Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" 'Morwap' is vigorously rejected as a language name by speakers and government officials.
Elseng is spoken in Omon village, Gresi Selatan district, Jayapura Regency; it is also called Tabu or Tapu.Burung, Wiem. 2000. A Brief Note on Elseng. SIL International Electronic Survey Reports 2000–001.
Classification Laycock classified Elseng as a language isolate but noted pronominal similarities with the Border languages. Ross included it in Border because of these similarities but noted that it does not appear to share any lexical similarities with the family. However, this may be an effect of the paucity of data on Elseng. Foley similarly classifies Elseng as an isolate.
An automated computational analysis (ASJP 4) by Müller et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013). also found lexical similarities with the Border languages.
Phonology + Consonants:BilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarPlosivevoicelessvoicedprenas. NasalFricativevoicelessvoiced Approximant
+ Vowels:FrontCentralBackCloseMidOpen
Pronouns Pronouns are:
sgpl1exclkakam1inclyo2sosem3yi
Basic vocabulary Elseng basic vocabulary from Menanti (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):Menanti, Jackie. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report on the Elseng Language in Sia-Sia Village, Keerom County, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished report. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
|+ Elseng basic vocabulary ! gloss !! Elseng |- | 'bird' || bisyas |- | 'blood' || sakwos |- | 'bone' || wok |- | 'breast' || pan |- | 'ear' || waskwos |- | 'eat' || tou |- | 'egg' || syungwin |- | 'eye' || nafon |- | 'fire' || bət |- | 'give' || venenggiʔ |- | 'go' || gele |- | 'ground' || mo |- | 'hair' || nimbias |- | 'hear' || sɨkwen |- | 'leg' || poksən |- | 'louse' || ku |- | 'man' || seseu |- | 'moon' || məm |- | 'name' || tin |- | 'road, path' || mol |- | 'see' || nɨnggwen |- | 'sky' || kuil |- | 'stone' || səpak |- | 'sun' || ningnaf |- | 'tongue' || mosən |- | 'tooth' || an |- | 'tree' || sək |- | 'water' || vetev |- | 'woman' || saun
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Elseng |- | head || walambiap |- | hair || nimbias |- | ear || mo; uskŋs |- | eye || naf |- | nose || sənpokep |- | tooth || an |- | tongue || mɔs; mɔsən |- | leg || pokəs |- | louse || ku |- | dog || wəs |- | pig || wo |- | bird || bisjas; bisyas |- | egg || suŋun |- | blood || wətwən |- | bone || ok |- | skin || son; sɔn |- | breast || pan |- | tree || sək |- | man || sisɛu; sisew |- | woman || saɔ |- | sun || ninaf |- | moon || mɔm |- | water || wətel; wətəl |- | fire || bot; bɔt |- | stone || səpat |- | road, path || mul |- | eat || to
Sentences and phrases Example sentences and phrases in Elseng:
References
External links Elseng language word list at TransNewGuinea.org Burung, Wiem. 2000. "A brief note on Elseng." SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2000-001