The East Strickland or Strickland River languages are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...
.
Languages
The East Strickland languages actually form a
language continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between language ...
.
Shaw (1986) recognizes six languages, which are:
*Upper:
Fembe (Agala),
Konai
*
Odoodee (Tomu)
*Central/Middle:
Gobasi (Nomad),
Kubo,
Samo
Samo (–) founded the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samo's Empire (''realm'', ''kingdom'', or ''tribal union''), stretching from Silesia to present-day Slovakia, ruling from 623 until his death in 658. According to ...
(Daba)
Gobasi, Odoodee and Samo, but especially Gobasi, are also known as "Nomad".
Pronouns
Pronouns are:
:
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970), Shaw (1973), and Shaw (1986), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
Evolution
Supposed East Strickland reflexes of
proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:
:
*''(da)subu'' ‘ashes’ < *sumbu
*''si''- ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)-
*''na''- ‘eat’ < *na-
*''magara'' ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat
*''korofu'' ‘skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(n,t)apu
*''mere(ma)'' ‘tongue’ < *me(l,n)e
*''mini'' ‘nose’ < *mundu
Bibo language:
*''(da)suf'' ‘ashes’ < *sumbu
Agala language:
*''fulu(ma) ali'' ‘to fly’ < *pululu-
References
*
{{Languages of Papua New Guinea
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Strickland–Soari languages