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Mehek

Mehek is a Sepik language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Glottolog rates it shifting.

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Mehek · 3.7°S 142.5°E

Mehek is a Tama language spoken by about 6300 people in a somewhat mountainous area along the southern base of the Torricelli Mountains in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Mehek is spoken in six villages of Sandaun Province: Nuku, Yiminum, Mansuku, Yifkindu, Wilwil, and Kafle. Mehek is most closely related to Pahi, with 51% lexical similarity, and spoken approximately 20 kilometers to the southwest. Mehek is a fairly typical Papuan language, being verb-final, having a relatively simple phonology, and agglutinative morphology. There is very little published information about Mehek. The literacy rate in Tok Pisin, spoken by nearly everyone, is 50-75%. Mehek is not written, so there is no literacy in Mehek. Tok Pisin is primarily used in the schools, with 50% children attending. There is also a sign language used by the large number of deaf people in the Mehek community.

From Wikipedia · Mehek language · CC BY-SA 4.0

Words in Mehek

MeaningWordRomanization
womantawa
persontama*
namesir*
eyelako*
earnamra*
nosewiliNgi*
toothbi*
tonguetawul*
handlesu*
bloodkefu*
boneyefa*
skinliki*
kneeguwl*
breastmuwku*
waterokwu
firekiri*
sunnambul*
starware*
stonearko*
mountainembleo*
treemu*
leafkulka*
nightnurku*
dogwala*
fishom*
lousenun*
onedirambu*
twolisi*
Ion*
younu*

* in the simplified ASJP transcription

Most similar languages

Vocabulary

Grammar

  • AisiNuclear Trans New Guinea81% alike
  • BugunSino-Tibetan80% alike
  • BiminNuclear Trans New Guinea79% alike
  • KaluliBosavi79% alike
  • MenyaAngan78% alike
  • KoromiraSouth Bougainville77% alike

Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.

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Glottolog · mehe1243 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · nux