The Ok languages are a family of about a dozen related
Trans–New Guinea languages
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia.
Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...
spoken in a contiguous area of eastern
Irian Jaya
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
and western
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 ...
. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known is probably Telefol.
The Ok languages have
dyadic kinship term Dyadic kinship terms (abbreviated or ) are kinship terms in a few languages that express the relationship between individuals as they relate one to the other. In English, there are a few set phrases for such situations, such as "they are father and ...
s.
[The Oksapmin Kinship System]
, retrieved May 21, 2009.
History of classification
The Ok languages are clearly related.
Alan Healey
Alan may refer to:
People
* Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname
* Alan (given name), an English given name
**List of people with given name Alan
''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.''
* ...
identified them as a family in 1962. He later noted connections with the
Asmat languages
Asmat is a Papuan language cluster of West New Guinea.
Languages
The principal varieties, distinct enough to be considered separate languages, are:
* Kamrau Bay (Sabakor):
*Casuarina Coast (Kaweinag), the most divergent
*North and Central Asmat ...
and
Awyu–Dumut families (Healey 1970).
Voorhoeve developed this into a
Central and South New Guinea (CSNG) proposal. As part of CSNG, the Ok languages form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea, a position tentatively maintained by
Malcolm Ross, though reduced nearly to Healey's original conception. Ross states that he cannot tell if the similarities in CSNG are shared innovations or retentions from
proto
Proto or PROTO may refer to:
Language
* Proto-, an English prefix meaning "first"
Media
* ''Proto'' (magazine), an American science magazine
* Radio Proto in Cyprus
Music
* ''Proto'' (Holly Herndon album), 2019
* ''Proto'' (Leo O'Kelly ...
-TNG. Voorhoeve argues specifically for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley believes that these two families may be closest to
Asmat among the TNG languages.
Loughnane and Fedden (2011)
claim to have demonstrated that the erstwhile TNG isolate
Oksapmin
Oksapmin is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Oksapmin Rural LLG, Telefomin District, Sandaun, Papua New Guinea.
The two principal dialects are distinct enough to cause some problems with mutual intelligibility.
Oksapmin has dyadic kins ...
is related to the Ok family. However, this has not been generally accepted because loans from Mountain Ok have not been accounted for.
Van den Heuvel & Fedden (2014) argue that Greater Awyu and Greater Ok are not genetically related, but that their similarities are due to intensive contact.
Languages
The languages are:
;Ok
* West Ok:
Kopkaka (incl.
Kwer–
Burumakok)
*
Ngalum
* Central Ok:
Tangko,
Nakai–
Naki
* Lowland Ok:
Iwur–
Koma,
Muyu Muyu may refer to:
* Muyu people, an indigenous ethnic group of Western New Guinea
**Muyu language
Muyu, Moyu,Zahrer, Alexander. 2019. ''First data of Moyu, a lowland Ok language of New Guinea''. 11th International Austronesian and Papuan Langua ...
–
Yonggom
Yonggom is one of the Ok languages of West Papua and Papua New Guinea. It is very close to North Muyu, which is also called 'Yonggom'.
Phonology
Consonants
* /b, d/ can become fricatives , ðintervocalically in fast speech.
* /k/ can ...
,
Ninggerum
* Mountain Ok (Min)
**
Mian (incl.
Suganga)
**Central Mountain Ok:
Tifal,
Telefol (incl. Urap)
**South Mountain Ok:
Bin,
Faiwol (incl. Kauwol, Setaman)
Reconstruction
Phonology
The following are consonants of Proto-Ok:
[NewGuineaWorld, Ok]
/ref>
Vowels may be /*i: *ʉ *u: *e *a *o/, but this reconstruction may be biased toward Telefol.
Pronouns
Healey & Ross reconstruct the pronouns of proto-Ok are as follows:
:
Usher (2020) reconstructs the independent pronouns as,[
:
and the subject suffixes as,
:
]
Evolution
Proto-Mountain Ok reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, as quoted by Pawley & Hammarström (2018) from Healey (1964):
* *beːn ‘arm’ < *mbena
* *mburuŋ ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C
* *katuun ‘knee’ < *(ng,k)atVk
* *maŋkat ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat * *gitak ‘neck’ < *k(a,e)ndak
* *kum ‘side of neck’ < *kuma(n,ŋ)
* *mutuum ‘nose’ < *mundu
* *falaŋ ‘tongue’ < *mbilaŋ
* *kaliim ‘moon’ < *kal(a,i)m
Lexicon
Usher (2020)
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[
:
]
Loughnane and Fedden (2011)
Proto-Ok-Oksapmin reconstructions from Loughnane and Fedden (2011):
:
Further reading
Proto-Ok-Oksapmin
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Loughnane, R. & Fedden, S. 2011. Is Oksapmin Ok?—A Study of the Genetic Relationship between Oksapmin and the Ok Languages. ''Australian Journal of Linguistics'' 31:1, 1-42.
References
;Citations
;Sources
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Digul River – Ok
* (ibid.
Proto-Ok
(see also reconstructions of individual branches)
*Healey, Alan. (1964)
The Ok Language Family in New Guinea
*Steer, Martin. (2005)
Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ok-Oksapmin languages
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Languages of western New Guinea
Awyu–Ok languages