Kambot Ap Ma (Ap Ma Botin, Botin, also ''Karaube''), is a
Keram language of
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 ...
. Compared to its nearest relative,
Ambakich, Kambot drops the first segment from polysyllabic words.
Kambot is spoken in Kambot village (),
Keram Rural LLG
Keram Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
Wards
*01. Chimundo
*02. Kambot
*03. Kambot
*04. Kambot
*05. Bobten
*06. Korokopa
*07. Pusyten
*08. Kekten
*09. Buten
*10. Yemen
*11. Manu
*12. Kambugu
* ...
,
East Sepik Province
East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size.
History
Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier ...
.
Classification
Kambot was assigned to the
Grass family
Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...
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 language family, family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. ''Ndu'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as ...
). His suggestion was that ''nyɨ'' 'I' (1sg), ''wɨn'' 'thou' (2sg), and ''nun'' 'ye' (2pl) are taken from Iatmul ''nyɨn'' 'thou', ''wɨn'' 'I', and ''nɨn'' 'we', with a crossover of person. That is, the Iatmul may have called the Kambot ''nyɨn'' "you", and they then used that pronoun for themselves, resulting in it meaning "I". However, Ross (2005) and Pawley (2005) show that the pronoun set has not been borrowed. The Kambot pronouns are indigenous, as they have apparent cognates in Ramu languages. Similarly, the Iatmul pronouns have not been borrowed from Kambot, as they have cognates in other Ndu languages.
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References
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{{Languages of Papua New Guinea
Keram languages
Languages of East Sepik Province
Language isolates of New Guinea