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Ramu Language
The Ramu languages are a family of some thirty languages of Northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by John Z'graggen in 1971 and linked with the Sepik languages by Donald Laycock two years later. Malcolm Ross (2005) classifies them as one branch of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family. Z'graggen had included the Yuat languages, but that now seems doubtful. With no comprehensive grammar yet available for any of the Ramu languages, the Ramu group remains one of the most poorly documented language groups in the Sepik-Ramu basin. Classification The small families listed below in boldface are clearly valid units. The first five, sometimes classified together as ''Lower Ramu,'' are relatable through lexical data, so their relationship is widely accepted. Languages of the Ottilien family share plural morphology with Nor–Pondo. Late 20th century Laycock (1973) included the Arafundi family, apparently impressionistically, but Arafundi is poorly known. Ross ...
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Ramu
The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries from the Bismarck Range to the south and the Finisterre and Adelbert. History For many millennia, people have lived along the river, and the river has formed the basis for food, transport, and culture. German exploration The area encompassed by the Ramu was part of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland when Germany established German New Guinea in 1884. The Germans were quick to explore their territory, and the mouth of the Ramu was discovered in 1886 by Vice-Admiral Freiherr von Schleinitz after returning to Finschhafen from an expedition to the nearby Sepik.Souter (1963) p. 73 Schleinitz called the Ramu, ''Ottilien'' after his ship the ''Ottilie''. The course of the river was first discovered 10 years later in 1896 after Dr Carl Lauterbach, a bot ...
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Malcolm Ross (linguist)
Malcolm David Ross (born 1942) is an Australian linguist. He is the emeritus professor of linguistics at the Australian National University. Ross is best known among linguists for his work on Austronesian and Papuan languages, historical linguistics, and language contact (especially metatypy). He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1996. Career Ross served as the Principal of Goroka Teachers College in Papua New Guinea from 1980 to 1982, during which time he self-statedly become interested in local languages, and began to collect data on them. In 1986, he received his PhD from the ANU under the supervision of Stephen Wurm, Bert Voorhoeve and Darrell Tryon. His dissertation was on the genealogy of the Oceanic languages of western Melanesia, and contained an early reconstruction of Proto Oceanic. Malcolm Ross introduced the concept of a linkage, a group of languages that evolves via dialect differentiation rather than by tree-like splits. ...
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Ap Ma Language
Kambot Ap Ma (Ap Ma Botin, Botin, also ''Karaube''), is a Keram language of Papua New Guinea. Compared to its nearest relative, Ambakich, Kambot drops the first segment from polysyllabic words. Kambot is spoken in Kambot village (), Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province. Classification Kambot was assigned to the Grass family within Ramu by Laycock and Z'graggen (1975). Foley (2005) finds the data does not support this assignment, but re-adds them to the Grass family in 2018. Foley and Ross (2005) agree that the language belongs to the Ramu – Lower Sepik family.Andrew Pawley, 2005, ''Papuan pasts'', p 56. Usher restores it to the Ramu family, but closer to the Mongol–Langam languages. Phonology Ap Ma consonants are: : Pronouns Foley (1986) proposed that Kambot had borrowed its pronouns from the Iatmul language of the Sepik family (Ndu languages The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. ''N ...
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Keram River Languages
The Keram languages of New Guinea are part of the Ramu family. They are the Mongol–Langam languages and a pair of languages sometimes thought to belong to the Grass family. (See Grass languages for the history of classification.) Foley (2018) classifies most of them in the Grass branch of the Ramu family, while Usher classifies them as coordinate with the Ramu family, leaving a reduced number of languages in the Grass branch. They are named for the Keram River. Languages *East Keram River ** Ambakich (Aion) ** Ap Ma (Kambot) *West Keram River ( Mongol–Langam) ** Mwakai (Mongol) ** Pondi (Langam) ** Ulwa (Yaul) Pronouns Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of East Keram and West Keram as follows:East Keram River
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Piawi Languages
The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and Madang languages. The name "Piawi" is an acronym of three language varieties: Pinai (Pinaye), Aramo/Aramaue (Hagahai) and Wiyaw (Harway/Waibuk). Pinai and Hagahai are often classified as a single language. Classification Piawi consists of only two languages: * Piawi family: Pinai-Hagahai, Haruai (Waibuk) Davies and Comrie (1985) noted some pronominal similarities with the Engan languages in Trans–New Guinea, which Ross took into consideration, but no lexical similarities. Comrie believes the family is as isolate. William A. Foley suggested that Piawi and Arafundi may be related (Comrie 1992), and according to Ross a connection with Arafundi or Ramu appears more promising than Engan. Timothy Usher confirms the link to Arafundi. Pro ...
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Arafundi Languages
The Arafundi languages are a small family of clearly related languages in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are conjectured to be related to the Piawi and Madang languages. They are named after the Arafundi River. Alfendio is an old synonym for ''Arafundi'', from when it was still considered a single language. Languages The Arafundi languages form a dialect continuum where language boundaries are blurred. The Arafundi languages are,Usher, Timothy (2020) New Guinea WorldArafundi River/ref> * Nanubae * Tapei * Andai (Meakambut) * Awiakay (Karamba) Kassell, et al. (2018) recognize Andai, Nanubae, and Tapei. Foley (2018) cites Hoenigman (2015) for 'Upper Arafundi' and 'Lower Arafundi', as well as listing Awiakay and 'Imboin'. However, the scope of these names is somewhat confused. Usher notes, An Enga-based pidgin is also used by speakers of Arafundi languages. Classification Laycock (1973) grouped the Arafundi languages with the Ramu languages, although (accord ...
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Mongol–Langam Languages
The Mongol–Langam, Koam, or Ulmapo languages are a language group of Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea belonging to the Ramu language family. Foley (2018) includes them within the Grass languages, but they were not included in Foley (2005). The Koam languages are spoken next to the Yuat languages, but two groups are unrelated. Names The name ''Koam'' is used by Foley (2018), while the name ''Ulmapo'' (coined from the first two letters of each of the three daughter languages) is used by Barlow (2018) and ''Glottolog'' 4.0. Languages According to Summer Institute of Linguistics data from 2003, the member languages had the following number of speakers: *Mongol (Mwakai), 340 speakers * Langam (Pondi), 420 speakers * Yaul (Ulwa), 1,210 speakers Classification Donald Laycock (1973) noted that the Mongol–Langam languages mark nouns for pluralisation, like the Lower Sepik languages (Nor–Pondo languages) and Yuat languages, and also that the lexicon also shows ...
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Annaberg Languages
The Middle Ramu or Annaberg languages are a small language family of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. It is no longer accepted as a valid grouping by Glottolog, but is accepted by Foley (2018). Wurm (1982) classified Aian, at his 'family' level, in a more distant ''stock''-level relationship with Rao (Annaberg): *Annaberg **'' Rao'' (Annaberg) **Aian family: Anor, Aiome The Annaberg family is generally classified among the Ramu languages of northern Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i .... References External links * Timothy Usher, New Guinea WorldProto–Middle Ramu River {{Ramu–Lower Sepik languages Ramu languages Languages of Madang Province ...
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Grass Languages
The Grass languages are a group of languages in the Ramu language family. It is accepted by Foley (2018), but not by Glottolog. They are spoken in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, with a small number of speakers also located just across the provincial border in Madang Province. External relationships Foley (2018) notes that Grass languages share very few lexical items with the other Ramu languages, with virtually no lexical cognates Banaro and Ap Ma. However, the Grass languages are still classified as Ramu due to widely shared morphosyntax and typology. Foley (2018: 205) leaves open the possibility of Grass being a third branch of the Lower Sepik-Ramu family, with Lower Sepik and Ramu being sister branches. Like the neighboring Yuat languages, Grass languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns, a feature not found in most other Papuan languages. This typological feature has diffused from Yuat into the Grass languages. Classifications Th ...
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Misegian Languages
The Misegian, also known as Mikarew or Ruboni Range languages, are a small family of clearly related languages, : Giri, Sepen, and Mikarew (Aruamu). They are generally classified among the Ramu languages of northern Papua New Guinea. The Misegian languages are all spoken in Yawar Rural LLG, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i .... Phonemes Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows: : : Pronouns Usher reconstructs the pronouns as: : As of 2020, these are tagged for revision. References External links * Timothy Usher, New Guinea WorldProto–Ruboni Range {{Ramu–Lower Sepik languages Lower Ramu languages Languages of Madang Province ...
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Ottilien Languages
The Ottilien or Watam-Awar-Gamay languages languages are a small family of clearly related languages, : Watam– Kaian, Gamei (Mbore), and Bosman–Awar. They are generally classified among the Ramu languages of northern Papua New Guinea. The Ottilien languages are all spoken in Yawar Rural LLG, in locations mostly along the coast of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Watam and Bosman share plural morphology with Lower Sepik (Nor–Pondo), supporting the Ramu – Lower Sepik language-family proposal. The family is named for the mouth of the Ottilien River, now known as the Ramu. Phonemes Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows: : : Pronouns Pronouns in proto-Watam-Awar-Gamay (proto-Ottilien) reconstructed by Foley (2005) are: : See also Lower Ramu languages#Pronouns. Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as: : Proto-Ottilien A phonological reconstruction of proto-Watam-Awar-Gamay (proto-Ottilien) has been proposed by Foley (2005). ;proto-W ...
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Nor–Pondo
The Lower Sepik a.k.a. Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-defunct 1973 Sepik–Ramu family. Classification The original conception of the family, under the name ''Nor–Pondo'', is as follows: Malcolm Ross (2005) broke up the Nor branch (and thus renamed the family ''Lower Sepik'') because Murik does not share the characteristic s of the first- and second-person pronouns of Kopar and the Pondo languages, so the latter may form a group: Murik vs Kopar–Pondo. Ross classified Lower Sepik as one branch of a Ramu–Lower Sepik language family. Foley (2005) tentatively proposes that Chambri and Angoram may be primary branches: Nor, Chambari, Karawari–Yimas, Angoram. Usher, following Foley, keeps Nor together and breaks up Pondo. Neither accept the connection to Ramu. Foley (2018) and Usher ( ...
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