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Kamula–Elevala languages

The Kamula–Elevala languages are a small family of the Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the region of the Elevala River.

Languages

There are three languages, namely Aekyowm (Awin), Pare (Pa), and Kamula. They are not obviously related to each other, but Aekyowm and Pare are closer to each other than to Kamula.

A more in-depth classification by Suter and Usher (2017) is as follows.

Kamula-Elevala family
  • Kamula [1,100 speakers in 2000]
  • Elevala (= Awin-Pare) family
  • Pa (= Pare, Ba, Debepare) [6,500 speakers in 2000]
  • Aekyom (= Awin, Akium) [21,100 speakers in 2000]
  • Northeastern (= Aekyom-Skai)
  • North Central
  • Southeastern (= Aekyom-Pare)
  • Western

Classification

Stephen Wurm (1975) added Awin and Pa to an expanded Central and South New Guinea branch of TNG, a position reversed by Ross (2005). The connection between Awin–Pa and Kamula was established by Suter & Usher.

Reconstruction

Phonology

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as follows:

There is also the diphthong *.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the Awin–Pa pronouns as:

In the 1du, Awin has /ki/ and Pare /ni/, /niki/, /nigi/. The Kamula singular forms are quite similar (na, wa, je), but it does not have the dual.

Vocabulary

Some Proto-Kamula-Elevala lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:

Below are all of the lexical reconstructions of Proto-Kamula-Elevala from Suter and Usher (2017):

Proto-Elevala

Proto-Elevala reconstructions from Suter and Usher (2017):

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970), Shaw (1973), and Shaw (1986), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. kɔ, kro for “bone”) or not (e.g. mɔgɔ, kɛndɔkɛ for “ear”). Notice the very low number of cognate pairs between the two languages.

Evolution

Proposed Awin–Pa reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:

Aekyom language:

  • kendoke ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k[V]
  • khatike ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)
  • ndok[V], kare ‘skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu
  • di ‘firewood, fire’ < *inda

Pa language:

  • keba ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu
  • ama ‘mother < *am(a,i)
  • di- ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)

Loanwords

Kamula and Doso

Loanwords between Kamula and Doso:

Aekyom and Ok

Aekyom loanwords from Ok languages:

Kamula and Aramia River

Kamula loanwords from Aramia River languages:

Kamula–Elevala and Awyu–Dumut

Potential cognates between Kamula–Elevala and Awyu–Dumut (Healey 1970):

Abbreviations
  • pAD = proto-Awyu–Dumut
  • pA = proto-Awyu
  • pD = proto-Dumut
  • pKE = proto-Kamula–Elevala
  • pK = proto-Kamula
  • pE = proto-Elevala

References

External links