Skou languages

The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the Vanimo coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indonesian province of Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya).

Sko
Vanimo Coast
Geographic distribution	northern New Guinea coast near Vanimo
Linguistic classification	Northwest Papuan? Sko
Subdivisions	I'saka Piore River Serra Hills Western Skou
Glottolog	skoo1245[1]

Typology

Tone

Skou languages are unusual among Papuan languages for being tonal; all Skou languages possess contrastive tone.[2] Vanimo, for example, has three tones, high, mid, low.

Example minimal sets illustrating tonal contrasts in various Skou languages:[2]

• I’saka: ẽy^H ‘louse’, wey^L ‘butterfly’, wey^LH ‘house’, wey^HL ‘language’
• Barupu: e^H ‘tooth’, e^L ‘garden’, e^HL ‘mosquito’, e^HLH ‘write’
• Wutung: ho^H ‘roof thatch made from sago palm fronds’, ho^L ‘star’, ho^HL ‘grease’
• Skou: ta^H ‘grass’, ta^L ‘hair’, ta^HL ‘arrow’

Lakes Plain languages, spoken in a discontiguous area to the southwest, are also tonal. Because of the apparent phonological similarities and sharing of stable basic words such as ‘louse’, Foley speculates the potential likelihood of a distant relationship shared between the Skou and Lakes Plain families, but no formal proposals linking the two families have been made due to insufficient evidence.[3] Additionally according to Foley, based on some lexical and phonological similarities, the Keuw language (currently classified as a language isolate) may also possibly share a deep relationship with the Lakes Plain languages. Like the Lakes Plain languages, Keuw also possesses constrative tone.

Lepki, Kaure, and Kembra, spoken in mountainous inland regions of the Indonesia-PNG border to the southwest of the Skou-speaking area, are also tonal.[3]

Morphology

Skou languages can be isolating or polysynthetic.[2]

• Isolating structure: Dumo, an Inner Skou language
• Polysynthetic structure: Barupu, a Piore River language

Classification

Skou languages were first linked by G. Frederici in 1912. In 1941, K.H. Thomas expanded the family to its current extent.

The Sko family is not accepted by Søren Wichmann (2013), who splits it into two separate groups.[4]

Donohue (2007) and Donohue and Crowther (2005) list Nouri as a mixed language having features of both the Piore River and Serra Hills subgroups.[5][6]

Sko (Laycock 1975)

Laycock posited two branches, Vanimo and Krisa:

• Vanimo branch – Skou, Sangke (Nyao), Wutung, Vanimo (Dumo)
• Krisa branch – I’saka (Krisa), Rawo, Puari, Barupu (Warapu)

Skou (Ross 2005)

However, Krisa is poorly supported and Malcolm Ross abandoned it,

• I’saka (Krisa)
• Barupu (Warapu)
• Puari
• Rawo
• Womo
• Vanimo branch: Skou (Tumawo), Leitre, Sangke (Nyao), Wutung, Vanimo (Dumo), Dusur

Macro-Skou linkage (Donohue 2002)

Mark Donohue proposed a subclassification based on areal diffusion he called Macro-Skou.

• I’saka
• Skou–Serra–Piore linkage
  • Piore River: Nori (strongly influenced by Womo), Barupu
  • Serra Hills
    • Puare
    • Rawo – Main Serra: Rawo, Womo
  • Skou (Vanimo) family
    • Skou
    • Eastern Skou / Vanimo
      • Leitre
      • West Coast
        • Border: Nyao, Wutung
        • Vanimo proper: Dumo, Dusur

Sko (Foley 2018)

Foley (2018) provides the following classification.[2]

Sko	I'saka     Piore River   Barupu / Warupu (Bauni)     Ramo (Uni)     Sumo (Bouni)     Serra Hills   Puare       Womo     Waro       Inner Sko   Skou       Leitre         Dumo     Dusur         Nyao / Sangke     Wutung

Foley's Inner Sko corresponds to Donohue's Western Skou.

Miller (2017)

The Piore River branch was renamed Lagoon in Miller (2017).[7] The older names of the Piore River languages were from village names; Miller has since renamed them as Bauni, Uni, Bouni, and Bobe, though they are not all distinct languages.

Lagoon (also Piore River)

• Bauni (Barapu and Warapu villages)
• Uni (Ramo village)
• Bouni (Sumo village)
• Bobe (Nouri village)

Usher (2020)

Usher groups the languages as follows, with each node being a reconstructable clade, and giving the family a geographic label rather than naming it after a single language.[8]

Vanimo Coast	I'saka   East Piore River   Barupu     Nouri (Bouni)     Serra Hills   Puare     Rawo     Womo     Sumararu       West   Skou     Leitre   Dumo–Dusur   Dumo     Dusur     Sangke–Wutung   Sangke (Nyao)     Wutung

Usher retains only the two Piore River languages of Donohue but splits off Sumararu as a distinct language.

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Skou are,

I	*na	we	*ne
thou	*me	you	?
he	*ka	they (M)	*ke
she	*bo	they (F)	*de

The Skou languages also have a dual, with a distinction between inclusive and exclusive we, but the forms are not reconstructable for the proto-language.

Pronouns in individual Skou languages:[2]

pronoun	I'saka	Barupu	Wutung	Skou
1.SG	nana	něná	niɛ	nì
2.SG	mama	měmá	mɛ	mè
3M.SG	kia	yá	ʔe	ke
3F.SG	umu	bó	ce	pe
1.PL	numu	měmí	nɛtu	ne
2.PL	yumu	mŏpú	ɛtu	e
3.PL	ie	yéi	tɛtu	te

Cognates

Sko family cognates (I'saka, Barupu, Wutung, Skou) listed by Foley (2018):[2]

Sko family cognates

gloss	I'saka	Barupu	Wutung	Skou
‘hand’	dou	eno	noʔɛ̃	no
‘tooth’	kũ	e	ʔũ	kə̃
‘breast’	ni	to	no	no
‘woman’	bu	bom	wũawũa	pɛɨma
‘bird’	yũ	ru	tĩ	tã
‘dog’		naki	naʔi	nake
‘water’	wi	pi		pa
‘old’	tuni	tɔra		rõtoto
‘eat’	a	ou	(u)a	a

See also

• Papuan languages

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Sko". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
3. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". 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. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
4. Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313–386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
5. Donohue, Mark; Crowther, Melissa (2005). "Meeting in the middle: interaction in North-Central New Guinea". 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. 167–184. ISBN 0-85883-562-2. OCLC 67292782.
6. Donohue, Mark P. 2007. A Grammar of the Skou Language of New Guinea. Unpublished manuscript.
7. Miller, Steve A. 2017. Skou Languages Near Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 1–24.
8. New Guinea World, Vanimo Coast

• Laycock, Donald C. (1975). "Sko, Kwomtari, and Left May (Arai) phyla". In Stephen A. Wurm (ed.). Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene: New Guinea area languages and language study 1. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. 849–858. OCLC 37096514.
• 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

• Skou languages database at TransNewGuinea.org