Proto-Admiralty Islands (also known as Proto-Admiralty or Proto-Admiralties and abbreviated as PAdm) is the
reconstructed ancestor of the
Admiralty Islands languages
The Admiralty Islands languages are a group of some thirty Oceanic languages spoken on the Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South ...
of the
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island.
These rainforest-co ...
, located in
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 ...
. It belongs to the
Oceanic
Oceanic may refer to:
*Of or relating to the ocean
*Of or relating to Oceania
**Oceanic climate
**Oceanic languages
**Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)"
Places
* Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...
branch of the
Austronesian languages.
It was reconstructed by
Robert Blust
Robert A. Blust (; ; May 9, 1940 – January 5, 2022) was an American linguist who worked in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Blus ...
in 1978 who showed that the languages form a subgroup within Oceanic.
[Blust, Robert. The Proto-Oceanic Palatals. ''JPS Monograph No. 43'' (p. 34). Auckland, New Zealand.] It was mentioned in detail by
Malcolm Ross in 1998, who theorized a link with the two
St. Matthias languages (
Mussau
Mussau Island is the largest island of St Matthias Islands, Papua New Guinea, at . It is currently part of the New Ireland Province of Papua New Guinea. The island is a noted Biodiversity hotspot with pristine primeval Rainforest
Rainforest ...
and
Tenis
Tenis (russian: Тенис), is a lake in the southern part of the West Siberian Plain, Omsk Oblast, south-central Russia.
The lake is an Important Bird Area, especially for the Dalmatian pelican, and is part of a protected area. The name is pr ...
).
Descendants
Proto-Admiralty Islands separated into two languages:
Proto-Eastern Admiralty and
Proto-Western Admiralty. Today, around thirty languages (see
Admiralty Islands languages
The Admiralty Islands languages are a group of some thirty Oceanic languages spoken on the Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South ...
) make up the Admiralty Islands subgroup of Oceanic. It has been theorized that
Yapese is a descendant or a sister language to Proto-Admiralty Islands.
Phonology
Consonants
The consonants of Proto-Admiralty Islands, according to Ross, are (parenthesis indicates an allophone):
:
*/*c/, like Proto-Oceanic, only occurs in word-medial position.
*
fis an allophone of /*p/ in word-medial position.
*/*ʀ/ was probably either
or
In the Eastern Admiralty languages, the reflex is usually
or sometimes
before /o/, while in the Western Admiralty languages, it disappears entirely.
*The voiced stops were probably prenasalized.
Innovations
Ross (1988) describes the innovations separating Proto-Admiralty Islands from Proto-Oceanic.
Phonologically, they are:
* Proto-Oceanic ''*R'' was lost before high vowels. For example, POc ''*Rumaq'' "house" became PAdm ''*um(a)'', but POc ''*Rapi'' "evening" > PAdm ''*(pa)Rafi''.
* Proto-Oceanic ''*p'' became ''*f'' word-medially. For example, POc ''*Ropok'' "to fly" became PAdm ''*Rof(o)''.
* Loss of all Proto-Oceanic word-final consonants, an innovation commonly found throughout Oceanic. For example, POc ''*boRok'' "pig" became PAdm ''*bou''.
Morphosyntactically, they are:
* Numeral classifiers are used in the sequence numeral + classifier (shared with Mussau), which forms a single word.
* "One" is used as a common article, both as an indefinite and definite article (also shared with Mussau).
* Proto-Oceanic non-singular possessive pronominal suffixes are lost and replaced by disjunctive pronouns.
* ''*-ña'' "third person singular possessive suffix" irregularly becomes ''*-na'' (Proto-Admiralty Islands did not merge ''*n'' and ''*ñ'', suchas POc ''*poñu'' "turtle" > PAdm ''*poñ(u)'').
* ''*kita'' "first person inclusive plural disjunctive" irregularly becomes ''*ta'' (for expected ''*ita'' with loss of the first vowel).
* Verb reduplication, which is used to form the continuative aspect, is lost. Daughter languages usually form the continuative aspect by adding the auxiliary verb meaning "to stay".
* Coalescence of the article ''*na'' with common nouns, resulting in changes to the initial consonant.
Further reading
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proto-Admiralty Islands language
*
Admiralty Islands
The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 18 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island.
These rainforest-co ...