Tifal language

Tifal is an Ok language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Tifal (Tifalmin), Urap (Urapmin) and Atbal (Atbalmin).

Geography

The Tifal language is bounded by Papuan and Irian Jaya speakers to the south and west, the Telefomin valley in the east, and the Sepik river to the north.

Orthography

Phonemic
Lowercase	a	aa	b, p	d	e	f	i	ii	k	l	m	n	ng	o	oo	s	t	u	uu	w	y
Uppercase	A	Aa	B	D	E	F	I	Ii	K	L	M	N		O	Oo	S	T	U	Uu	W	Y

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Nasal	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Fricative	Template:IPAlink	Template:IPAlink
Semivowel	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink
Liquid		Template:IPAlink

is realized as Template:IPAblink word finally, as Template:IPAblink in syllable-coda position before a consonant, and Template:IPAblink elsewhere.

is realized as Template:IPAblink in syllable coda before a consonant and Template:IPAblink elsewhere.

is realized as Template:IPAblink intervocalically, e.g. : 'water container'.

is Template:IPAblink intervocalically, Template:IPAblink in syllable coda before consonants, and Template:IPAblink elsewhere.

is realized as Template:IPAblink before .

is alveolar adjacent to back vowels and alveodental elsewhere. One dialect realizes as Template:IPAblink intervocalically.

Vowels

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Mid	Template:IPAlink		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink
Open		Template:IPAlink Template:IPAlink

and rarely contrast.

Vowel allophones

Phoneme	Condition	Allophone	Realization elsewhere
	word-initially and finally	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
		Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
		Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
	in open syllables, before , and between and	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink
	before or ; between and	Template:IPAblink	Template:IPAblink

Phonotactics

Syllable structure is (C)V()(C). The expression 'oh my!' may be an exception.

only occurs word-initially. only occurs syllable-initially. is always syllable-final.

Initial only occurs in some dialects. Initial occurs in two dialects, and may usually be interpreted as C+V.

and occur syllable-initially. Only one dialect allows syllable-coda .

Stress

In inflected words stress lies on the last syllable of the verb stem. If there are long vowels stress falls on the first syllable in the word. If all vowels are short, stress falls on the last syllable. If it is closed stress falls on the first syllable.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns are not inflected but may mark possession. Body parts and kinship terms are obligatorily possessed, and some kinship terms require affixing. On other nouns possession is optional, except for proper names which are never possessed.

Pronouns

Pronoun stems

Person			Basic	Emphatic
1	singular
	plural
2	singular	m
		f
	plural
3	singular	m
		f
	plural

Non-emphatic pronouns

Suffix meaning:	Poss.	Subj.	Definitive	Inst.	First	with, and, also
Suffix:

Emphatic pronouns

Suffix meaning:	Poss.	Inst.	'only'	'like, simile'
Suffix:

Verbs

Tifal has a rich aspectual system. Verbs may be separated into four groups based on how they transform from continuative to punctiliar aspect. Some only have vowel and/or simple stem changes, some have suppletive stems, some change compound-final stems, and some which have allomorphs which add (or rarely ) to the stem.

Verbs also can be divided based on transitivity. Some require direct objects, some with optional objects, some with optional locational objects, and a few intransitive verbs.

Order of verb suffixes

verb	ben.	ben.		tense	person	mood	statement-final marker

Tense and aspect

Most final verbs mark tense, mood, and person, but most verbs can mark aspect and not tense and still be a final verb.

Tense-aspect suffixes

	Continuative	Punctiliar
pres	1
yesterday past	1-
dist. past
very remote past
abilitative	1	1
near future	1	1
dist. future	1	1

1. "initial consonant of the customary or class changing marker is retained"

Tifal sentences are contain inflected verb-root-chains, often with a final fully conjugated verb. One must inflect for the amount of time between one verb in the chain and the next.

Deixis

Marking spatial relation between verbs and their objects is obligatory. "up" must be clarified as either "upslope" or "upstream", "down" as "downslope" or "downstream", and "across" as "across land" or "across a river".

Kinship

Tifal has dyadic kinship terms (terms referring to the relationship two or more people have to each other), which are present in less than 10 languages and not prevalent in Papua New Guinea. However, they are a salient feature of the Ok languages. Related terms are found in Oksapmin, Mian, and Telefol.

See also

• Urapmin language

Further reading

• Steinkraus, Walter. 1969. 'Tifal phonology showing vowel and tone neutralization.' Kivung 2:1
• Healey, Phyllis, and Walter Steinkraus. 1972. 'A Preliminary Vocabulary of Tifal with Grammar Notes.' Language Data Microfiche AP 5, S.I.L., Huntington Beach, v + 117 pp. Template:ISBN
• Steinkraus, Walter. 1962–63. Manuscripts. SIL, Ukarumpa.
• Boush, Al. 1974–79. Manuscripts. SIL, Ukarumpa.

External links

• PNG Language Resources: Tifal
• WALS - Tifal
• Tifal on globalrecordings.net
• Missionary video in Tifal
• Tifal Grammar Essentials