The Lower Ramu or Ottilien–Misegian languages consist of two branches in the
Ramu
The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea.
Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...
language family. They are all spoken in
Yawar Rural LLG,
Madang Province,
Papua New Guinea.
Classification
The Lower Ramu languages as classified by Usher and by Foley (2018) are:
[Timothy Usher, New Guinea World]
Lower Ramu River
/ref>Ottilien languages
The Ottilien or Watam-Awar-Gamay languages languages are a small family of clearly related languages,
: Watam– Kaian, Gamei (Mbore), and Bosman–Awar.
They are generally classified among the Ramu languages of northern Papua New Guinea.
Th ...
**Watam
Marangis a.k.a. Watam is a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea. Like Bosmun, it shares a number of irregular plural markers with the Lower Sepik languages, supporting the proposal of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family.
It is spoken in the t ...
, Kaian
Kaian (Kayan) is a Ramu language of Kaian village () in Yawar Rural LLG, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New ...
** Gamay ( Borei)
** Bosmun, Awar
* Misegian languages (Ruboni languages)
** Mikarew ( Aruamu)
** Sepen, Kirei
Lower Ramu as presented in Foley (2018) has been reduced in scope from the classification given in Foley (2005), which is as follows.Watam
Marangis a.k.a. Watam is a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea. Like Bosmun, it shares a number of irregular plural markers with the Lower Sepik languages, supporting the proposal of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family.
It is spoken in the t ...
, Kaian
Kaian (Kayan) is a Ramu language of Kaian village () in Yawar Rural LLG, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New ...
** Gamay
** Bosmun, Awar
* Mikarew- Kire (MK) = Misegian (Ruboni)
* Tangu, Igom
The Ataitan languages
The Ataitan languages, also known as the Tanggu or Moam River languages, are a small family of clearly related languages spoken in the region of the Moam River in Papua New Guinea. They are,
* Andarum (Kaje)
* Tanguat
* Igom + Tangu (Tanggu)
...
, including Tangu and Igom, are not included in Foley (2018).
Pronouns
Tentative proto-Lower Ramu pronoun reconstructions by Foley (2005) are:
Cognates
Like cognates between proto- Lower Sepik and proto-Lower Ramu listed by Foley (2005) are:
References
*
Further reading
*Paris, Brian. 2015.
A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Lower Ramu Languages of Papua New Guinea
'. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2015-009.
{{Ramu–Lower Sepik languages
Ramu languages