Melpa language

---

title: "Melpa language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chimbu–wahgi-languages", "languages-of-western-highlands-province", "pandanus-avoidance-registers"] description: "Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Papua New Guinea" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpa_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Papua New Guinea ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Melpa
states	Papua New Guinea
region	Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province
speakers	130,000
date	1991
ref	e18
familycolor	Papuan
fam1	Trans–New Guinea
fam2	Chimbu–Wahgi
fam3	Hagen
script	Latin
iso3	med
glotto	melp1238
glottorefname	Melpa
::

|name=Melpa |states=Papua New Guinea |region=Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province |speakers=130,000 |date=1991 |ref=e18 |familycolor=Papuan |fam1=Trans–New Guinea |fam2=Chimbu–Wahgi |fam3=Hagen |script=Latin |iso3=med |glotto=melp1238 |glottorefname=Melpa

Melpa (Meldpa, 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. It is spoken by the Kawelka people and other related tribes.

Melpa is a pandanus language used during karuka harvests. Melpa has a velar lateral, 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).

Phonology

Note: the descriptions of these sounds is not clear, so the conversion to IPA below may not be accurate.

Consonants

::data[format=table]

Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Nasal	Plosive	voiceless	prenasalized	Rhotic	Lateral	Semivowel
		?
::

Ladefoged analyzes the laterals instead as , and the rhotic as .

Plosives and laterals are voiceless in word-final position.

Vowels

::data[format=table]

Front	Central	Back	High	Near-high	Mid	Low
		,
::

Numeral system

::data[format=table]

Numeral	Melpa	Literal meaning
1	tenda	"one"
2	ragl	"two"
3	ragltika	"two-one"
4	tembokak	"four"
5	pemp ti gul	"one past four"
6	pemp ragl gul	"two past four"
7	pemp ragltika gul	"two-one past four"
8	engakl	"eight"
9	pemp ti pip	"one past eight"
10	pemp ragl pip	"two past eight"
::

Media

Temboka, a dialect of Melpa, is the native language of the Ganiga tribe, who featured prominently in the Highlands Trilogy of documentaries by Robin Anderson and Bob Connolly (First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, and Black Harvest).

The documentary Ongka's Big Moka also has Melpa dialogue.

References

References

1. Strathern, Andrew. (1972). "One Father, One Blood: Descent and group structure among the Melpa people". Australian National University, Research School of Social Sciences.
2. (September 1972). "A Ritual Pandanus Language of New Guinea". Oceania.
3. Stewart, Pamela J., [[Andrew Strathern]] and Jürgen Trantow. 2011. ''Melpa-German-English Dictionary''. Pittsburgh: University Library System.
4. [http://www-01.sil.org/pacific/png/show_work.asp?id=928474531186 Stucky et al. 1990 Melpa Phonology]
5. [http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/vowels/chapter13/melpa.html Melpa laterals]
6. Connolly, Bob. (14 February 2017). "Filmmaker Bob Connolly returns to PNG 25 years after 'Black Harvest'". [[The Australian Financial Review]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::