Uhunduni, also known as Damal (''Damal-kal'') and Amung (''Amung-kal'') after two of its dialects, is the language of the
Amung people and
Damal people
The Damal or Damalme are a group of people living in the highlands of the Central Papua province of Indonesia. They primarily live in Beoga Valley along the river of Beogong. The Damal people are closely related with Delem people, and with Amu ...
. It is a
Trans–New Guinea language that forms an independent branch of that family in the classification of
Malcolm Ross (2005). However, it is treated as an isolate by Palmer (2018).
Dialects are Amongme, Amung, Damal, Enggipilu.
Classification
Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Uhunduni to be classified as part of
Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between Uhunduni and
proto-Trans-New Guinea.
*''no''- ‘eat’ < *na-
*''mo''- come’ < *me-
*''mini''- ‘sit’ < *mVna-
*''eme''- ‘give’ < *mV-
Pronouns
Ross (2005) lists the pronouns as:
:
''Iru'' is an inclusive dual.
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words of Damal (Uhunduni) are from the Trans-New Guinea database, citing Voorhoeve (1975).
[Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. ''Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.]
:
Literature
The
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...
in Damal was published in 1988.
*Damal people and CMA. 1988. ''Haik-A Ongam Kal: Perjanjian Baru Dalam Bahasa Damal
aik-A Ongam Kal: The New Testament in Damal'. Jakarta: Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia.
References
{{Papuan languages
Amung–Dem languages
Languages of western New Guinea