[2] The two major villages that the language is spoken in are located in the Central Province of Papua New Guinea.

Northwest Mekeo is notable being the only known language with no coronal phonemes, violating what was previously thought to be a linguistic universal:[6] /ɡ/ is realised as [dzʲ] before /i/, and /ŋ/ as [n] in the environment of /i/ or very rarely as a free variant in other positions.

West Mekeo has a similar inventory but with /l b/ in place of /j β/: [β] is seen as an allophone of /b/.

The following table shows all the main personal pronouns for East Mekeo.

For example, the preferred form for the first person singular would be lau- au-ŋa.

[5]: 148 In the following table, 1, 2 and 3 indicate the person, SG and PL indicate whether the example is singular or plural and I and E stand for inclusive and exclusive.

'iaelsewheree-lao3SG-goafuplaceioi-nadifferent-3SGe-lao3SG-go(East Mekeo) ia e-lao afu ioi-na e-laoelsewhere 3SG-go place different-3SG 3SG-go'He has gone elsewhere.

[5]: 195 SUBJECTIsas/heOBJECTlauIRELATORama-ufather-1SG(East Mekeo)  SUBJECT OBJECT RELATORIsa lau ama-us/he I father-1SG'He is my father.

'Expressing alienable possession in Mekeo requires the prefix E- and its various realisations (including zero).

[5]: 208-210 Eŋaʔi-nathatlauIe-uPOSS-1SGfoʔamafood(East Mekeo) Eŋaʔi-na lau e-u foʔamathat I POSS-1SG food'That is my (vegetable) food.

'The negative is expressed with negators maini, aibaia and laa'i: E-uPOSS-1SGfoʔamafoodlaa'inot(East Mekeo) E-u foʔama laa'iPOSS-1SG food not'I have no food'The following is an example of an alternation of the cliticisation process: InaʔinathisauŋaTOPICiʔawe.IʔaPOSS.1PL.Ieʔahouse(East Mekeo) Inaʔina auŋa iʔa ʔa eʔathis TOPIC we.I POSS.1PL.I house'This one is our house'Another morpheme to express possession is the location pronoun KE- (realised as ke or ʔe).

'[5]: 175 TsiteaaʼiNEGmekia-ŋasweet-ASS(East Mekeo) Tsi aʼi mekia-ŋatea NEG sweet-ASS'The tea is unsweet!

')[5]: 175 Gaba-alakathing-oneaibaianot(West Mekeo) Gaba-alaka aibaiathing-one not'It doesn't matter.'

')[5]: 175 Tsugasugaraibaizanot(North Mekeo) Tsuga aibaizasugar not'There is no sugar.

')[5]: 175 The existential negators can also function similarly to aʼi, so examples 14 and 16 above could alternatively be read as 'She is not his wife' (or 'He is not her husband') and 'This is not sugar' respectively.

[8]: 51 Example 18 shows the position of the negator prefix in the North Mekeo expression Fázobálifúa!

': F-OBLG-ai-NEG-z-B-o-2SG-ba-CA-lifuwrong-Ø-TH-Ø--PF-a-3SG(North Mekeo) F- ai- z- o- ba- lifu -Ø- -Ø- -aOBLG- NEG- B- 2SG- CA- wrong TH -PF -3SG'Don't spill it!

Jones tentatively reconstructs the negator prefix in Proto-Mekeo as */aʔi/, cognate with Motu asi and both descended from Proto-Central-Papuan */ati/.

Jones suggests that this may be to reduce ambiguity where the prefix ae- has otherwise assimilated with the verb stem; other dialects have an intrusive consonant between the negator prefix and verb stem, as shown in example 24 from West Mekeo.

'[5]: 578 According to World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) writer Matthew S. Dryer, Mekeo is a mixed language type, meaning it does not follow a demonstrative-noun, or noun-demonstrative sentence structure, but has both.

[5]: 158 According to Maino, Aufu and Bullock, there are two demonstratives egaina and inaina/l’ina.

"These can refer to singular or plural, near or far", and is represented in the Tentative Grammar Description with the following table.

'[5]: 213 This noun phrase can be expanded by adding a suffix that marks the person and number of the deictic pronoun.

There can also be a second modifier, attached before the adjective: Eŋainathatamuʔe-ŋadog-3SGeʔele-ŋa,small-3SGla-isa1SG-see(East Mekeo) Eŋaina amuʔe-ŋa eʔele-ŋa, la-isathat dog-3SG small-3SG 1SG-see'That dog, the small one, I saw it'[5]: 76 The demonstrative 'that' (Eŋaina is evident here, along with the third-person singular noun dog and adjective.

'According to Jones, the comma represents the "actual or potential pause" within the sentence.

'[5]: 213 Papiewomanaŋa’oonela-isa1SG-seeau-ŋaone-3SGfe’abaskete-pua-i-s-a3SG-carry-PF-B-3SG(East Mekeo) Papie aŋa’o la-isa au-ŋa fe’a e-pua-i-s-awoman one 1SG-see one-3SG basket 3SG-carry-PF-B-3SG'I saw a woman (who was) carrying a basket'The placement of commas in important in the Mekeo language.

Jones highlights that if a comma had been placed after Papie aŋa’o, then the translation would shift to "a woman who was carrying a basket".