Mehek
Mehek is a Sepik language spoken in Papua New Guinea. Glottolog rates it shifting.
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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
| Meaning | Word | Romanization |
|---|---|---|
| woman | tawa | |
| person | tama* | |
| name | sir* | |
| eye | lako* | |
| ear | namra* | |
| nose | wiliNgi* | |
| tooth | bi* | |
| tongue | tawul* | |
| hand | lesu* | |
| blood | kefu* | |
| bone | yefa* | |
| skin | liki* | |
| knee | guwl* | |
| breast | muwku* | |
| water | okwu | |
| fire | kiri* | |
| sun | nambul* | |
| star | ware* | |
| stone | arko* | |
| mountain | embleo* | |
| tree | mu* | |
| leaf | kulka* | |
| night | nurku* | |
| dog | wala* | |
| fish | om* | |
| louse | nun* | |
| one | dirambu* | |
| two | lisi* | |
| I | on* | |
| you | nu* |
* in the simplified ASJP transcription
Most similar languages
Vocabulary
- PahiSepik31% alike
- Yessan-MayoSepik29% alike
- Mende (Papua New Guinea)Sepik23% alike
- PasiSepik22% alike
- KwangaSepik19% alike
- BahinemoSepik16% alike
Vocabulary compares 40 basic words (ASJP); grammar compares 195 features (Grambank). Similar is not always related.
Nearby languages
Elsewhere
Glottolog · mehe1243 · Wikipedia (English) · Ethnologue · nux