View source for Tayap language

{{Short description|Endangered Papuan language}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Tayap
| nativename = ''{{lang|gpn|Tayap mer}}''
| states = [[Papua New Guinea]]
| region = [[Gapun]] village, [[Marienberg Rural LLG]], [[East Sepik|East Sepik Province]]
| coordinates = 
<!--{{coord|-4.05|144.51}}-->{{coord|-4.028746|144.50304|type:city_region:PG_source:enwiki|name=Gapun|display=inline,title}}
| speakers = less than 50
| date = 2020
| ref = e18
| familycolor = Papuan
|fam1        = [[Torricelli languages|Torricelli]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20221005221941/https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/torricelli-range-sepik-coast/sepik-coast/taiap Taiap] New Guinea World.</ref> or language isolate
|fam2        = Sepik Coast
|fam3        = Tayap–Marienberg
| iso3 = gpn
| glotto = taia1239
| glottorefname = Taiap
| pushpin_map = Papua New Guinea
}}
{{GeoGroup}}

'''Tayap''' (also spelled '''Taiap'''; called '''Gapun''' in earlier literature, after the name of the village in which it is spoken) is an [[endangered language|endangered]] Papuan language spoken by fewer than 50 people in [[Gapun]] village of [[Marienberg Rural LLG]] in [[East Sepik Province]], [[Papua New Guinea]] ({{coord|-4.028746|144.50304|name=Gapun|type:city_region:PG}}, located just to the south of the [[Sepik River]] mouth near the coast).<ref name="Ethnologue22-PNG">{{Cite web |date=2019 |editor-last=Eberhard |editor-first=David M. |editor2-last=Simons |editor2-first=Gary F. |editor3-last=Fennig |editor3-first=Charles D. |title=Papua New Guinea Languages |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG/languages |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603020858/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG/languages |archive-date=2019-06-03 |access-date=2019-06-03 |website=[[Ethnologue]]: Languages of the World |publisher=[[SIL International]] |location=Dallas |edition=22nd}}</ref><ref name="UN-PNG">{{Cite web |last=United Nations in Papua New Guinea |date=2018 |title=Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup |url=https://data.humdata.org/dataset/village-coordinates-lookup |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190605192333/https://data.humdata.org/dataset/village-coordinates-lookup |archive-date=2019-06-05 |access-date=2019-06-07 |website=Humanitarian Data Exchange |version=1.31.9}}</ref> It is being replaced by the national language and [[lingua franca]] [[Tok Pisin]].

==History==
The first European to describe Tayap was {{ill|Georg Höltker|de}}, a German missionary-linguist, in 1937. Höltker spent three hours in the village and collected a word list of 125 words, which he published in 1938. He wrote that “it will be awhile before any other researcher ‘stumbles across’ Gapun, if only because of the small chances of worthwhile academic yields in this tiny village community, and also because of the inconvenient and arduous route leading to this linguistic island”.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Höltker |first=Georg |author-link=Georg Höltker |date=1938 |title=Eine fragmentarische Wörterliste der Gapún-Sprache Neuguineas |journal=Anthropos |language=en |volume=33 |issue=1/2 |pages=279–282 |jstor=41103168}}</ref>

Höltker's list was all that was known about Tayap in literature until the early 1970s, when the Australian linguist [[Donald Laycock]] travelled around the lower Sepik to collect basic vocabulary lists that allowed him to identify and propose classifications of the many languages spoken there. Tayap and its speakers have been extensively studied by linguistic anthropologist [[Don Kulick]] since the mid-1980s. The language is described in detail in ''Tayap Grammar and Dictionary: The Life and Death of a Papuan Language'' and in ''A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea''.{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019}}<ref>{{harvp|Kulick|2019}}</ref>

Until World War II, when Japanese soldiers occupied the area and caused the villagers to flee into the rainforest, [[Gapun]] was located on a hill that several thousand years earlier had been an island in the sea that receded and formed the lower Sepik River. This indicates that Tayap may be the descendant of an ancient, autochthonous language that was already in place before the various waves of migration from the inland to the coast began occurring thousands of years ago.<ref>{{harvp|Ross|2005}}</ref> Foley (2018) also speculates that Tayap could have been part of a larger language family that was spoken on the island before the arrival of Lower Sepik speakers. As the coastline moved further northeast, Lower Sepik speakers migrated from the foothills into the new land areas created by the receding waters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |date=2018 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7 |editor-last=Palmer |editor-first=Bill |series=The World of Linguistics, Vol. 4 |location=Berlin |pages=197–432 |language=en |chapter=The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs |author-link=William A. Foley}}</ref>

==Sociolinguistics==
Up to 2018, [[Gapun]] was the only village where Tayap is spoken, although some speakers of the language also lived in neighboring villages such as Wongan and Watam, having moved there because of marriage or as a result of conflicts over land or sorcery in Gapun. However, in 2018, Gapun village was burned down and abandoned due to violence among households. The former residents fled to the nearby villages of Wongan ({{coord|-3.999326|144.532123|type:city_region:PG|name=Wongan}}), Watam ({{coord|-3.906592|144.545246|type:city_region:PG|name=Watam}}), and Boroi.{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019|p=16}}

As a result of colonial activity,{{sfnp|Kulick|2019|pp=182–188}} Gapun villagers subconsciously associate Tok Pisin with Christianity, modernity and masculinity, and they associate Tayap with paganism, "backwardness", disruptive femininity and childish stubbornness. As a result, Tayap is being increasingly, but neither consciously nor deliberately, replaced by [[Tok Pisin]],<ref name="harvp|Kulick|1992">{{harvp|Kulick|1992}}</ref> even though the villagers all express positive sentiments towards it and insist that they want their children to speak the language.{{sfnmp|Kulick|2019|1pp=182–188|2a1=Kulick|2a2=Terrill|2y=2019|2pp=1–3}} Villagers express bewilderment towards the fact that their children no longer actively speak Tayap, and believe that they have, out of stubbornness, decided to reject Tayap entirely, and that they have chosen to speak Tok Pisin instead.{{sfnp|Kulick|2019|pp=182–188}}

Unlike the neighboring patrilineal [[Lower Sepik-Ramu languages|Lower Sepik-Ramu]] speakers, Tayap speakers are matrilineal.<ref name="harvp|Kulick|1992" /> Tayap is typologically very different from the neighboring Lower Sepik-Ramu languages.

Tayap also has many loanwords from the [[Kopar language|Kopar]] and [[Adjora language|Adjora]] languages.{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019|p=349}}

==Classification==
Tayap is not related to the neighboring Lower Sepik languages, though a relationship to the more distant [[Torricelli languages|Torricelli]] family has been proposed by Usher (2020).<ref name="ngw">[https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/torricelli-range-sepik-coast/sepik-coast/taiap New Guinea World – Taiap]</ref>

In the 1970s Australian linguist [[Donald Laycock]] classified Tayap (which he called "[[Gapun]]") as a sub-phylum of the Sepik-Ramu language phylum, on the basis of Georg Höltker's 1938 word list and a few verb paradigms that Laycock gathered from two speakers.<ref>{{harvp|Laycock|1973}}</ref>

Kulick and Terrill (2019) found no evidence that Tayap is related to the Lower Sepik languages, another branch of the erstwhile Sepik-Ramu phylum. They conclude that Tayap is a [[language isolate]], though they do not compare it to other language families, as would be required to establish Tayap as an independent language family. Comparative vocabulary demonstrates the lexical aberrancy of Tayap as compared to the surrounding Lower Sepik languages: e.g. ''sene'' 'two' (cf. [[proto-Lower Sepik]] *ri-pa-), ''neke'' 'ear' (*kwand-), ''ŋgino'' 'eye' (*tambri), ''tar'' 'hear' (*and-), ''min'' 'breast' (*nɨŋgay), ''nɨŋg'' 'bone' (*sariŋamp), ''malɨt'' 'tongue' (*minɨŋ), ''mayar'' 'leaf' (*nɨmpramp) among the Holman ''et al.'' (2008) ranking of the [[Swadesh list]]. Cultural vocabulary such as 'village', 'canoe', 'oar', and 'lime', as well as the basic words ''awin'' 'water' (cf. *arɨm) and ''a'' 'eat' (cf. *am ~ *amb), may be shared with Lower Sepik languages. The word ''karep'' 'moon' is shared specifically with [[Kopar language|Kopar]] (''karep''). However, most basic vocabulary items have no apparent cognates in surrounding languages.<ref name="Foley-Sepik-Ramu">{{Cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |title=Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples |date=2005 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |isbn=0-85883-562-2 |editor-last=Pawley |editor-first=Andrew |editor-link=Andrew Pawley |series=Pacific Linguistics 572 |location=Canberra |pages=109–144 |language=en |chapter=Linguistic Prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu Basin |hdl=1885/146735 |author-link=William A. Foley |editor-last2=Attenborough |editor-first2=Robert |editor-last3=Hide |editor-first3=Robin |editor-last4=Golson |editor-first4=Jack |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==Phonology==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Consonants{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019}}
! colspan="2" |
! [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]
! [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ŋ}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Plosive]]
! {{small|plain}}
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
|-
! {{small|prenasal}}
| {{IPA link|ᵐb}} ⟨mb⟩
| {{IPA link|ⁿd}} ⟨nd⟩
|{{IPA link|ⁿdʒ}} ⟨nj⟩
|
| {{IPA link|ᵑɡ}} ⟨ŋg⟩
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Fricative]]
|
| {{IPA link|s}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Liquid consonant|Liquid]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Semivowel]]
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|j}} ⟨y⟩
|
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Vowels{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019}}
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|i}}
|
| {{IPA link|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}} ⟨e⟩
| {{IPA link|ɵ}}~{{IPA link|ø}} ⟨ɨ⟩
| {{IPA link|ɔ}} ⟨o⟩
|-
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|
| {{IPA link|a}}
|
|}

==Pronouns==
Tayap free pronouns in absolutive case, and object suffixes in the realis, are:{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019}}

:{| {{table}}
|+Free pronouns
!  !! sg !! pl
|-
! 1
| ŋa || yim
|-
! 2
| yu || yum
|-
! 3m
| ŋɨ || rowspan=2|ŋgɨ
|-
! 3f
| ŋgu 
|}

:{| {{table}}
|+Object suffixes
!  !! sg !! du !! pl
|-
! 1
| -i || rowspan=2 colspan=2| -mɨ
|-
! 2
| -u 
|-
! 3m
| -ŋgɨ || rowspan=2| -mɨ || rowspan=2| -mbɨ
|-
! 3f
| -ku 
|}

==Grammar==
Like many Sepik languages, Tayap is a [[synthetic language]]. Verbs are the most elaborated area of the grammar. They are complex, [[fusional]] and massively [[suppletive]], with opaque verbal morphology including unpredictable [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugation class]], both in terms of membership and formal marking.

Tayap distinguishes between [[realis]] and [[irrealis]] stems and suffixes. Verbal suffixes distinguish between Subject/Agent (S/A) and Object (O), which is marked by discontinuous morphemes in some conjugations. The [[ergative case]] (A) is marked by free pronouns and noun phrases, while the [[absolutive]] (S/O) does not have marked forms. As in many ergative Papuan languages, the ergative marker is not always included, as it is optional.{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019|p=25}}

===Nouns===
Nouns generally do not mark number themselves, although there is a small class of largely human nouns which mark plural, and a smaller class which mark [[dual (grammatical number)|dual]]. These categories, where marked, are largely marked by partial or full suppletion. [[Oblique case]]s, largely local, are marked by [[clitic]]s attached to the end of the oblique [[noun phrase]].{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019}}

===Gender===
Like many languages of the [[Sepik]]-[[Ramu]] basin, Tayap has masculine and feminine genders.

There are two genders, masculine and feminine, marked not on the noun itself but on [[deictic]]s, the ergative marker, suppletive verbal stems and verbal object suffixes. The unmarked, generic form of all nouns, including animate nouns, even humans, is feminine: however, a male referent may be masculine. Another criterion is size and shape: long, thin and large referents tend to be masculine; short, stocky and small referents tend to be feminine. This type of gender-assignment system is typical of the Sepik region. Gender is only ever marked in the singular, never in the dual or plural.

==Lexicon==
Selected Tayap words from {{harvp|Kulick|Terrill|2019|pp=442–454}}:

===Vertebrates===
:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Tayap
|-
| pig || mbor
|-
| domesticated dog || nje
|-
| tree possum, [[cuscus]] || enamb
|-
| ground possum || síw
|-
| [[bandicoot]] || sasik
|-
| rat, mouse || ŋgabugar, kokosik, njip, mangɨm
|-
| [[sugar glider]] || ŋgesiŋe
|-
| [[flying fox]] || njakep
|-
| bat || sumusumu
|-
| [[tree kangaroo]] species || kanuŋg
|-
| crocodile || orem
|-
| snake || aram
|-
| snake, types of || ambonor; arambwar; aramŋgor; atemb; karewa; kanakai aramŋgor; nɨŋɨr aram; pake; and
|-
| venomous snake species || mbumjor; kombɨn
|-
| lizard, types of || agin; akirónda; amanep; mbutak; ŋgararik; ŋgogrodak; ŋgurbewat; kurbi; masukondep; onjaŋnoŋor; tapetak
|-
| frog || pasákeke
|-
| large brown water bullfrog || uráŋgeba
|-
| tadpole || mbókokɨr < kokɨr ‘head’
|-
| fish || ŋgomar
|-
| freshwater fish || aiyo, ndɨdɨmaŋ, ŋgomákokɨr, orɨnd, semb
|-
| catfish || tokine
|-
| large eel || ŋgem
|}

===Invertebrates===
:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Tayap
|-
| shrimp || sasu
|-
| small shrimp || sasupat
|-
| freshwater lobster || keymare
|-
| crab || kosep, ŋgarorak, sasápoke
|-
| hermit crab || pisik
|-
| shelled slug || kandip
|-
| clam, types of || eporaŋ, oyaŋ
|-
| mosquito || at
|-
| mosquito, type of || aiawaŋgar; indagawr; iurok; mbunbun; mɨriŋa at; njakepma arɨt; njeyewɨr at; ŋgurpan
|-
| ant || sɨwɨr
|-
| ant, type of || kandap; ŋgugrub; kambobai; rewitoto; sɨwɨrdɨdɨm; sɨwɨrkararkarar
|-
| termite || agu; kamus
|-
| spider || tomɨktomɨk
|-
| spider of the ground || tomɨktomɨk sumbwaŋa
|-
| house spider || tomɨktomɨk patɨrŋa (lit. ‘spider of the house’)
|-
| centipede || yandum
|-
| firefly || ŋgudum
|-
| bee || mbadɨŋ
|-
| bee, type of || arúmbatak kunemb; metawr
|-
| butterfly, moth || mumuk
|-
| caterpillars without fur || atɨr
|-
| caterpillars with fur || nɨŋgasin
|-
| beetle || tutumb
|-
| beetle, type of || arawer; mbirkraw onko; ŋgabugrip
|-
| beetle grub, type of || kɨmɨrɨk; komɨ; urukuruk
|-
| wasp || kɨkri
|-
| fly || arúmbatak
|-
| biting horsefly || tetei
|-
| blue fly || arúmbatak wasow (literally ’fly death’)
|-
| fruit fly, gnat || ipipir
|-
| scorpion || katáwa
|-
| millipede || kakámatik
|-
| walking stick || nekan
|-
| praying mantis || ŋgat
|-
| worm || kekékato
|-
| earwig || ikinŋan yandum
|-
| wood louse || tɨtɨpreŋ
|-
| cicada || ŋgaratgarat, kikik
|-
| grasshopper || njojok, njajak
|-
| cockroach || sasawraŋ, numbutik
|-
| bedbug || ndedeŋ
|-
| flea || itum
|-
| louse || pakɨnd
|-
| leech || mbímaŋ
|-
| mite || kandap
|}

===Sago-related vocabulary===
:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Tayap
|-
| flour || muna
|-
| a kind of rubbery pancake || tamwai
|-
| broken pot shard || pambram
|-
| tennis ball-sized sago chunk || muna kokɨr, which literally means ‘sago head’
|-
| fire || paŋgɨp
|-
| congeal || munakumund
|-
| sago jelly || mum
|-
| sago soup || wawan
|-
| large chisel || makor or yasuk
|-
| tree || wot
|-
| crown of the palm || mar
|-
| sawdust || tawar
|-
| long funnel || iko or ndadum
|-
| coconut fiber strainer || waris
|-
| palm fronds || kondew
|-
| cakes of sago flour || munakatar
|-
| small benches made of branches || kokɨparaŋ
|-
| short sago-pounder made of a single piece of wood || yasuk
|-
| basket || saiput
|}

In Tayap, a felled [[Metroxylon sagu|sago palm]] tree can be divided into 7 parts. The Tayap names are listed below, from the base (''wot'') to the crown (''mar'').{{sfnp|Kulick|Terrill|2019|p=454}}

*''wot''
*''wotŋa orom''
*''orom''
*''ndagŋa orom''
*''ndag''
*''marŋa orom''
*''mar''

The word ''orom'' means ‘in the vicinity of’.

===Clan names===
There are five Tayap clans:

:{| class="wikitable sortable"
! gloss !! Tayap
|-
| crocodile || orem
|-
| dog || nje
|-
| parrot || karar
|-
| pig || mbor
|-
| flying fox || njakep
|}

==See also==
*[[Linguistic anthropology#Identity and intersubjectivity]]
*[[Gapun]]
*[[Don Kulick]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kulick |first=Don |title=Language Shift and Cultural Reproduction: Socialization, Self, and Syncretism in a Papua New Guinean Village |date=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-41484-9 |series=Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language 14 |location=Cambridge |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kulick |first=Don |title=A Death in the Rainforest: How a Language and a Way of Life Came to an End in Papua New Guinea |date=2019 |publisher=Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill |isbn=978-1-61620-904-9 |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kulick |first=Don |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXWcDwAAQBAJ |title=A Grammar and Dictionary of Tayap: The Life and Death of a Papuan Language |last2=Terrill |first2=Angela |date=2019 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-1-5015-1220-9 |series=Pacific Linguistics, Vol. 661 |location=Boston |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Laycock |first=D. C. |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/146478/1/PL-B25.pdf |title=Sepik Languages – Checklist and Preliminary Classification |date=1973 |publisher=The Australian National University |isbn=0-85883-084-1 |series=Pacific Linguistics Series B – No. 25 |location=Canberra |language=en |doi=10.15144/pl-b25 |hdl=1885/146478 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free}}
* {{Cite book |last=Laycock |first=D. C. |title=New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study Vol. 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene |last2=Z'graggen |first2=John |date=1975 |publisher=The Australian National University |isbn=0-85883-132-5 |editor-last=Wurm |editor-first=Stephen A. |series=Pacific Linguistics Series C – No. 38 |location=Canberra |pages=731–763 |language=en |chapter=The Sepik–Ramu Phylum |doi=10.15144/PL-C38.731 |hdl=1885/145150 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free}}
* {{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Malcolm |title=Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-Speaking Peoples |date=2005 |publisher=Pacific Linguistics |isbn=0-85883-562-2 |editor-last=Pawley |editor-first=Andrew |series=Pacific Linguistics 572 |location=Canberra |pages=17–65 |language=en |chapter=Pronouns as a Preliminary Diagnostic for Grouping Papuan Languages |hdl=1885/146735 |editor-last2=Attenborough |editor-first2=Robert |editor-last3=Golson |editor-first3=Jack |editor-last4=Hide |editor-first4=Robin |hdl-access=free}}

{{refend}}

{{Papuan languages}}
{{language families}}

[[Category:Tayap language| ]]
[[Category:Endangered Papuan languages]]
[[Category:Sepik Coast languages]]
[[Category:Languages of East Sepik Province]]
[[Category:Language isolates of New Guinea]]