Mek languages

The Mek languages are a well established family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek peoples. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005).

Mek
Goliath
Ethnicity	Mek people
Geographic distribution	New Guinea
Linguistic classification	Trans–New Guinea Central West New Guinea Momuna–Mek[1] Mek
Glottolog	mekk1240[2]
Map: The Mek languages of New Guinea   The Mek languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

Mek, then called Goliath, was identified by M. Bromley in 1967. It was placed in TNG by Wurm (1975).

Languages

The Mek languages form three dialect chains (Heeschen 1998):

• Eastern: Ketengban (including Okbap, Omban, Bime, Onya), Una (Goliath), Eipomek
• Northern: Kosarek Yale–Nipsan, Nalca
• Western: Korupun-Sela (including Dagi, Sisibna, Deibula)

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as 'perhaps' as follows:[3]

*m	*n		*ŋ
*p	*t		*k	*kʷ
*(m)b	*(n)d		*(ŋ)g	*(ŋ)gʷ
	*s
*w	*l	*j

i		u
e		o
ɛ		ɔ
	a	ɒ

ei	ou
ɛi	ɔu
ai	au
aɛ	aɔ

Pronouns

Pronouns are:[3]

	sg	pl
1	*na	*nu[n]
2	*kan	*kun (?)
3	*ɛl	*tun, *[t/s]ig

The difference between the two 3pl forms is not known. 2pl and 3pl have parallels in Momuna /kun tun/.

Evolution

Mek reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[4]

Eipo language:

• mun ‘belly’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’
• kuna ‘shadow’ < *k(a,o)nan
• saŋ ‘dancing song’ < *saŋ
• getane ‘sun’ < *kVtane

Bime language:

• mundo ‘belly’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’

Kosarek language:

• ami ‘louse’ < *niman
• si ‘tooth’ < *(s,t)i(s,t)i
• tomo < *k(i,u)tuma ‘night’

Yale language:

• de ‘to burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)
• mon ‘belly’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’
• xau ‘ashes’ < *kambu

References

1. Momuna–Mek, New Guinea World
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Mek". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. New Guinea World
4. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Momuna–Mek
• (ibid.) Proto–Mek