History
The Awyu (pronounced like English ''Ow you'') and Awyu–Dumut families were identified by Peter Drabbe in the 1950s. Voorhoeve included them in his proposed Central and South New Guinea group. As part of Central and South New Guinea, they form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea.Classification
The classification below is based on Usher and de Vries et al. (2012), who used morphological innovations to determine relatedness, which can be obscured by lexical loanwords. * Sawi (Sawuy) *Awyu–Dumut (Central Digul River) ** Awyu languages: Aghu (Jair), Shiaxa (Jenimu, Edera), Pisa (Asuwe) **Ndeiram–Ndumut *** Dumut (Wambon) branch: Mandobo (Kaeti, Dumut), Wambon *** Ndeiram River: Kombai–Wanggom *North Digul River ** Awbono-Bayono **Becking–Dawi *** Dawi River: Komyandaret, Tsaukambo *** Becking River: Korowai Sawi is classified on pronominal data, as the morphological data used for the rest of the family is not available. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) exclude Awbono-Bayono, treating it as a separate family. Various other languages can be found in the literature. Ario (Sumagaxe) is listed in Wurm, Foley, etc., but not in the University of Amsterdam survey and has been dropped by ''Ethnologue''. ''Ethnologue'' lists a 'Central Awyu', but this is not attested as a distinct language (U. Amsterdam). In general, the names in ''Ethnologue'' are quite confused, and older editions speak of names from Wurm (1982), such as ''Mapi, Kia, Upper Digul, Upper Kaeme'', which are names of language surveys along the rivers of those names, and may actually refer toReconstruction
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs "perhaps" 15 consonants and 8 vowels, as follows:New Guinea WorldPronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as: : Ross (2005) reconstructs the pronouns of the Awyu–Dumut branch as follows: : The suffix *-p and the change of the final TNG *a vowel to *u do not appear in the possessive pronouns: ''*na, *ga, *ya/wa, *na-ga, *ga-ga, *ya-ga''.Basic vocabulary
Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2000)
The following selected reconstructions of Proto-Awyu-Dumut, Proto-Awyu, and Proto-Dumut by Voorhoeve are from Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2000), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :Usher (2020)
Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Digul River and lower-level reconstructions by Usher (2020) are: :Evolution
Greater Awyu reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: Wambon language: *''maŋgot'' ‘teeth, mouth’ < *maŋgat *(Wambon S.) ''kodok'' ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok *''mok'' ‘seed’ < *maŋgV *''kotay'' ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu *''kondok'' ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC *''kim-'' ‘die’ < *kumV- *''kinum-'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''ok'' ‘water, river’ < *okV *''enop'' ‘fire’ < *kendop *''(ko)sep'' ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu *(Wambon N.) ''kumut'' ‘thunder’ < *kumut or *tumuk *''ururuk ko-'' ‘to fly’ < *pululu Mandobo Atas language: *''am'' ‘breast’ < *amu *''magot'' ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat *''koman'' ‘neck’ < *k(o,u)ma(n,ŋ) *''(a)moka'' ‘cheek’ < *mVkVm ‘cheek, jaw’ *''kere(top)'' ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V] *''betit'' ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C *''kodok'' ‘foot, leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok *''otae'' ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu *''kiow'' ‘wind’ < *kumbutu *''komöt'' ‘thunder’ < *kumut *''üp'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''kinum-'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''(ko)tep'' ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu *''ok'' ‘water, river’ < *okV *''apap'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta Pisa language: *''mugo'' ‘egg’ < *maŋgV, kiri *''mogo'' ‘eye’ < *kiti-maŋgV *''kifi'' ‘wind’ < *kumbutu *''ise'' ‘mosquito’ < *kasin *''apero'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta *''kunu (ri-)'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''kekuŋ-'' ‘carry on the shoulder’ < *kak(i,u)- Syiaxa language: *''fi'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''apa'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa( aata *''boro'' ‘to fly’ < *pululuReferences
Further reading
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