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Gogodala–Suki languages

The Gogodala–Suki or Suki – Aramia River languages are a small language family of Papua New Guinea, spoken in the region of the Aramia River.

Languages

The languages are:

Gogodala–Suki languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.

Proto-language

Phonology

The reconstructed sound system is,

It is unclear if there were phonemes *w or *j distinct from *u and *i.

Pronouns

( and is zero.)

Lexicon

Proto-Suki–Aramia (i.e., Proto-Gogodala–Suki) lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970), Voorhoeve (1970), and Reesink (1976), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. atogi, ato, atu for “woman”) or not (e.g. mɛnəpila, poso, tamki for “tooth”).

Evolution

Gogodalic-Suki formed a branch of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross. Possible reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:

Gogodala language:

  • omo ‘breast’ < *amu
  • magata ‘mouth, jaw’ < *maŋgat[a]
  • mele-pila ‘tongue’ < *mele-mbilaŋ
  • imu ‘eye’ < *(ŋg,k)amu
  • mi ‘louse’ < *iman, *niman
  • kadepa ‘sun’ < *kand(a,e)pa
  • ila ‘tree, fire’ < *inda
  • na- ‘eat’ < *na-
  • mana- ‘sit, stay’ < *mVna-

Suki language:

  • gigoa ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a
  • na- ‘eat’ < *na-

References

Further reading

  • Reesink, G.P. "Languages of the Aramia River Area". In Reesink, G.P., Fleischmann, L., Turpeinen, S. and Lincoln, P.C. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 19. A-45:1-38. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1976.

External links