Amele language
{{distinguish|Aimele language}}
{{Short description|Papuan language of Papua New Guinea}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Amele
|nativename=Sona
|states=Papua New Guinea
|region=Madang Province
|speakers=5,300
|date=1987
|ref = e18
|familycolor=Papuan
|fam1=Trans–New Guinea
|fam2=Madang
|fam3=Croisilles linkage
|fam4=Mabuso?
|fam5=Gum
|iso3=aey
|glotto=amel1241
|glottorefname=Amele
}}
Amele (Amele: Sona) is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Huar, Jagahala and Haija.
Amele is notable for having 32 possessive classes,{{Cite web|url=http://wals.info/chapter/59|title=WALS Online - Chapter Possessive Classification}} over 69,000 finite forms and 860 infinitive forms of the verb.{{Cite book|title=Case, Typology and Grammar: In honor of Barry J. Blake|last=Anna Siewierska, Jae Jung Song|date=1998|publisher=John Benjamin B.V.|isbn=90-272-2937-6|location=Amsterdam|page=112}}
Phonology
Amele has 5 vowels: /i, ɛ, æ, u, ɔ/.{{Cite book|title=Amele|last=Roberts, John R.|date=1987|publisher=Croom Helm|isbn=0709942540|location=London|oclc=14132880}}
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Consonants ! colspan="2" | |
| colspan="2" |Nasal
|m |n | | | |
|---|
| rowspan="2" |Stop
!voiceless | |t | |k |ʔ |
| voiced
|b |d | |g | |
| colspan="2" |Fricative
|f |s |ʝ | |h |
| colspan="2" |Approximant
| |l | | | |
Grammar
Amele has seven tense-aspect categories, including four past tenses:{{cite book |last1=Pawley |first1=Andrew |last2=Hammarström |first2=Harald |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The Trans New Guinea family |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=21–196 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}
- past habitual
- remote past
- yesterday’s past
- today’s past
- plus present
- future
- relative future
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/amele.htm Alphabet and pronunciation]
{{Madang languages}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Languages of Madang Province
{{Madang-lang-stub}}