Ebook: Warembori Grammar Sketch

Publisher: University of Sydney
Publication date: 1999
Number of pages: 76Warembori is a language spoken by 600-700 people living in river mouths on the north coast of the island of New Guinea, in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. It has not been previously described in any grammatical detail, and this sketch presents some of the complexities of applicative and noun incorporation structures, as well as aspects of its interesting phonology. A structuralist approach is taken to the description, allowing the morphosyntax of the language itself
determine the categories used in the description, rather than impose a particular theoretical model on the data. After surveying the main grammatical constructions in Warembori, including notes on the speakers’ preferences for alternative constructions, notes on the genetic affiliations of Warembori with respect to nearby Papuan and Austronesian languages are given, and a short text to illustrate the language in context.