The Kamula–Elevala languages are a small
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 the
Trans–New Guinea languages
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia.
Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...
spoken in the region of the
Elevala River
The Elevala River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. Elevala Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated 2011-07-09; database downloaded 2015-06-22
See also
*List of rivers of Papua New Guinea This is a list of rivers of Papua New Guinea ...
.
Languages
There are three languages, namely
Aekyowm (Awin),
Pare
Pare may refer to:
People with the name
* Emmett Paré (1907-1973), tennis player
* Pare, former member of Kotak, an Indonesian band
* Pare Lorentz (1905-1992), American film director
* Richard Pare (born 1948), English photographer
* Paré, a ...
(Pa), and
Kamula
Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.
Demographics
...
. They are not obviously related to each other, but Aekyowm and Pare are closer to each other than to Kamula.
*
Kamula
Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.
Demographics
...
*Awin–Pa (
Elevala River
The Elevala River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. Elevala Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated 2011-07-09; database downloaded 2015-06-22
See also
*List of rivers of Papua New Guinea This is a list of rivers of Papua New Guinea ...
)
**
Aekyowm (Awin)
**
Pare
Pare may refer to:
People with the name
* Emmett Paré (1907-1973), tennis player
* Pare, former member of Kotak, an Indonesian band
* Pare Lorentz (1905-1992), American film director
* Richard Pare (born 1948), English photographer
* Paré, a ...
(Pa)
A more in-depth classification by Suter and Usher (2017) is as follows.
;Kamula-Elevala family
*
Kamula
Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.
Demographics
...
,100 speakers in 2000*Elevala (= Awin-Pare) family
**
Pa (= Pare, Ba, Debepare)
,500 speakers in 2000**
Aekyom (= Awin, Akium)
1,100 speakers in 2000***Northeastern (= Aekyom-Skai)
***North Central
***Southeastern (= Aekyom-Pare)
***Western
Classification
Stephen Wurm (1975) added Awin and Pa to an expanded
Central and South New Guinea branch of TNG, a position reversed by Ross (2005). The connection between Awin–Pa and Kamula was established by Suter & Usher.
Reconstruction
Phonology
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as follows:
[
:
:
There is also the diphthong *ai.
]
Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the Awin–Pa pronouns as:[
:
In the 1du, Awin has /ki/ and Pare /ni/, /niki/, /nigi/. The Kamula singular forms are quite similar (na, wa, je), but it does not have the dual.
]
Vocabulary
Some Proto-Kamula-Elevala lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[
:
Below are all of the lexical reconstructions of Proto-Kamula-Elevala from Suter and Usher (2017):]
Proto-Elevala
Proto-Elevala reconstructions from Suter and Usher (2017):
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
Proposed Awin–Pa reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:Pa language
Pa, also known as Pare or ''Akium-Pare'', is a Papuan language of Western (Fly) Province, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New ...
:
*''keba'' ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu
*''ama'' ‘mother < *am(a,i)
*''di''- ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)
Loanwords
Kamula and Doso
Loanwords between Kamula and Doso:
Aekyom and Ok
Aekyom loanwords from Ok languages
The Ok languages are a family of about a dozen related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known i ...
:
Kamula and Aramia River
Kamula loanwords from Aramia River languages:
Kamula–Elevala and Awyu–Dumut
Potential cognates between Kamula–Elevala and Awyu–Dumut (Healey 1970[Healey, Alan 1970. Proto-Awyu-Dumut phonology. In: Stephen A. Wurm and Donald C. Laycock (eds). ''Pacific Linguistic studies in honour of Arthur Capell''. (PL C-13). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 997-1063.]):
References
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Digul River – Ok
* Usher & Suter
Proto–Kamula – Elevala River
{{DEFAULTSORT:Awin-Pa languages
Languages of Western Province (Papua New Guinea)