject agreement, mood (realis/irrealis), and rarely object agreement. Of these processes, only subject agreement is used productively. The prefix k(ə)- can also express agreement with plural inanimates. Verbs beginning with a velar stop will not take on the k- prefix. The irregular pluractional verb 'go' features the unrelated stems of first person tuki and non-first perso akwi.

ən

here

apət

1PL

m-āmey

1-sit.PLACT

bwolɨŋ

land

ka

of

ñəmorɨn

Nyemorin

nau

now

ən apət m-āmey bwolɨŋ ka ñəmorɨn nau

here 1PL 1-sit.PLACT land of Nyemorin now

Here we live in the land of Nyemorin now.

There are vestiges of an obsolete object agreement system in certain words. It can be seen in certain verbs with object restrictions, like pau (first person), nau (non-first person singular), and wau (plural) 'give'.

Around half of verbs change their vowel stem in the irrealis, usually those whose first syllable contains /a/, /ā/, /ə/, or /æ/. There is no way to systemically predict the outcome of this vowel change, but the change vowels tend to occur higher in the mouth. Stems that undergo this change include ayurk > ɨyurk 'go in front', acoley > əcoley 'beat', and nawər > nuwər 'cross a bridge'. The irrealis mood is triggered by negation, the future, the imperative, counterfactual statements, and when following paləu used in the sense of 'for/in order to'.

æ

1SG

aro

NEG

m-əkər

1-see.IRR

əkeŋ

river

æ aro m-əkər əkeŋ

1SG NEG 1-see.IRR river

I did not see the river.

Adjectives

Adjectives are placed postnominally. Only a small amount of adjectives are inflected for plurality. In these cases, the plural number is marked by partial reduplication of the initial consonant or the initial vowel-consonant pair (e.g. mwark 'small' > məmwark 'small.PL', acirk 'old' > acacirk 'old.PL'). Most adjectives encode plurality by full reduplication of the adjective.

m-ārəŋ

1-sit.PLACT

Warabung

Warabung

mə-kāl

1-eat

ñugələu

food

kətanɨŋ

bad

kətanɨŋ

bad

m-ārəŋ Warabung mə-kāl ñugələu kətanɨŋ kətanɨŋ

1-sit.PLACT Warabung 1-eat food bad bad

While we stayed in Warabung, we ate bad foods.

Syntax

Adjectival phrases

Intensifiers are placed immediately after the adjective. Most intensifiers may only be used on specific adjectives, with the exception of əkur, which can theoretically be used as a universal intensifier. However, it is generally not used for this purpose.

In comparative constructions, the preposition paləu is placed after the adjective. isin 'again' may also immediately follow the adjective, making the general structure adjective + isin + paləu + standard of comparison. Superlatives are expressed through comparative construction

lu

tree

əden

this

ləlapi

long.PL

isin

again

paləu

PREP

laŋ

that

lu əden ləlapi isin paləu laŋ

tree this long.PL again PREP that

These trees are taller than those ones

Nominal phrases

Nominal phrases are head-initial; that is, the head noun is followed by all adjectives, demonstratives, numerals, and some types of possessors. However, optional third-person pronouns marking definiteness and some possessive constructions generally proceed the noun. Phrases produced by speakers generally follow the noun + adjective + numeral + demonstrative sequence.

æ

1SG

m-akər

1-see

kārɨp

house

ñumwāl

new

wiyeu

two

əden

this

æ m-akər kārɨp ñumwāl wiyeu əden

1SG 1-see house new two this

I saw these two new houses

Similar to languages like Yapunda, a 'classificatory' noun often precedes a more specific noun, like wuc 'wild animal' in wuc weləu 'tree kangaroo'.

While conjunctive particles exist in Aro, the most common strategy to express conjunction is juxtaposition.

After a noun phrase, the words latən 'only; one' and əkur 'also' can modify the clause.

Clauses

Aro is a zero-copula language. Adjectival, nominal, possessive, demonstrative, numerical and prepositional clauses need not contain a copula. The existential construction is not marked, but lacks a subject.

kārɨp

house

acər

empty

kārɨp acər

house empty

The houses were empty

Negation is placed between the subject and the predicate.

Aro is a Subject-Verb-Object language. As such, subjects always precede the verb and non-verbal predicates. Objects may either precede or follow the verb. When they precede the verb, an optional accusative marker -ā is occasionally added. Some 'posture verbs' like 'sit' and 'stand' take locations as an argument. Topicalized arguments may precede the verb.

æ

1SG

m-əgān

1-come

m-əgāl

1-take.NONPLACT

eyŋ

man

m-ārəŋ

1-sit.NONPLACT

təbau

Afua

æ m-əgān m-əgāl eyŋ m-ārəŋ təbau

1SG 1-come 1-take.NONPLACT man 1-sit.NONPLACT Afua

I came and got married in Afua

Adverbs are usually placed after the verb and its complements. Temporal adverbs may occur anywhere in the clause. Instrumentals can be expressed as an argument of the verb ā- 'use'.

Tense

Aro has four tense particles, used for expressing past and future tense. They are derived from temporal words. Distinctions are made between the 'hodiernal' tenses (occurring within the same day) and 'non-hodiernal' tenses (occurring either before or after the current day)

Tense particles can occur either immediately before the predicate or clause initially, in circumstances where the subject is not the topic. Particles are usually elided when temporal context has been previously established. Combining bwan with the irrealis mood creates the counterfactual mood.

Aspect

There are two aspect particles in Aro, these being ka 'imperfective aspect' and sa/save 'habitual particle'. sa/save was borrowed from Tok Pisin

Negation

The standard negation particle is aro, which triggers the irrealis mood in verbal predicates and is placed between the subject and the verb. In adjectives, the double negator aro ke can negate adjectives. ke never occurs on its own in the language. Finally, the prohibitive marker ka is used to express the prohibitive mood, and always triggers the irrealis mood in verbs.

Question particles

In polar questions, a and o can be inserted at the end of the clause to denote a polar question. If it is instead a content question, ey can be inserted clause-finally.

It is possible to omit these particles and indicate polar questions with rising intonation. The question may also end in o aro or just aro, expressing a meaning similar to 'or not?'.

In content questions, there are five interrogative words and two interrogative phrases. Interrogative words occur in the same position as the corresponding argument would in a declarative sentence.

The non-interrogative meanings can be triggered by the addition of the particle əm or aŋ.

See also

• Torricelli languages
• Kombio
• Papua New Guinea

References

1. Torricelli at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Drinfield, Andrey (2024). A grammar of Aro, a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea (PhD thesis). University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.
3. Drinfield (2024), pg. 4
4. ^ Laycock, Donald C. 1973. Sepik Languages: Checklist and Preliminary Classification. (Pacific Linguistics: Series B, 25.) Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. iv+129+10pp. (Bibliography: p. 59-68).
5. Drinfield (2024), pg. 8
6. Drinfield (2024), pg. 14
7. Drinfield (2024) pg. 170
8. Drinfield (2024), pg. 169
9. Drinfield (2024) pg. 202

Bibliography

• Drinfield, Andrey (2024). A grammar of Aro, a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea (PhD thesis). University at Buffalo, the State University of New York.

External links

• Audio recording of a native speaker
• Ethnologue
• Glottolog
• Endangered Languages Archive

• Torricelli languages
• Languages of Sandaun Province
• Languages of East Sepik Province