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Greater Awyu languages

Language family in Papua From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greater Awyu languages
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The Greater Awyu or Digul River languages, known in earlier classifications with more limited scope as Awyu–Dumut (Awyu–Ndumut), are a family of perhaps a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in eastern West Papua in the region of the Digul River. Six of the languages are sufficiently attested for a basic description; it is not clear how many of the additional names (in parentheses below) may be separate languages.

Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...
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History

The Awyu (pronounced like English Ow you) and Awyu–Dumut families were identified by Peter Drabbe in the 1950s.

Voorhoeve included them in his proposed Central and South New Guinea group.[2] As part of Central and South New Guinea, they form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea.[3]

Classification

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The classification below is based on Usher[4] and de Vries et al. (2012),[5] who used morphological innovations to determine relatedness, which can be obscured by lexical loanwords.

Sawi is classified on pronominal data, as the morphological data used for the rest of the family is not available.

Pawley and Hammarström (2018) exclude Awbono-Bayono, treating it as a separate family.[6]

Various other languages can be found in the literature. Airo-Sumaxage (Airo-Sumaghage)[7] is listed in Wurm, Foley, etc., but not in the University of Amsterdam survey and has been dropped by Ethnologue. Ethnologue lists a 'Central Awyu', but this is not attested as a distinct language (U. Amsterdam). In general, the names in Ethnologue are quite confused, and older editions speak of names from Wurm (1982), such as Mapi, Kia, Upper Digul, Upper Kaeme, which are names of language surveys along the rivers of those names, and may actually refer to Ok languages rather than to Awyu.

van den Heuvel & Fedden (2014) argue that Greater Awyu and Greater Ok are not genetically related, but that their similarities are due to intensive contact.[8]

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Reconstruction

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Quick Facts Proto-Digul River, Reconstruction of ...

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs "perhaps" 15 consonants and 8 vowels, as follows:[9]

More information Bilabial, Alveolar ...
More information Front, Central ...

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[9]

More information sg, pl ...

Ross (2005) reconstructs the pronouns of the Awyu–Dumut branch as follows:

More information sg, pl ...

The suffix *-p and the change of the final TNG *a vowel to *u do not appear in the possessive pronouns: *na, *ga, *ya/wa, *na-ga, *ga-ga, *ya-ga.

Basic vocabulary

Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2000)

The following selected reconstructions of Proto-Awyu-Dumut, Proto-Awyu, and Proto-Dumut by Voorhoeve are from Healey (1970)[10] and Voorhoeve (2000),[11] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[12]

More information gloss, Proto-Awyu-Dumut ...

Usher (2020)

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Digul River and lower-level reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[9]

More information gloss, Proto-Digul River ...
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Evolution

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Greater Awyu reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[6]

Wambon language:

  • maŋgot ‘teeth, mouth’ < *maŋgat[a]
  • (Wambon S.) kodok ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok[V]
  • mok ‘seed’ < *maŋgV
  • kotay ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
  • kondok ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC
  • kim- ‘die’ < *kumV-
  • kinum- ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)-
  • ok ‘water, river’ < *okV
  • enop ‘fire’ < *kendop
  • (ko)sep ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu
  • (Wambon N.) kumut ‘thunder’ < *kumut or *tumuk
  • ururuk ko- ‘to fly’ < *pululu

Mandobo Atas language:

  • am ‘breast’ < *amu
  • magot ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat[a]
  • koman ‘neck’ < *k(o,u)ma(n,ŋ)[V]
  • (a)moka ‘cheek’ < *mVkVm ‘cheek, jaw’
  • kere(top) ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]
  • betit ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C
  • kodok ‘foot, leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok[V]
  • otae ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
  • kiow ‘wind’ < *kumbutu
  • komöt ‘thunder’ < *kumut
  • üp ‘name’ < *imbi
  • kinum- ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)-
  • (ko)tep ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu
  • ok ‘water, river’ < *okV
  • apap ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta

Pisa language:

  • mugo ‘egg’ < *maŋgV, kiri
  • mogo ‘eye’ < *kiti-maŋgV
  • kifi ‘wind’ < *kumbutu
  • ise ‘mosquito’ < *kasin
  • apero ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta
  • kunu (ri-) ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)-
  • kekuŋ- ‘carry on the shoulder’ < *kak(i,u)-

Syiaxa language:

  • fi ‘name’ < *imbi
  • apa ‘butterfly’ < *apa([pa]pata
  • boro ‘to fly’ < *pululu
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References

Further reading

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