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The Ambai language is an Austronesian language spoken in Indonesian New Guinea (Papua Province), mostly on the Ambai Islands as well as the southern part of Yapen Island. The number of speakers is estimated to be 10,000. Dialects are Randawaya, Ambai (Wadapi-Laut), and Manawi.

Phonology

Ambai has 19 consonants and 6 vowels, shown on the tables below.

Morphology

Pronouns

All pronouns in Ambai mark for number, person and clusivity (in first person).

The following bound pronouns are obligatorily added as affixes to the verb to stand as the subject of the sentence. Every verb in Ambai takes a subject, even if it is a 'dummy' third-person pronoun.

The following pronouns are independent and are more restricted in use. They do not appear as subjects – since the subject is marked already on the verb – but can appear as objects, in prepositional phrases and in subordinate clauses. Some verbs allow the object pronoun to be omitted.

Examples of pronouns used in everyday language:

b-oti

2SG-see

suru

3DU.OBJ

b-oti suru

2SG-see 3DU.OBJ

'Look at them (two).'

uru

3DU

u-minohi

3DU-sit

uru u-minohi

3DU 3DU-sit

'They sit.'

References

1. Ambai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. "AMBAI" (PDF). PapuaWeb. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2012. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
3. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.

Further reading

• P.J. Silzer Ambai, an Austronesian Language of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Ph.D. Australian National University, 1983.

External links

• The Ambai Language Documentation Page
• A Short Description of Ambai Grammar, by Ariel Gutman
• A Grammar Sketch of Ambai, by Fannie St-Pierre-Tanguay

• South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages
• Languages of western New Guinea
• Ambai Islands
• Cenderawasih Bay
• Papua (province) culture