Labu (called Hapa by its speakers) is an Austronesian language spoken among 1,600 people (1989) in three older villages and one new one across the Markham River from Lae in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.
Although it belongs to the Lower Markham languages, Labu appears to have been strongly influenced by the coastal languages of the Huon Gulf, Bukawa in particular. For instance, Labu shows tonal contrasts, like Bukawa but unlike any of the Markham languages; and Labu numerals show separate forms for '3', '4', and '5', like Bukawa, even though salu '2', sidi '3', and sôha '4' contain the Lower Markham numeral classifier *sV-. (The pattern for numerals in the other Markham languages is '1', '2', '2+1', '2+2', then 'hand' or '2+2+1', and so on.)
Phonology
Labu distinguishes 7 vowels and 17 consonants. The vowels also exhibit contrasts between high and low pitch (or "tone"), just as in Yabêm, the Lutheran mission lingua franca for the coastal languages of Morobe Province during much of the 20th century. The orthography of Labu is based on that of Yabêm (= Jabêm), except that y replaces Yabêm j.
Vowels (orthographic)
Consonants (orthographic)
Tone contrasts
The vowels of some words in Labu are distinguished by lowered pitch, which is marked orthographically by a grave accent. Labu distinctions in tone are thus based on register tone, not contour tone as in Mandarin Chinese. Register tone contrasts are a relatively recent innovation of the North Huon Gulf languages, which many Labu speakers include in their linguistic repertoires, so one should not look back to voice contrasts in Proto-Oceanic (POc) or some other ancestral language to explain the origins of tone contrasts in Labu. Instead, one should look to areal influences, primarily from neighboring Bukawa.
| High |
Low |
| a 'sun' |
à 'tree, wood' (POc *kayu) |
| ani 'centipede' (POc *qalipan) |
ànì 'one' (indefinite article) |
| maya 'shame' |
mayà 'dead' (POc *mate) |
| ôpa 'crocodile' (POc *puqaya) |
ôpà 'thought' |
| ô 'breadfruit' (POc *kuluR) |
ồ 'garden' (POc *quma) |
| u 'rain' (POc *qusan) |
ù 'clay pot' (POc *kuron) |
Morphology
Pronouns and person markers
Free pronouns
Genitive pronouns
Deictics
Labu deictics correlate with first, second, and third person, the first two of which have long and short forms. The third person singular free pronoun can also take deictic suffixes: ini-ne 'this/these one(s)', ini-lê 'that/those one(s)'. Deictics may occur either in place of nouns or postposed to nouns, as in hanô lene 'that house'.
- le(ne) 'near speaker'
- lê(nê) 'near addressee'
- laê 'away from speaker or addressee'
Numerals
Traditional Labu counting practices started with the digits of one hand, then continued on the other hand, and then the feet to reach '20', which translates as 'one person'. Higher numbers are multiples of 'one person'. Nowadays, most counting above '5' is done in Tok Pisin.
| Numeral |
Term |
Gloss |
|---|
| 1 |
tôgwatô/ànì |
'one' |
| 2 |
salu |
'two' |
| 3 |
sidi |
'three' |
| 4 |
sôha |
'four' |
| 5 |
ma-ipi |
'hands-half/part' |
| 6 |
ma-ipi anêndi tôgwatô (or maipa tômôlô) |
'hands-half offspring/addition one' |
| 7 |
ma-ipi anêndi salu (or maipa salu) |
'hands-half offspring/addition two' |
| 8 |
ma-ipi anêndi sidi (or maipa sidi) |
'hands-half offspring/addition three' |
| 9 |
ma-ipi anêndi sôha (or maipa sôha) |
'hands-half offspring/addition four' |
| 10 |
nômusu |
'ten' |
| 20 |
asamô-ni |
'whole-one' (samô 'whole', ànì 'one') |
| 60 |
asamô sidi |
'whole three' |
|
Names
Like most of the coastal languages around the Huon Gulf, Labu has a system of birth-order names.
| Birth order |
Sons (ai) |
Daughters (ahêna) |
| 1 |
aso |
amê |
| 2 |
amoa |
hiya |
| 3 |
aŋgi |
aya |
| 4 |
aŋgu |
êta |
| 5 |
ôlôndi |
hênamu |
| 6 |
? |
asô`lô`/amênamu |
| 7 |
asô`lô` |
asôlô |
| 8 |
asôlô |
? |
| 9 |
paloa |
? |
References
- ↑ Labu language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
- ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Labu". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- Anon. (2004). Labu organized phonology data. Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- Siegel, Jeff (1984). "Introduction to the Labu language." In Malcolm Ross, Jeff Siegel, Robert Blust, Michael A. Colburn, W. Seiler, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics, No. 23, 83-159. Series A-69. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
- Ross, Malcolm (1988). Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian languages of western Melanesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
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| Major Indigenous
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| Other Papuan
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