Asmat–Kamrau languages explained

Asmat–Kamrau
Ethnicity:	Asmat people etc.
Region:	southern coast and Kamrau Bay of Indonesian New Guinea
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:	Asmat–Mombum
Child1:	Kamrau (Sabakor)
Child2:	Asmat–Kamoro
Glotto:	asma1256
Glottorefname:	Asmat–Kamoro
Map:	Asmat-Kamoro languages.svg
Mapcaption:	Map: The Asmat–Kamrau languages of New Guinea

The Asmat – Kamrau Bay languages are a family of a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Asmat and related peoples in southern Western New Guinea. They are believed to be a recent expansion along the south coast, as they are all closely related, and there is little differentiation in their pronouns.

Languages

The languages are:^{[1] [2]}

• Kamrau Bay (Sabakor):^[3]
  • Buruwai (Sabakor)
  • Kamrau
    • North Kamberau (Iria)
    • South Kamberau (Asienara)
• Asmat–Kamoro^[4]
  • Kamoro
  • Sempan
  • Asmat languages

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[5]

m	n
p	[t]		k
b	[d]	ɟ	ɡ
[ɸ]	s
w	r	j

There is near complementary distribution between *p and *ɸ. *t and *d are marginal, appearing in only a few words. *r does not occur initially. There are no consonant clusters.

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.

Pronouns

Ross (2005) reconstructs the proto-Asmat–Kamoro pronouns as:

	sg	pl
1	no[ro]	na[re]
2	o[ro]/we[rV]	ca[re]
3	a[re]

Usher (2020) reconstructs the free proto–Asmat–Kamrau Bay pronouns as:^[5]

! !!sg!!pl 1 no-rV na-rV 2 o-rV ɟa-rV 3 a-rV

Proto-Kamrau! !!sg!!pl 1 nor nar 2 or-or er-er 3 ar-ar

! !!sg!!pl 1 no-ro na-rV 2 o-ro ca-rV 3 a-rV

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:^[5]

gloss	Proto-Asmat-Kamrau	Proto-Kamrau Bay	Proto-Asmat-Kamoro	Proto-Asmat	Proto-Muli Strait
head	uɸu	jebin	ufu	kowisi 'head/skull'	ɣo̝p 'head/hair'; *uɔndVro̝m 'head/skull'
hair	ɸini	ɸin	fini	ɸinV 'hair/feather(s)'	sin
ear	jiɸ[a/o]ne	jaɸ[a/o]m	jafane	jaɸane	ie̝pær
eye	manaN	manam	mana	mana	musiɣ
nose	miC	mik	mi	mi	mæne̝ɣ 'nose/tip'
tooth	siC	sik	sisi	sisV	ziɣ
tongue	komane	[a]mam	komane	komVne	ndupæn
foot/leg	mawu	mawu	mawu	mawi	kaŋg 'leg'
blood/red	ese	et	ese		ir 'blood'
fruit/seed/bone	eake	eke	eake
skin/bark		ɸu	pitini	pitʲini	par
breast	awo	awo	awo		abuɣ
louse	amo	om	amo		am
dog	juwuɾi	iwuɾ	juwuri	juwVɾi	i[u]bui
pig	oɸo	ok	ofo		up
bird		geɟ		sakV
egg	[a]sa	asa	sa	sa
tree/wood	ose	o	ose		to̝ 'tree'
man/male		bewu			nam 'man/person'
woman	ɟawoɟa	jawoɟa	cawoca	jipitʲi	ie̝t 'woman/wife'
sun	jawu	asi 'sun/day'	jawu	jawi	zaua
moon	buɾa	buɾa	pura	piɾa	irind
water	m[oi/ui]	moɟ	mui	mui	mo̝i
fire/firewood	usa	usa	usa	jusa	ua[nd/r] 'fire'
stone	jeta	eta	j[e]ka		mæte̝
path		matoC; *mak	mato
name	uwase	u	uwase	juwase	ur
eat/drink	n[a]-	n[a]-	n[e/a]	ne-	no̝ku
one	ɟawa[kV]	-ɟawa	cawak[e/a]	tʲawaka
two	kaboma	aboma	kapoma; *jam[i/u]nV

Evolution

Proto-Asmat-Kamoro reflexes (Voorhoeve 2005)^[6] of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, as listed in Pawley & Hammarström (2018):^[7]

• *fiti ‘fingernail’ < pTNG *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C
• *isi ‘mosquito’ < *kasin
• *ese ‘blood’ < *kenja
• *masap or *masip ‘saliva’ < *si(mb,p)atV
• *yi ‘urine’ < *[si]si
• *asa ‘excrement’ < *asa
• *manaka ‘eye’ < *mun(a,e,i)ka
• *sisi ‘tooth’ < *(t,s)i(t,s)i
• *yirama ‘night’ < *k(i,u)tama
• *tama ‘morning’ < *k(i,u)tama
• *na- ‘eat’ < *na-

Bibliography

• Drabbe, Piet. 1953. Spraakkunst van de Kamoro-taal. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Drabbe, Piet. 1963. Drie Asmat-dialecten. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, No. 42. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
  • Voorhoeve, C.L. 1965. The Flamingo Bay Dialect of the Asmat language. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, No. 46. The Hague.
• Voorhoeve, C.L. 1968. "The Central and South New Guinea Phylum: a report on the language situation in south New Guinea." Pacific Linguistics, Series A, No. 16: 1–17. Canberra: The Australian National University.
• Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist, Preliminary Classification, Language Maps, Wordlists. Pacific Linguistics, Series B, No. 31. Canberra: The Australian National University.
• Voorhoeve, C.L. 1980. The Asmat Languages of Irian Jaya. Pacific Linguistics, Series B, No. 64. Canberra: The Australian National University.
• Wurm, Stephan Adolphe. 1983. The Papuan Languages of Oceania. Ars Linguistica 7. Tübingen: Narr.

External links

• Timothy Usher & Edgar Suter, New Guinea World, Proto–Asmat – Kamrau Bay

Notes and References

1. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/asmat-muli-strait/asmat-kamrau-bay New Guinea World, Asmat – Kamrau Bay
2. The Asmat-Muli Languages of Southwestern New Guinea . Language & Linguistics in Melanesia . 38 . 2020 . 0023-1959 . Edgar . Suter . Timothy . Usher . Journal of the Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea . Port Moresby.
3. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/asmat-muli-strait/asmat-kamrau-bay/kamrau-bay New Guinea World, Kamrau Bay
4. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/asmat-muli-strait/asmat-kamrau-bay/asmat-kamoro New Guinea World, Asmat–Kamoro
5. Web site: Asmat-Kamrau Bay - newguineaworld.
6. Voorhoeve, Clemens L. 2005. Asmat-Kamoro, Awyu-Dumut and Ok: An enquiry into their linguistic relationship. In Pawley, Andrew and Robert Attenborough and Golson, Jack and Hide, Robin (eds.), Papuan Pasts: Studies in the Cultural, Linguistic and Biological History of the Papuan-speaking Peoples, 145-166. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
7. Book: Pawley . Andrew . Hammarström . Harald . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The Trans New Guinea family . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 21–196 . 978-3-11-028642-7.