Melpa language

Melpa
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province
Native speakers
(130,000 cited 1991)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3med
Glottologmelp1238

Melpa (Medlpa, Mbowamb) is a Papuan language spoken by about 130,000 people predominantly in Mount Hagen and the surrounding district of Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Melpa is a Pandanus language used during karuka harvest.[2] Melpa has a voiceless velar lateral fricative, written as a double-barred el (Ⱡ, ⱡ). Melpa is notable for its binary counting system. A dictionary of Melpa has been compiled by Stewart, Strathern and Trantow (2011).[3]

  1. ^ Melpa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Franklin, Karl J. (September 1972). "A Ritual Pandanus Language of New Guinea". Oceania. 43 (1): 66–76. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1972.tb01197.x. OCLC 883021898.
  3. ^ Stewart, Pamela J., Andrew Strathern and Jürgen Trantow. 2011. Melpa-German-English Dictionary. Pittsburgh: University Library System.