- 1 - Syntax of the World’s Languages IV Lyon, France, 25 September 2010 Negation in the Papuan language Iatmul Gerd Jendraschek University of Regensburg, Germany gerd.jendraschek@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de 1 The Iatmul language • Iatmul is a Papuan language of the Ndu family, spoken in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. • Approx. 40,000 speakers; 30 villages along the Sepik River, half of the population has migrated to towns, shift towards Tok Pisin with people under the age of 25. • About 14 months of fieldwork (May 2005; September 2005 – June 2006; July – September 2007; October – November 2008) Figure 1. Papua New Guinea Figure 2. Sepik River 2 Negation in Iatmul: Structures 2.1 Verbal main clause predicates • Main clause predicates are negated by the particle ana, which precedes the inflected verb. (1) Nau ana ki’-wun. sago NEG eat-1SG ‘I haven’t eaten sago’