The Sogeram languages are a
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 languages in the
Madang stock of New Guinea. They are named after the
Sogeram River
Sogeram River is a river in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. It empties into the Ramu River
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 ...
.
[Usher, Timothy. 2020]
Sogeram River
''New Guinea World''.
In earlier classifications, such as that of Wurm, most of the Sogeram family were called "Wanang", after the
Wanang River. The exceptions were Faita, placed as a separate branch of the Southern Adelbert languages, and Mum–Sirva (then called the "Sikan" family), which were classified with the other branch, Josephstaal (
Tomul River).
Languages
Daniels (2016) classifies the Sogeram languages in three branches, including some recently documented languages.
[Daniels, Don. 2016. Magɨ: An undocumented language of Papua New Guinea. '']Oceanic Linguistics
''Oceanic Linguistics'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on the indigenous languages of the Oceanic area and parts of Southeast Asia, including the indigenous Australian languages, the Papuan languages of New Guinea, ...
'' 55: 199-224.
;Sogeram
*West Sogeram
**
Mand
**
Nend
*Central Segeram
**
Manat
**
Apalɨ
**North Central Sogeram (Sikan):
Mum,
Sirva
SIRVA, Inc. (formerly Allied Worldwide), based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, is a privately owned American moving industry holding company which resulted from the merger of Allied Van Lines with North American Van Lines. The corporate name wa ...
*"East" Sogeram
**
Gants
**
Kursav
**Aisian:
Magɨ,
Aisi
Daniels (2017), following Pawley, resolves the issue of
Gants by classifying it as East Sogeram, closest to Kursav though he refrains from claiming the two languages form a clade. He notes that the name "East Sogeram" is no longer geographically appropriate, as Gants would be the westernmost Sogeram language.
[Daniels, Don. 2017. Gants is a Sogeram Language. ''Language and Linguistics in Melanesia'' 35: 82-93.]
Recently discovered
Magɨyi may also be a Sogeram language, with the forms of identified cognates closest to Mum.
ISO code request 2013-029
/ref>
Because these languages form a chain
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...
, where each influences its neighbors, the branching of the family is not clear. Usher divides the languages in nearly the same way, differing only in the placement of Manat:[
* Sogeram River
**West Sogeram River
***Atemple–Nend: Atemble (Atemple, Mand), Nend (Angaua)
*** Paynamar (Manat)
**Central Sogeram River
*** Apali (Emerum)
*** Mum–Sirva: Mum (Katiati), Sileibi (Sirva)
**South Sogeram River
*** Faita (Kulsab/Kursav)
*** Gants
*** Musak (Aisi)
]
Names
Below are Sogeram language names in Daniels (2015) compared to names listed in Z'graggen (1975), along with their respective meanings.[Z'graggen, John A. 1975. ''The Languages of the Madang District, Papua New Guinea''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.]
Proto-language
A phonological reconstruction
Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include:
# to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages
# ...
of Proto-Sogeram has been proposed by Daniels (2015).[Daniels, Don. 2015. ''A Reconstruction of Proto-Sogeram Phonology, Lexicon, and Morphosyntax''. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara.]
Phonology
Proto-Sogeram phonemic inventory according to Daniels (2015):
Pronouns
Daniels (2017) reconstructs the pronouns as follows:[
Compare Ross's proto-Madang singular pronouns *ya, *na, *nu/*ua.
]
Lexicon
Selected lexical reconstructions from Daniels (2015) are listed below.
Comparisons
The following is a comparative table of reconstructed forms in Proto-Sogeram and Proto- Northern Adelbert.
References
Further reading
*Daniels, Don. 2010. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 49(1), 163–193.
*Daniels, Don. 2015. ''A Reconstruction of Proto-Sogeram Phonology, Lexicon, and Morphosyntax''. Doctoral dissertation. University of California, Santa Barbara.
*Daniels, Don. 2020. ''Grammatical reconstruction: The Sogeram languages of New Guinea''. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
;Online word lists
Proto-Sogeram
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Daniels, D. 2010. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 49, 163-193.
Proto-Central-Sogeram
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Daniels, D. 2010. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 49, 163-193.
Proto-Eastern-Sogeram
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Daniels, D. 2010. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 49, 163-193.
Proto-Western-Sogeram
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Daniels, D. 2010. A preliminary phonological history of the Sogeram languages of Papua New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 49, 163-193.
{{Madang languages
Southern Adelbert languages