The Mongol–Langam, Koam, or Ulmapo languages are a language group of

Keram Rural LLG Keram Rural LLG is a local-level government (LLG) of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Wards *01. Chimundo *02. Kambot *03. Kambot *04. Kambot *05. Bobten *06. Korokopa *07. Pusyten *08. Kekten *09. Buten *10. Yemen *11. Manu *12. Kambugu * ...

East Sepik Province East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size. History Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier ...

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 ...

belonging to 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. Foley (2018) includes them within the

Grass languages The Grass languages are a group of languages in the Ramu language family. It is accepted by Foley (2018), but not by Glottolog. They are spoken in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, with a small number of speakers also located just across th ...

, but they were not included in Foley (2005). The Koam languages are spoken next to the

Yuat languages The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm' ...

, but two groups are unrelated.

Names

The name ''Koam'' is used by Foley (2018), while the name ''Ulmapo'' (coined from the first two letters of each of the three daughter languages) is used by Barlow (2018) and ''Glottolog'' 4.0.

Languages

According to

Summer Institute of Linguistics SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics) is an evangelical Christian non-profit organization whose main purpose is to study, develop and document languages, especially those that are lesser-known, in order to ex ...

data from 2003, the member languages had the following number of speakers: *

Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member of ...

(Mwakai), 340 speakers * Langam (Pondi), 420 speakers * Yaul (Ulwa), 1,210 speakers

Classification

Donald Laycock Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of Papua New Guinea. Biography He was a graduate of University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and later ...

(1973) noted that the Mongol–Langam languages mark nouns for

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

isation, like the

Lower Sepik languages The Lower Sepik a.k.a. Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-d ...

(Nor–Pondo languages) and

, and also that the lexicon also shows many resemblances to Yuat languages, while pronouns are similar to the Grass (Keram) languages (Ramu). Malcolm Ross (2005) accepts them as

Ramu languages The Ramu languages are a family of some thirty languages of Northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by John Z'graggen in 1971 and linked with the Sepik languages by Donald Laycock two years later. Malcolm Ross (2005) classifi ...

based on their pronouns. With additional data from recent research, Usher confirms their position in the Keram branch of the Ramu family.West Keram River – NewGuineaWorld
/ref>

Notes

References

* * *

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–West Keram River
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mongol-Langam languages Languages of East Sepik Province Keram languages