Nen

Nen (NQN), also known as Nen Ym or Nen Zi, is a language of the Yam or Morehead-Maro Family of Southern New Guinea, spoken in the Morehead District, Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Associated with the Äkämärä (Ekemere) tribe, it is also known as Ekemere Zi (Zi = language). The Yam family, with around twenty members, straddles the two nations of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, in a low-lying area bounded to the north and east by the Fly River, to the south by the Torres Strait which separates New Guinea from Australia, and to the west by the Maro river. Nen is primarily spoken in the village of Bimadbn, where the whole population of around 300 people speak it as the primary language of communication, though most people additionally speak one or more neighbouring languages (most commonly the related Nmbo or the unrelated Idi), English, and Motu. Nen speakers are also found in the adjoining villages (especially Bévdvn, Govav, Dimsisi) and the regional capital of Daru. Typologically, Nen is a head-marking language with complex verb morphology, ergative case-marking, double agreement, split-S marking based on a static-dynamic contrast, four grammatical numbers, SOV predominant word order, clear subordinate structures which suffix case markers to infinitives, and an unusual senary (base-six) numeral system.

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