The Tama languages are a small
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 three clusters of closely related languages of 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 ...
, spoken just to the south of
Nuku
Nuku was a traditional province of the island of Hiva Oa in pre-European times. It did not function as a unified governmental unit, but rather as a confederation of local tribes during times of war with tribes from Hiva Oa's other province, Pepan ...
town in eastern
Sandaun Province
Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capital is Vanimo. In July 1998 the a ...
. They are classified as subgroup 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 ...
. ''Tama'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group.
Yessan-Mayo and
Mehek are the best documented Tama languages.
Languages
Usher (2020) classifies the Tama languages as follows,
[Tama]
New Guinea World
;Tama
*Pasi–Yamano:
Ayi,
Pasi,
Yamano (Yessan-Mayo)
*Mehek–Pahi:
Pahi,
Mehek
*
Wogamus:
Wogamusin,
Chenapian
Foley (2018), following
Donald Laycock, provides the following classification.
;Tama
*
Kalou
*
Ayi
*
Pahi,
Mehek (
Makru)
*
Pasi,
Yessan-Mayo (
Yamano)
Kalou is actually related to
Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
.
[Amal–Kalou]
New Guinea World
Phonology
The Tama languages distinguish /r/ and /l/, unlike many other Papuan languages that have only one
liquid consonant.
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
:
References
*
{{Sepik languages
Middle Sepik languages