may be shared with Lower Sepik languages. The word karep 'moon' is shared specifically with Kopar (karep). However, most basic vocabulary items have no apparent cognates in surrounding languages. Phonology Pronouns Tayap pronouns are: {| ! !! sg !! pl |- ! 1 | ŋa || yim |- ! 2 | yu || yum |- ! 3m | ŋɨ || ŋgɨ |- ! 3f | ŋgu || ŋgɨ |} Grammar Like many Sepik languages, Tayap is a synthetic language. Verbs are the most elaborated area of the grammar. They are complex, fusional and massively suppletive, with opaque verbal morphology including unpredictable conjugation class, both in terms of membership and formal marking. Tayap distinguishes between realis and irrealis stems and suffixes. Verbal suffixes distinguish between Subject/Agent (S/A) and Object (O), which is marked by discontinuous morphemes in some conjugations. The ergative case (A) is marked by free pronouns and noun phrases, while the absolutive (S/O) does not have marked forms. As in many ergative Papuan languages, the ergative marker is not always included, as it is optional. Nouns Nouns generally do not mark number themselves, although there is a small class of largely human nouns which mark plural, and a smaller class which mark dual. These categories, where marked, are largely marked by partial or full suppletion. Oblique cases, largely local, are marked by clitics attached to the end of the oblique noun phrase. Gender Like many languages of the Sepik-Ramu basin (particularly the Sepik languages), Tayap has masculine and feminine genders. There are two genders, masculine and feminine, marked not on the noun itself but on deictics, the ergative marker, suppletive verbal stems and verbal affixes. The unmarked, generic form of all nouns, including animate nouns, even humans, is feminine: however, a male referent may be masculine. Another criterion is size and shape: long, thin and large referents tend to be masculine; short, stocky and small referents tend to be feminine. This type of gender-assignment system is typical of the Sepik region. Gender is only ever marked in the singular, never in the dual or plural. Lexicon Selected Tayap words from : Vertebrates {| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Tayap |- | pig || mbor |- | domesticated dog || nje |- | tree possum, cuscus || enamb |- | ground possum || síw |- | bandicoot || sasik |- | rat, mouse || ŋgabugar, kokosik, njip, mangɨm |- |