Adzera language

Adzera
Region	Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers	(ca. 30,000 cited 2000 census)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Western Oceanic North New Guinea ? Ngero–Vitiaz ? Huon Gulf Markham Upper Adzera
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: adz – Adzera zsu – Sukurum zsa – Sarasira
Glottolog	adze1240  Adzera suku1264  Sukurum sara1323  Sarasira
ELP	Template:Endangered Languages Project
Linguasphere	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist
	Template:Infobox language/lingualist

Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.

Dialects

Holzknecht (1989) lists six Adzera dialects.

• Central dialect chain: 9,950 speakers
• Amari dialect: 5,350 speakers
• Ngarowapum dialect: 1,200 speakers
• Yaros dialect: 2,200 speakers
• Guruf / Ngariawang dialect: 1,550 speakers
• Tsumanggorun dialect: 400 speakers

Sukurum is spoken in the villages of Sukurum (), Rumrinan (), Gabagiap (), Gupasa, Waroum (), and Wangat () in Wantoat/Leron Rural LLG.

Sarasira is spoken in the villages of Sarasira (), Som (), Pukpuk, Saseang (), and Sisuk in Wantoat/Leron Rural LLG. Sarasira and Som share the same speech variety.

Phonology

Vowels

VowelsTemplate:RpTemplate:Rp

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Mid		(o)
Low	a

Template:Harvcoltxt transcribes the open (low) central vowel with instead of .

Template:Harvcoltxt notes that a contrast between and is absent in the Amari and Ngarowapum dialects,Template:Rp while Template:Harvcoltxt suggests that this is the case universally, with as an allophone of .Template:Rp

According to Template:Harvcoltxt, the diphthongs may occur, while other vowel sequences with have a corresponding glide of the first vowel ( for and for ) inserted between:

• >
• >
• >
• >

Template:Harvcoltxt corroborates the diphthongs, but instead suggests that the sequences are split across syllable boundaries:Template:Rp

• >
• >
• >
• >

Consonants

ConsonantsTemplate:RpTemplate:Rp

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t	tʃ	k	ʔ
	prenasal vl.	ᵐp	ⁿt	ⁿtʃ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ
	voiced	b	d	dʒ	ɡ
	prenasal vd.			ⁿdʒ
Fricative		f	s			h
Approximant		w		j
Rhotic			r ~ ɾ

occurs in only one word: the interjection hai "yes".

In the Amari dialect, palato-alveolar affricates and are heard as only alveolar sounds and .

The prenasalized consonants tend to lose prenasalization initially and after consonants.

are sometimes realized as , especially in syllable-final position.Template:Rp

Writing system

A a	B b	D d	Dz dz	F f	G g	H h	I i	K k	M m	Mp mp	N n	Ndz ndz	Nt nt
ɑ	b	d	dʒ	f	ɡ	h	i	k	m	ᵐp	n	ⁿdʒ	ⁿt
Nts nts	Ŋ ŋ	Ŋk ŋk	Ŋʼ ŋʼ	P p	R r	S s	T t	Ts ts	U u	W w	Y y	ʼ
ⁿtʃ	ŋ	ᵑk	ᵑʔ	p	r	s	t	tʃ	u	w	j	ʔ

J, o and z are used in some loanwords and names.

The letter ⟨ŋ⟩ was replaced by the digraph ⟨ng⟩ in the 2015 orthography.

Grammar

Negation

Simple negation

Simple negation in Adzera is achieved by the word imaʔ 'no'. This word can be used on its own in response to a question, or paired with a negative sentence. For example:

The Amari dialect of Adzera is specifically noted for its use of namu for 'no' where all other Adzera dialects would use imaʔ. however, in Amari both words can be used interchangeably.

Negation of a noun phrase

The simple negative forms above can be used in a noun phrase after the noun to modify it. Such as mamaʔ namu 'No children'. This can also apply to a coordinated noun phrase, such as iyam da ifab 'dog and pig' where iyam da ifab namu would mean that there were no dogs and no pigs.

Negation of a verb phrase

Most negation is done through the verb phrase. For general circumstances, verbal negation is achieved by a verbal prefix anuŋʔ- And an optional negation particle u at the end of the sentence. For example:

However, for verbs in the imperative or hortative forms, which take a prefix wa- or na- respectively, the negative is achieved by replacing their respective prefixes with a negative form ma- followed at the end of the sentence by a compulsory particle maʔ.

Coordinated verb negation

When two negative verbs or phrases are joined by da ‘and’ the first verb takes the negative prefix anuŋʔ-, and the negative particle u comes at the end of the whole sentence.

Negation with future tense

When negating a sentence in the future tense, the future tense prefix is replaced with the realis prefix. Any future time marking still remains. There is also a preference toward forming negative sentences in the future tense with an auxiliary verb saŋʔ 'be able, be enough' before the main verb of the sentence, suggesting a reluctance toward making negative statements about the future. For example:

When coordinating two sentences of future tense, the first verb phrase replaces the future prefix with the realis, but all following verb phrases retain their future tense marking.

List of abbreviations

see List of Glossing Abbreviations.

Below is a list of Grammatical abbreviations used throughout this article:

Grammatical Abbreviations
NEG	Negative
1SG	1st Person Singular
REAL	Realis
PTCP	Participle
2SG	2nd Person Singular
COMP	Completive
IMP	Imperative

<section begin="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>

COMP:completive aspect TIME:time marker

<section end="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>

Further reading

• Cates, Ann R. (1974). "The Atzera Literacy Programme: An Experimental Campaign in Papua New Guinea". Papua New Guinea Journal of Education. 10: 34–38.
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973a). "The Phonemes of the Adzera Language". In Holzknecht, K.; Phillips, D. (eds.). Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 17. Series A – No. 38. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 1–11. doi:10.15144/PL-A38.1. hdl:1885/145022.
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973b). "Morphophonemics of the Adzera Language". In Holzknecht, K.; Phillips, D. (eds.). Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 17. Series A – No. 38. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 13–19. doi:10.15144/PL-A38.13. hdl:1885/145022.
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1973c). "A Synopsis of Verb Forms in Adzera". In Holzknecht, K.; Phillips, D. (eds.). Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 17. Series A – No. 38. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 21–28. doi:10.15144/PL-A38.21. hdl:1885/145022.
• Holzknecht, K. G. (1978). Adzera–English Dictionary.
• Holzknecht, S. (1986). "A Morphology and Grammar of Adzera (Amari Dialect), Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea". Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 24. Series A – No. 70. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 77–166. doi:10.15144/PL-A70.77. hdl:1885/145029.
• Howard, David Edward (2002). Continuity and Given-New Status of Discourse Referents in Adzera Oral Narrative (PDF) (M.A. thesis). University of Texas at Arlington – via Summer Institute of Linguistics.
• Roke, Ann; Price, Dorothy (1970). A Summary of the Atzera Literacy Programme. Ukarumpa: Summer Institute of Linguistics.