Languages
Yelmek is spoken west of Merauke, between the Digul River and Mbian River, (from north to south) in the villages of Wanam, Bibikem, Woboyo, and Dodalim. Maklew is spoken in Welbuti village. The former two villages are located in Ilwayab subdistrict, and the latter three in Tubang subdistrict.Classification
The two languages are transparently related. Ross (2005) tentatively included them in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family, but Usher, who reconstructs that family, does not connect Bulaka River to any other language family.New Guinea World: Bulaka RiverProto-language
Phonology
Usher (2014) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows. Although the modern inventories of Yelmek and Maklew are nearly identical, the lack of a one-to-one correspondence between them suggests the ancestral inventory was somewhat larger. Usher posits a series of palatal consonants *ɲ *c *ɟ to handle the correspondences of alveolar in Yelmek with velar in Maklew (n~ŋ, t~k, d~g), plus *j for j~s, *w for w~h, *ɣ̃ for ŋ~h, and *s for t~s (found in loans). : :Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as: :Lexicon
Proto-Bulaka River lexical reconstructions by Usher (2014) are:Usher, Timothy. 2014.References
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World