Panim pnr language is a Gum Croisilles language belonging to the Madang branch of the Trans-New Guinea phylum. It is spoken by around 400 people, all living in a single village called Panim in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The language is highly endangered since it is no longer learned by children, who instead grow up speaking Tok Pisin, the local lingua franca and dominant language.

A preliminary assessment of the current status, vitality, and documentation level of Panim was carried out in July 2009 by Greg Anderson and K. David Harrison of the Living Tongues Institute, in coordination with the National Geographic Society's Enduring Voices Project. Living Tongues Institute Fellow Don Daniels continued the collection of materials for a Panim Talking Dictionary and Online Grammar during July 2010. The main consultants in the project are Lihot Wagadu and Segena Som, with additional consultation with Deb Molem.

In his 2010 field report, Don Daniels writes: "Speakers have expressed the most interest and enthusiasm for the recording of traditional narratives and the documentation of traditional cultural practices...Such cultural knowledge will be a priceless record for the Panim community...Panim is also a fascinating language in its own right. For example, it has a very rare system for expressing the notion of giving. Rather than having one word that means ‘give’, Panim has seven—one for each of the seven Panim pronouns. These words, in addition to meaning ‘give’, also say who is receiving, so that there is a different word in Panim for ‘give to me’ as opposed to ‘give to you’."

The Panim Talking Dictionary was constructed in July 2014 by Madeleine Booth, under the direction of K. David Harrison and with technical support by Jeremy Fahringer. Support was provided by Swarthmore College and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

We hope to collaborate further with the Panim community in the future to expand the Panim talking dictionary, and also to produce a print version.

About The Panim Language and Dictionary

The proposed Panim transcriptions in the Talking Dictionary are tentative as some phonemes (sounds) are only slightly different from others, which can lead to mishearing on the part of the transcriber. Panim appears to have a contrast between voiced and voiceless bilabial fricatives (ɸ, β), front/mid and back low vowels (a, ɔ), and plosive and implosive stops (b, ɓ; d, ɗ; g, ɠ). It is possible that ɸ and β are allophones (phonemes which are interchangeable without changing the meaning of the word, written ɸ ~ β), as well as n ~ l, z ~ j, β ~ w, and i ~ e when unstressed. Don Daniels also speculates that t and k, although common among the world’s languages, are only found in words that Panim has borrowed from other languages, and Booth extends this speculation to p as well. The transcriptions in the Talking Dictionary should be considered speculative, especially those concerning plosive and implosive stops, and the exact phoneme inventory will need to be verified with further research.

At the time of this dictionary’s production, we are not aware of any written form of Panim. As such, this dictionary uses a phonetic transcription to transcribe Panim words. The pronunciation guide below gives (from left to right) the characters used in the Talking Dictionary’s phonetic transcription, their IPA (international phonetic alphabet) equivalent, and examples of those sounds if applicable in English, Tok Pisin, and Panim.

Panim transcription	IPA symbol	English and Tok Pisin examples	Panim examples
Panim Vowels
i	i	peek, screech, emu, sillymi, planti, lik	listenloadingplaying mi louse
u	u	food, bootumbuna, yu	listenloadingplaying asul coconut
e	ɛ	met, epic, bedtupela, ken	listenloadingplaying esi sand
o	o	onim, olgeta, tasol	listenloadingplaying on your mouth
a	æ	apple, cat, saptasol, hap	listenloadingplaying ami my eye
ɔ	ɔ / ɑ	fall, dawn, draw	listenloadingplaying zɔl bilum (PNG woven bag)
Panim Diphthongs
ai	aɪ	pie, fire, finepaia, ais, taim	listenloadingplaying zai fire
ei	eɪ	face, pay, vein	listenloadingplaying ɓeilami my tongue
ou	oʊ	goat, go, row	listenloadingplaying ɓou your neck
Panim Consonants
p	p	pet, inputplet, mipela	listenloadingplaying panali maternal grandfather
b	b	bed, habit, grabbuk, kikbal	listenloadingplaying bu (mia) ripe
ɓ	ɓ		listenloadingplaying ɓen big
t	t	tap, enter, pettasol, rot	listenloadingplaying matu elder
d	d	dog, indent, imbeddaun, penda	listenloadingplaying madaga talk
ɗ	ɗ		listenloadingplaying ɗuni my nape
k	k	cat, encodepukpuk, kokonas	listenloadingplaying kakania dry
g	g	give, agreegaden, digim	listenloadingplaying waga crocodile
ɠ	ɠ		listenloadingplaying ɗoɠi great-grandparent
gw	gʷ	guava, guano	listenloadingplaying ɸudugʷa blow
ʔ	ʔ	the pause in uh-oh, and in some dialects, mitten (mitt’n)	listenloadingplaying oʔosa his saliva
m	m	map, import, trimmi, sumatin, werim	listenloadingplaying maʔas sea
n	n	nag, endure, pinnus, ranim, raun	listenloadingplaying oni my mouth
ŋ	ŋ	ring, drink	listenloadingplaying iluŋi my head
ɸ	ɸ		listenloadingplaying iloɸu your brain
β	β		listenloadingplaying waβin your belly
s	s	sack, insert, sipssusa, snek	listenloadingplaying sa sugar
z	z	dazzle, zenith, jazz	listenloadingplaying za tusk
ʃ	ʃ	shaman, fish	listenloadingplaying em wiʃahel those two gave you X
h	h	happy, inherithaus, huk	listenloadingplaying maha ground
l	l	lamp, cloud, illlip, oltaim	listenloadingplaying ilu head
w	w	water, awake, owwanem, wawan	listenloadingplaying waga crocodile
j	j	yes, yetyang, yu	listenloadingplaying jin who

Pronouns, possession, and possessive pronouns:

Panim pronouns:

Panim distinguishes between singular (one entity), dual (two entities), and plural (three or more entities). It distinguishes between 1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person in the singular, and between 1st person and 2nd/3rd person in the dual and plural.

	Sg	Dl	Pl
1	ise ~ isi	ile	ige
2	ine	ale	age
3	ɓo	ale	age

examples
ise taβiɠi	I stand
ine taβaɠa	you stand
ɓo (ai) taβin	he/she stands
ile taβanan	we two stand
ale taβahia	you two stand
ale taβahia	those two stand
ige taβanɓan	we stand
age taβegia	you all stand
age taβegia	they stand

Panim alienable possessive pronouns:

These pronouns are used for alienable possession (meaning the possessive pronoun is or can be separated from the noun (cf. inalienable possession, as with body parts). Interestingly, while Panim pronouns distinguish between 1st and 2nd/3rd person in the plural and dual, the possessive pronouns distinguish between 1st/2nd and 3rd.

	Sg	Dl	Pl
1	sisu	lilu	ɠiɠu
2	ninu	lilu	ɠiɠu
3	ɓuɓu	alilu	aɠiɠu

examples
zɔl sisu	my bilum
zɔl ninu	your bilum
zɔl ɓuɓu	his/her bilum
zɔl lilu	we two’s bilum
zɔl lilu	you two’s bilum
zɔl alilu	those two’s bilum
zɔl ɠiɠu	our bilum
zɔl ɠiɠu	you all’s bilum
zɔl aɠiɠu	their bilum

Panim inalienable possession:

Body parts, as well as some other nouns like ‘shadow,’ cannot be expressed without a possessive-- that is to say, one cannot say ‘the arm’ but must say ‘his arm, my arm, etc.’ Panim does not use the set of possessive pronouns for inalienable possession but rather changes the word itself. There are multiple patterns of inalienable possession that a noun might fall into, indicating that Panim might have a noun class system. Some nouns of the paradigms are shown below. There is only data for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd singular possession-- how Panim would translate phrases like ‘their brains,’ referring to a plurality of brains, each of which belongs to only one person (for obvious reasons), is unknown at this time.

1sg	2sg	3sg	gloss
eɓeni	eɓen	eɓen	arm
ɠiʔani	ɠiʔan	ɠiʔan	armpit
ilofuni	ilofu	ilofu	brain
ɓini	ɓig	ɓig	bum
tuʔumi	tuʔum	tuʔu	thigh
ɓelami	ɓelam	ɓela	tongue
zogani	zogan	zoga	blood
ɗuni	ɗun	ɗu	nape
wavi	wavin	waug	belly
hibeni	hibin	hibag	chin/jaw
dahini	dahin	dahig	ear
aimi	ain	aig	tooth
zami	zaim	zaif	leg
hilimani	hilimanin	hiliman	vein
ahuni	ahunin	ahun	shadow
zenumi	zenimin	zeni	name
ulini	ulinin	ul	heart