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
Sepik languages
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have ...
of
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 ...
in northern
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 ...
. ''Ndu'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as a related family by Kirschbaum in 1922.
Along with the
Arapesh languages
The Arapesh languages are several closely related Torricelli languages of the 32,000 Arapesh people of Papua New Guinea. They are spoken in eastern Sandaun Province and northern East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.
The Arapesh languages are a ...
, Ndu languages are among the best documented languages in the
Sepik
The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Sepi ...
basin, with comprehensive grammars available for many languages.
A diagnostic innovative feature in the Ndu languages is the replacement of the proto-Sepik pronoun *wun ‘I’ with proto-Ndu *an ~ *na.
Languages
Abelam is the most populous language, with about 45,000 speakers, though Iatmül is better known to the outside world. There are eight to twelve Ndu languages; Usher (2020) counts nine:
*
Ngala
Ngala is a local government area of Borno State, Nigeria, adjacent to the border with Cameroon. Its headquarters are in the town of Gamboru Ngala.
It has an area of 1,465 km and a population of 237,071 at the 2006 census.
The postal code ...
Most Sepik and neighboring languages have systems of three
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s, , that are distinct only in
height
Height is measure of vertical distance, either vertical extent (how "tall" something or someone is) or vertical position (how "high" a point is).
For example, "The height of that building is 50 m" or "The height of an airplane in-flight is abou ...
. Phonetic are a result of palatal and labial assimilation of to adjacent consonants. The Ndu languages may take this reduction a step further: In these languages, is used as an
epenthetic
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek language, Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (''prothesis (linguistics), prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syll ...
vowel to break up
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s in
compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
s. Within words, only occurs between similar consonants, and seems to be explicable as epenthesis there as well, so that the only underlying vowels that need to be assumed are . That is, the Ndu languages may be a rare case of a two-vowel system, the others being the
Arrernte
Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia.
It may refer to:
* Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?)
* Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
and
Northwest Caucasian languages
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called West Caucasian, Abkhazo-Adyghean, Abkhazo-Circassian, Circassic, or sometimes ''Pontic languages'' (from the historical region of Pontus, in contrast to ''Caspian languages'' for the Northeast Cauc ...
. However, contrasting analyses of these same languages may posit a dozen vowel monophthongs.Gerd Jendraschek (2008 "The vowel system of Iatmul: emerging phonemes and unexpected contrasts"
For Ndu languages, the glottalized low vowel is often written as . This does not signify followed by a
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
and another .
Morphology
Ndu languages mark first and second person possessors with -''n'', and third person possessors with -''k''.
; Ambulas
:''wunɨ-nə mbalɨ''
:1SG-POSS pig
:‘my pig’
:''ndɨ-ku mbalɨ''
:3SG-POSS pig
:‘his pig’
; Manambu
:''wun-(n)a maːm''
:1SG-POSS older.sibling
:‘my elder sister’
:''ndɨ-kɨ-ndɨ yaːmb''
:3SG-POSS-M.SG road
:‘his road’
Ndu languages make use of the general
locative case
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
suffix -''mb'' (-''m'' in Manambu):
; Ambulas
:''kwalɨ kambɨlɨ-mbə''
:neck river LOC
:‘at the source of the river’
; Manambu
:''ŋgu-aːm''
:water-LINK.LOC
:‘in water’
Ndu languages have two dative-type case markers, with the forms and meanings varying across languages:
*-''t'' (-''r'' in Manambu):
allative
In grammar, the allative case (; abbreviated ; from Latin ''allāt-'', ''afferre'' "to bring to") is a type of locative grammatical case. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages that do not make finer ...
meaning (‘to’ or ‘toward’)
*-''k'':
benefactive
The benefactive case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g. "She opened the door ''for Tom''" or "This book is ''for Bob''". ...
(beneficiary or recipient) meaning
Examples of
dative case
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
markers in Ambulas and Manambu:
; Ambulas
:''ndu mbɨrɨ takwə mbɨr-ət''
:man PL woman PL-ALL
:‘toward the men and women’
:''ɲjɨmba yə-kwə ndu-kɨ''
:work do-PRS man-BEN
:‘for the men who work’
; Manambu
:''ar-aːr yi-tɨk''
:lake-LINK.ALL go-1DU.SBJ.IMP
:‘Let’s both go to the lake.’
:''a-ndɨ ɲɨnɨk''
:that-M.SG child.LINK.BEN
:‘for that child’
Dative case
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
markers are also used to mark animate objects of transitive verbs, which is a Sepik-Ramu
areal feature
In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a proto-language, or, common ancestor language. That is, an areal feature is contrasted to ...
allative case
In grammar, the allative case (; abbreviated ; from Latin ''allāt-'', ''afferre'' "to bring to") is a type of locative grammatical case. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages that do not make fine ...
Reconstructed proto-Ndu pronouns by Foley (2005):
:
Note that there is a gender distinction for first-person pronouns.
Lexicon
A phonological reconstruction of proto-Ndu has been proposed by Foley (2005). Lexical reconstructions from Foley (2005) are listed below. The homeland of proto-Ndu is located just upstream of
Ambunti
Ambunti is a town in Ambunti-Dreikikier District of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. It has a population of 2,110.
The town serves as a gateway to April Salome Forest Management Area.
;Proto-Ndu reconstructions by Foley (2005)
:
References
* William A. Foley (2005). "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik–Ramu basin." In: Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide and Jack Golson, eds, ''Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples''. Pacific Linguistics 572. 109-144. Canberra: Australian National University.
* Donald C. Laycock (1965). ''The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea)''. Pacific Linguistics C-1. Canberra: Australian National University.