The Karkar language, also known as Yuri, is the sole Eastern Pauwasi language of

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 ...

. There are about a thousand speakers along the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n border spoken in

Green River Rural LLG Green River Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is located along the border with Keerom Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia. Rivers Rivers that flow through the LLG include the Samaia River. La ...

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capital is Vanimo. In July 1998 the a ...

Writing system

Dialects

Dialects are: *''North Central Yuri'' dialect, spoken in Yuri village (), Abaru ward,

*''Auia-Tarauwi'' dialect, spoken in Auia (Auiya) village (), Auiya 1 ward, Green River Rural LLG; and in Tarauwi (Trowari) village (), Kambriap ward, Green River Rural LLG *''Usari'' dialect, spoken in Usari village (), Auiya 1 ward, Green River Rural LLG

Classification

Karkar-Yuri is not related to any other language in Papua New Guinea, and was therefore long thought to be a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

. This is the position of Wurm (1983), Foley (1986), and Ross (2005). However, Timothy Usher noticed that it is transparently related to the Pauwasi languages across the border in Indonesia. Indeed, it may even form a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

with the Eastern Pauwasi language

Emem Minimal Essential Medium (MEM) is a synthetic cell culture medium developed by Harry Eagle first published in 1959 in ''Science'' that can be used to maintain cells in tissue culture. It is based on 6 salts and glucose described in Earle's salts ...

. This was foreshadowed in non-linguistic literature: a 1940 map shows the 'Enam' (Emem)–speaking area as including the Karkar territory in PNG, and the anthropologist Hanns Peter knew that the Karkar dialect continuum continued across the border into Emem territory.

Pauwasi cognates

Cognates between Karkar-Yuri and the Pauwasi family ( Tebi and Zorop languages) listed by Foley (2018): :

Pronouns

Pronouns listed by Ross (2005): Object forms take ''-an'', sometimes replacing the ''-o'': ''onan, amoan, man, yinan, námoan, yumoan.'' ''Mao'' is a demonstrative 'that one, those'; it contrasts with ''nko, nkoan'' 'the other one(s)'. Pronouns listed by Foley (2018) are: :

Phonology

The Karkar inventory is as follows.Dorothy Price, 1993. ''Organised Phonology Data: Karkar-Yuri Language UJ Green River – Sandaun Province Stress assignment is complex, but not phonemic within morphemes. Syllable structure is CVC, assuming nasal–plosive sequences are analyzed as prenasalized consonants.

Vowels

Karkar has a vowel inventory consisting of 11 vowels, which is considered very high for a Papuan language. There is also one

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...

, ''ao'' . Vowels are written ''á'' , ''é'' , ''ae'' , ''o'' , ''ou'' , ''ɨ'' . Foley (2018) lists the 11 Karkar-Yuri vowels as: Some vowel height contrasts in Karkar-Yuri (Foley 2018): *''ki'' ‘yam’ *''kɨ'' ‘loosen’ *''ku'' ‘cut crosswise in half’ *''ke'' ‘edible nut’ *''kər'' ‘put in netbag’ *''ko'' ‘pig’ *''kæ'' ‘egg’ *''kʌʔr'' ‘swamp’ *''kɔ'' ‘again’ *''kar'' ‘speech’ *''kɒ'' ‘bird species’ There are four contrasting central vowel heights: *''kɨr'' ‘ red bird of paradise’ (''Paradisaea rubra'') *''kər'' ‘put in net bag’ *''kʌʔr'' ‘swamp’ *''kar'' ‘speech’

Consonants

The rhotics and glottal(ized) consonants do not appear initially in a word, and plain , the approximants, and the labialized consonants do not occur finally. Glottal stop only occurs finally. Final ''k'' spirantizes to . Plosives are voiced intervocalically. Intervocalic ''f'' and ''p'' neutralize to (apart from a few names, where is retained), and intervocalic ''k'' is voiced to . Phonemic labialized stops only occur in two words, ''apwar'' 'weeds, to weed' and ''ankwap'' 'another'. Otherwise consonants are labialized between a rounded and a front vowel, as in ''pok-ea'' 'going up'. In some words, the plosive of a final NC is silent unless suffixed: ''onomp'' 'my', ''onompono'' 'it's mine'. Prenasalized and labialized consonant contrasts: *''pi'' ‘bird tail’, ''pwi'' ‘enough’, ''mporan'' ‘tomorrow’ *''kar'' ‘voice’, ''ŋkɔte'' ‘over there’, ''kwar'' ‘ground’, ''ŋkwakwo'' ‘many kinds’ Plain and preglottalized sonorants contrasts, which only occur in word finals: *''ərər'' ‘sore’, ''ərəʔr'' ‘dig a hole’ *''pan'' ‘sago flour’, ''pəʔn'' ‘blunt’

Basic vocabulary

Below are some basic vocabulary words in Karkar-Yuri. :

References

{{Languages of Papua New Guinea East Pauwasi languages Languages of Sandaun Province