Nêlêmwa Corpus
Nêlêmwa: a brief note
Resources :
All available resources here
Nêlêmwa and the dialectal variant Nixumwak are two of the twenty-nine Kanak languages of New Caledonia which belong to the Oceanic subgroup of Austronesian languages. They are spoken by approximately 1500 speakers, in the far north of the Mainland of New Caledonia (around Koumak, Poum, Tiabet and the neighbouring islands).
Existing documents
- BRIL I., 2002, Le nêlêmwa (Nouvelle-Calédonie) : Analyse syntaxique et sémantique, Collection “Langues et Cultures du Pacifique”, n° 16, Peeters, Paris. (that you can see here)
- BRIL I., 2000, Dictionnaire nêlêmwa-nixumwak-français-anglais. LCP 14, Peeters, Paris. (that you can see here)
- HAUDRICOURT A.-G., 1963, La langue des Nenemas et des Nigoumak, Dialectes de Poum et de Koumac, Nouvelle-Calédonie. Linguistic Society of New Zealand, Auckland.
- LEENHARDT, M., 1946, Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mélanésie, Institut d'Ethnologie, Paris.
Transcription
- Morpheme boundaries are indicated by hyphens.
- Vowel length is marked by a double vowel ; phonological nasal vowels are written with a circumflex accent and central vowels are marked by a diaresis.
- Consonant lenition in intervocalic position:
/p/ ou /f/ > [v] ou [w] /r h/ > [r] /fw/ > [w] /c/ ou / ʃ/ > [j] /t/ > [r], [l] /k/ ou /x/ > [ ɣ]>Ø
Intervocalic consonant lenition occurs at word boundaries, either initially or finally:
ni vââlû "in the taro fields" (pââlû "taro field") ; jeux-i na "close to me" (jeuk "near").
- Final sandhi are signalled by a hyphen : hleeli pe-whaayaw-i hla "their wars" (whaayap "fight, war") ; pe-faxer-i hli "their taboo relationship" (faxet "taboo").
Main characteristics 
- Head-initial language.
- Numeral classifiers (around 20) and possessive classifiers (for food, weapons, baskets).
- VOS order with nominal arguments ; sVo order with personal pronouns.
- Ergative morphology with nominal arguments ; accusative pattern with personal pronouns.
The agent markers are (e)a (+human) and ru (-human). Absolutive case is zero-marked.
- Topicalisation (of a fronted argument or adjunct) is marked by xe.
- For a limited set of verbs, reflexivity is marked by coreferential subject and object pronouns : i bwagi-e "he returns" (lit. he returns him).
- According to noun classes, possession may be either direct (marked by possessive suffixes or nouns) or indirect (marked by the morpheme i). Relational nouns have an obligatory 3rd person suffix (-n +humans ; -t +inanimates, generic or collective humans).
Nêlêmwa texts
A Story of Fishing-Nets
Nouvelle-Calédonie, Tiabet, 1990, Philippe Dahoot, Isabelle Bril
This is the story of how a clan's tutelary spirits gave "the magic for fishing" to one of their ancestor. The story takes place south of Tiabet. One day, the ancestor, who is settled on the east coast, in the Bay of Nôômuja, decides to visit his relatives on the west coast, at Hawawalic. He encounters his tutelary spirits on the sea-shore at Bweebun, steals their fishing-nets and hikes back home to Nôômuja, across the central ridge over the Wiiwu Pass. The spirits run after him and retrieve their fishing-net,... in exchange for a magic for fishing.
Kaavo Dela
Nouvelle-Calédonie, Tiabet, 1990, Phadom Rony, Isabelle Bril
This is the story of Kaavo (a chief's elder daughter) Dela, renowned for her beauty, and Teâ Pwayili (Pwayili is the name of a Chief's younger son). One day, Teâ Pwayili decides to leave in search of Kaavo Dela, whose residence is on an island to the north of the Mainland, and he convinces her to marry him. After a few adventures, they settle in Ouvea, but one day, Pwayili offends his wife.
My Tale of the Swamp Hen and the Owl / [nee] Kijila-ny i axaleny shaak ma mwen
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1990, Talaot Porou, Isabelle Bril
Story of the Owl and the Buzzard / [nee] Kijin i mwen ma dany
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1990, Suzanne Phadom, Isabelle Bril
Story of the Sea-Gull and the Curlew / [nee] Kijin i bon ma hilili
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1990, Cécile Phadom, Isabelle Bril
Tale of the Hen and the Rooster / [nee] Kijin i khîââk ma ko-ak
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1990, Willion Phadom, Isabelle Bril
Kaavo Ara-Pai ma Paima
Nouvelle-Calédonie, Tiabet, 1991, Rony Phadom, Isabelle Bril
This is the story of Kaavo (a chief's elder daughter) Ara-Pai ma Paima. She becomes Teâ Paak's (Chief of War) fifth wife. The other spouses, Green Fly, Mosquito, Horse-fly and Midget, do not accept Kaavo's presence among them. One day, Teâ Paak leaves home to attend a ceremony and the other wives kill her. The story tells his adventures during his journey in search of Kaavo : his encounter and alliance with a mythical being by the Weiyem River and their descent to the Country of the Dead.
Story of Avulijaap
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1991, Jean Smith, Isabelle Bril
Story of Puneyin and Pweneyin
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1991, Cécile Mandaru, Isabelle Bril
The Story of Pwâ Kebö and Pwâ Hivic / [nee] Kijin i Pwâ Kebö ma Pwâ Hivic
New Caledonia, Poum, 1991, Alarée Daye, Isabelle Bril
Nursery Rhyme
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1993, Soop Dahoot, Isabelle Bril
Spear-Skimming
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1993, Soop Dahoot, Isabelle Bril
Story of the island of Tââlô
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1993, Alek Porou, Isabelle Bril
The Story of Kaavo Dedegabwa and her Numerous Grand-Children
New Caledonia, Tiabet, 1995, Soop Dahoot, Isabelle Bril
