Kamano language explained

Kamano
Date:	2000 census
Ref:	e18
Familycolor:	Papuan
Iso3:	kbq
Glotto:	kama1370
Glottorefname:	Kamano

Kamano (Kamano-Kafe) is a Papuan language spoken in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.

Nomenclature

The terms 'Kamano' and 'Kamano-Kafe' are both used to refer to the language primarily spoken in Henganofi District, although within the linguistics literature Kamano refers to some varieties within the Kamano-Yagaria group, a dialect chain of Eastern Highlands Province^[1]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t	k	ʔ
	prenasal	ᵐp	ⁿt	ᵑk
	voiced			ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		h
Fricative	voiced	β	z
Nasal		m	n
Tap			ɾ

Consonant sounds /p t k m n z/ can have preglottalized sounds [ˀp ˀt ˀk ˀm ˀn ˀz] occurring word-medially.
The phoneme /f/ can be in free fluctuation with a voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ].

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

/e/ can occur as [ɛ] word-initially or word-medially.
/a/ can occur word initially as [ʌ].^[2]

Clause chaining

Kamano Kafe exhibits a unique form of the clause chaining system often described in Papuan languages. Clause chaining in Papuan languages typically involves one or more medial verbs with limited morphological possibilities being under the scope of a more fully inflected final verb. The medial verbs in these clause chains typically use a switch reference system and various degrees of agreement with final verbs. The Kamano system, unlike other clause chaining systems in New Guinea, has requisite person and number agreement with the subjects of higher clauses.^[3] A typical example is given below.

Notes and References

Ford, Kevin (1993). "A Preliminary Comparison of Kamano-Yagaria". Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 24. 191-202.
Book: Drew, D. E.. The phonemes of Kamano. 1963.
Elliott, John (2017). "Understanding preview-subject clause chains in Kamano Kafe". University of Hawai'i at Manoa Working Papers.