Inland Gulf languages

The Inland Gulf languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005). The unity of the languages was established by K. Franklin in 1969. Although the family as a whole is clearly valid, Ipiko is quite distinct from the other languages.

Inland Gulf
Geographic distribution	New Guinea
Linguistic classification	Trans–New Guinea Anim (Fly River)[1] Inland Gulf
Subdivisions	Ipiko Minanibai
Language codes
Glottolog	inla1262
Map: The Inland Gulf languages of New Guinea   The Inland Gulf languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

Languages

• Inland Gulf family
  • Ipiko language
  • Minanibai branch: Minanibai (Foia Foia), Mubami (Tao), Ukusi-Koparamio Hoia Hoia – Matakaia Hoia Hoia

Karami was once included, due to a large number of loanwords from Minanibai, but is best left unclassified for now.

Mahigi is also included by Pawley and Hammarström (2018).^[2]

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[3]

*m	*n
*p	*t		*k
*b	*d		*g
*ɸ	*s
*w	[*ɾ]	*j	*ɣ̃

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.

Pronouns

The pronouns are:^[3]

	sg	pl
1	*no	*ni
2	*ɣ̃o	*jo
3m	*ete	*eti
3f	*etu

Evolution

Inland Gulf reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:^[2]

• Hoia Hoia, Mubami, Ipiko de ‘tree’ < *inda
• Hoia Hoia mo’noto, Ipiko manoto ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat[a] ‘mouth, teeth’
• Mubami mo’moʔo, Hoiahoia mo’mo:ko ‘seed’ < *maŋgV