Kwomtari languages
Encyclopedia
The Kwomtari languages are a small language family
of Papua New Guinea
.
There has been confusion over the membership of the Kwomtari family, apparently due to a misalignment in the publication (Loving & Bass 1964) of the data used for the initial classification. (See Baron 1983.) The Kwomtari languages are generally classified as part of a larger as yet unproven Kwomtari–Fas family, which confusingly is also often called "Kwomtari" in the literature. However, Baron sees no evidence that the similarities are due to relationship. See Kwomtari–Fas languages for details.
Guriaso shares a small number of cognates with Kwomtari–Nai. However, the evidence is convincing once a correspondence between /ɾ~l/ and /n/ (from *ɾ) is established:
* Compare Biaka -ɾo, -mo, -na.
** Metathesis
of /p/ and /t/.
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
.
Classification
The family consists of the highly divergent language Guriaso, and the two closely related languages Kwomtari and Nai:- Kwomtari stock
- GuriasoGuriaso languageGuriaso is a language of Papua New Guinea. Only described in 1983, it is distantly related to the Kwomtari and Nai languages....
- Kwomtari–Nai family (Nuclear Kwomtari)
- KwomtariKwomtari languageKwomtari is the eponymous language of the Kwomtari family of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in six villages in Amanab District, Sandaun Province....
- NaiNai languageNai or Biaka is a language of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Amanab District, Sandaun Province, in three villages: Konabasi, Biaka, and Amini....
( Biaka)
- Kwomtari
- Guriaso
There has been confusion over the membership of the Kwomtari family, apparently due to a misalignment in the publication (Loving & Bass 1964) of the data used for the initial classification. (See Baron 1983.) The Kwomtari languages are generally classified as part of a larger as yet unproven Kwomtari–Fas family, which confusingly is also often called "Kwomtari" in the literature. However, Baron sees no evidence that the similarities are due to relationship. See Kwomtari–Fas languages for details.
Guriaso shares a small number of cognates with Kwomtari–Nai. However, the evidence is convincing once a correspondence between /ɾ~l/ and /n/ (from *ɾ) is established:
| Gloss | Guriaso | Kwomtari |
|---|---|---|
| Verb suffixes (1pl, 2pl, 3pl) |
-nɔ, -mɛ, -no | -ɾe, -mo, -ɾe* |
| dog | map | mau |
| ear | mətɛnu | futɛne |
| crocodile | mɔməni | maməle |
| small | tɔkəno | tɔkweɾo |
| nose | apədu | tipu** |
Metathesis (linguistics)
Metathesis is the re-arranging of sounds or syllables in a word, or of words in a sentence. Most commonly it refers to the switching of two or more contiguous sounds, known as adjacent metathesis or local metathesis:...
of /p/ and /t/.