Karami is an extinct and unclassified

Papuan language 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 ...

of southern

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 ...

. It is attested from only a short word list, which include many loans from Foia Foia.Usher, Timothy
Inland Gulf family
''New Guinea World''.

Locations

According to Flint (1919: 96), from which the only existing word list of Karami is available, Karami was spoken in the villages of Kikimairi and Aduahai, both located near

Daru Daru is the capital of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea and a former Catholic bishopric. Daru town falls under the jurisdiction of Daru Urban LLG. The township is entirely located on an island that goes by the same name, which is loca ...

Station, "on the right-hand side (in the bush) of left branch of the

Turama River The Turama River is a river of Papua New Guinea. Approximately 10 miles (16 km) wide at the mouth, with a total length of , it narrows rapidly. This, combined with its location at the head of the Gulf of Papua, results in tidal bores sweeping up th ...

, Western Division, Papua."

Classification

Although Franklin (1968; 1973: 269-273) classifies Karami as an Inland Gulf language,Franklin, Karl J. 1973. Other language groups in the Gulf District and adjacent areas. In ''The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea'', ed. by Karl J. Franklin, 263‒77. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Usher and Suter (2015: 125) do not consider it to be part of the

Anim languages The Anim or Fly River languages are a language family in south-central New Guinea established by Usher & Suter (2015).Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter (2015) "The Anim Languages of Southern New Guinea". ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 54:110–142 The name ...

, noting that there are many loanwords from Foia Foia.Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter (2015) "The Anim Languages of Southern New Guinea". ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 54:110–142 Pawley and Hammarström (2018) treat Karami as a 'language isolate', though this is the wording used for languages that are not easily classified.

Vocabulary

Below is the word list of Karami from Flint (1919), which was recorded on October 12, 1917.Flint, L. A. 1919. Vocabularies: Daru station, Western Division. Papua. ''Annual Report for the Year 1917‒18'', 96. The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. :

References

{{Papuan languages Unclassified languages of New Guinea Papuan languages Languages of Southern Region (Papua New Guinea)