Sobeiis one of theSarmi languagesspoken in three villages (Sarmi, Sawar, and Bagaiserwar) near the district center of Sarmi inPapuaprovince ofIndonesia.Ethnologue (2005) cites two third-party population estimates of 1,000 and 1,850, while Sterner estimates the population at 1,500 (1975) and 2,000 (1987), based on actual residence in the area.
Sobei reflexes of some common Austronesian etyma includeima'hand',betwe'star',daidu'two',faso'paddle',fau'four',mam'father',nen'mother',natu'(his/her) child',niwe'coconut',pana'food',puwe'betelnut',rani'water',rau'leaf',-sa'up',-si'down',siso'breast',tafi'sugarcane',tano'rain',temto'man',tesese'one',tou'three',wane'sand',yafu'fire' (all gleaned from J. Sterner 1975).
Sobei distinguishesalienable possessionfrominalienable possessionby directly suffixing nouns in the latter type of relationship, principally body parts and kin terms. Themorphophonemicsare often complex:natu’'my child',natun'his/her child',netrirse'our child(ren)',netrise'their child(ren)';dabu'sa'a'my head',dabusa'a'his/her head',debrirsa'a'our heads',debrisa'a'their heads' (Sterner 1987). The following paradigm of the inalienably possessed nountema-'father' is from Sterner (1976). The intermediate-ri-before the possessive suffix serves as a plural marker. As an independent pronoun,riis 3rd person plural ('they'). Some kin terms that do not take the possessive suffixes nevertheless have plural forms ending in-(r)i:wawa-ri'uncle-PL',tinan-i'mother-PL',nabai-yi'cousin-PL' (Sterner 1976).
Sobei verb stems can include a number of aspectual, reciprocal, modificational, or directional affixes, but every verb is minimally prefixed to show thegrammatical personandnumberof itssubjectandgrammatical mood(realisorirrealis). Mood markers differ according to whether the stem is simple or complex, and some classes of verbs show stemallomorphyin theirconjugationalparadigms. (See Sterner 1987.)
Sterner, Joyce K. 1987. Sobei verb morphology reanalyzed to reflect POC studies.Oceanic Linguistics14:146-167.
Sterner, Joyce K. 1976. A comprehensive look at Sobei phrases and words. InFrom Baudi to Indonesian: Studies in linguistics,ed. by Ignatius Suharno and Kenneth L. Pike, pp. 153–176. Jayapura, Cenderawasih University and the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Sterner, Joyce K. 1975. Sobei phonology.Oceanic Linguistics14:146-167.
Sterner, Robert H. 1975. Sobei verb inflection.Oceanic Linguistics14:128-145.
