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Engan languages
Family of languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Engan languages, or more precisely Enga–Kewa–Huli or Enga – Southern Highland, are a small family of Papuan languages of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The two branches of the family are rather distantly related, but were connected by Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973).[1]
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Name
The name "Engan" is often restricted to the northern branch of the family, to those languages transparently related to Enga, but also sometimes to the family as a whole.
Languages
The languages fall into three quite distinct branches: Engan proper, Huli, and Southern Highlands:
Classification
The Engan family constitutes a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Wurm and of Malcolm Ross, but the evidence for this is weak.
Usher links the Engan and Chimbu languages in a Central New Guinea Highlands family.[2]
There are a considerable number of resemblances with Wiru. Borrowing has not been ruled out as the reason for this, though the pronouns are similar as well.
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[3]
*m *n *p *t *k *mb *nd *ŋg *w *l *j
Vowels are *i *e *a *o *u.
Pronouns
Pronouns are easy to reconstruct for the northern and southern branches, but much more difficult for Engan as a whole. Ross (2005) has the following for the singular, Wiru has been added for comparison:
Usher (2020) has not yet published reconstruction of Engan as a whole, but has done Engan proper:[4]
Vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Trans Enga (Proto-Engan) by Usher (2020) are:[3]
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Modern reflexes
The Enga-Kewa-Huli reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, if Engan languages are indeed members of the Trans-New Guinea family, are:[5]
Enga:
- mona ‘heart’ < *mundun
- yaka ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
- lyaŋa ‘ashes’ < *la(ŋ,k)a
- ŋaŋa ‘baby < *ŋaŋ(a)
- (m)ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
- kuri ‘bone’ < *kondaC
- kare ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]
- ne- ‘eat’ < *na
- apa(ne) ‘father’ < *apa
- iti ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
- endo ‘fire’ < *kend(o,u)p
- lema ‘louse’ < *niman
- kana ‘moon’ < *takVn[V]
- mana ‘instructions’ < *mana
- kitama ‘morning’ < *k(i,u)tuma
- kumi- ‘die’ < *kumV-
- re- ‘speak’ < *nde-
- maa ‘taro’ < *mV
- ita ‘tree’ < *inda
Huli:
- ega ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
- na- ‘eat’ < *na-
- aba ‘father’ < *apa
- iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
- ira ‘tree’ < *inda
- ma ‘taro’ < *mV
Kewa:
- ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
- ibi ‘name’ < *imbi
- iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
- uni ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC
- apu ‘tail’ < *a(mb,m)u
- lema ‘louse’ < *niman
- oma ‘die’ < *kumV-
- reka- ‘stand’ < *t(a,e)kV-
- la- ‘talk’ < *nde-
- maa ‘taro’ < *mV
- yaa ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
- am ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
- ap ‘father’ < *apa
- mbi ‘name’ < *imbi
- ome- ‘die’ < *kumV-
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Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Enga and Kewa from William A. Foley (1986). The pairs of words are not necessarily cognate.[6]
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References
Further reading
External links
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