Hatam language

Hatam (also spelled Hattam, Atam) is a divergent language of New Guinea. Apart from Mansim (Borai), formerly listed as a dialect, it is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the West Papuan languages, based on similarities in pronouns, Ethnologue and Glottolog list it as a language isolate[1] or small independent family.[2]

Hatam
Native to	Papua
Region	Eastern Bird's Head
Native speakers	(16,000 cited 1993)[1]
Language family	West Papuan East Bird's Head (?) Hatam–Mansim Hatam
Dialects	Moi (Moire) Tinam Miriei Adihup Uran
Language codes
ISO 639-3	had
Glottolog	hata1243[2]
Hatam Show map of Bird's Head Peninsula Hatam Show map of Western New Guinea Hatam Show map of Southeast Asia
Coordinates: 1.14°S 134.04°E / -1.14; 134.04

Phonology

The phonology of the Hatam language is listed below. In free form, both consonant and vowel phonemes can range to different sounds.[3]

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
	geminated	pː	tː		kː
Nasal	voiced	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
	geminated	mː	nː
Fricative			s			h
Liquid			ɾ
Approximant		w		j

Phoneme	Allophones
/p/	[p, pʰ, pɸ, ɸ]
/t/	[t, tʰ]
/c/	[c, cʰ]
/k/	[k, kʰ, kx]
/ɡ/	[ɡ, k, ɡː]
/ɟ/	[ɟ, ɟː]
/d/	[d, t]
/b/	[b, p, bː]
/ɾ/	[ɾ, l, lː]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

Phoneme	Allophones
/i/	[i, ɪ, ə]
/ɛ/	[ɛ, e]
/a/	[ä, a, ɐ]
/ɔ/	[ɔ, o]

References

1. Hatam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Hatam". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Reesink, Ger P. (1999). A Grammar of Hatam: Bird's Head Peninsula Irian Jaya. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.: Pacific Linguistics: Series C, 146. pp. 9–13.

• 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.

Further reading

• Reesink, Ger P. (1999). A grammar of Hatam : Bird's Head Peninsula, Irian Jaya. Pacific Linguistics. Series C, 146. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University. hdl:1885/146620. ISBN 978-0-85883-497-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)