Kamula–Elevala languages

The Kamula–Elevala languages are a small family of the Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the region of the Elevala River.

Kamula–Elevala
Kamula – Elevala River
Geographic
distribution		northern Western Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
Proto-languageProto-Kamula–Elevala
Subdivisions
  • Awin–Pa (Awin–Pare)
  • Kamula
Glottologkamu1264[2]
Map: The Awin–Pa–Kamula languages of New Guinea
  The Awin–Pa and Kamula languages
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Languages

The languages are just three, Aekyowm (Awin), Pare (Pa) and Kamula. They are not obviously related to each other, but Aekyowm and Pare are closer to each other than to Kamula.[3]

Classification

Stephen Wurm (1975) added Awin and Pa to an expanded Central and South New Guinea branch of TNG, a position reversed by Ross (2005). The connection between Awin–Pa and Kamula was established by Suter & Usher.[4]

Reconstruction
Proto-Kamula–Elevala
Reconstruction ofKamula–Elevala languages
Reconstructed
ancestors

Phonology

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as follows:[1]

*m*n
*p (or *h)*t*s*k
*b (or *p)*d*g
*s
*w*j
*i*u
*e*o
*ɔ
*æ*a

There is also the diphthong *ai.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the Awin–Pa pronouns as:[1]

sgdupl
1 *nɔ*ni, *ki
2 *go*gi
3 *jɔ

In the 1du, Awin has /ki/ and Pare /ni/, /niki/, /nigi/. The Kamula singular forms are quite similar (na, wa, je), but it does not have the dual.

Evolution

Proposed Awin–Pa reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:[5]

Aekyom language:

  • kendoke ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k[V]
  • khatike ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)
  • ndok[V], kare ‘skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
  • di ‘firewood, fire’ < *inda

Pa language:

  • keba ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu
  • ama ‘mother < *am(a,i)
  • di- ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)

References
  • 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.
  1. New Guinea World, Digul River – Ok
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Kamula–Elevala". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Edgar Suter & Timothy Usher, 2017, 'The Kamula–Elevala Language Family', Language & Linguistics in Melanesia, vol. 25.
  4. Edgar Suter & Timothy Usher (2017) "The Kamula–Elevala language family", Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 106–131.
  5. 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.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.