LWM 341: Warembori

Warembori

Mark Donohue
University of Sydney

Warembori 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, the description is concluded with notes on the genetic affiliations of Warembori with respect to nearby Papuan and Austronesian languages, a wordlist and a short text to illustrate the language in spoken context.

Mark Donohue works at the University of Sydney, Australia, and has previously published a reference grammar of Tukang Besi, an Austronesian language of Indonesia, and has worked extensively in eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, publishing both descriptive and theoretical work on languages of the area and their relation to modern linguistic research.

ISBN 9783895866463. Languages of the World/Materials 341. 64pp. 1999.