| Kamula | |
| Nativename: | Wawoi |
| Region: | Western Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Coordinates: | -6.9518°N 142.6548°W |
| Speakers: | 1,100 |
| Date: | 2000 |
| Ref: | e25 |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Trans–New Guinea or unclassified |
| Fam2: | Awin–Pa |
| Iso3: | xla |
| Glotto: | kamu1260 |
| Glottorefname: | Kamula |
| Map: | Kamula language.svg |
| Mapcaption: | Map: The Kamula language of New Guinea |
Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.[1]
Kamula is spoken in two widely separated areas,[1] including in Kamiyami village of the Wawoi Falls area in Bamu Rural LLG, Western Province, Papua New Guinea.[2]
Routamaa (1994: 7) estimates that there are about 800 speakers of Kamula located in 3 villages in Western Province, with no dialectal differences reported.[3] This is because the Kamula had originally lived in camps near Samokopa in the northern area, but a group had split off and moved to Wasapea in the south only around 50 years ago.[4]
In the northern villages of Kesiki and Samokopa, Kamula children were reported as preferring to speak Doso over Kamula. A minority of Kamula people in the northern area also live in Dibiyaso-speaking villages, where they are multilingual in Kamula, Doso, and Dibiyaso. Kamula people in the southern village of Wasapea are also fluent in Gogodala.[5]
The little data that exists for Kamula pronouns does not fit in with the neighboring East Strickland or Bosavi languages (though nê likely reflects proto-TNG *na), so Kamula is best left as an unclassified language an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea pending further study.
Attested pronouns are,, and ̩ .
Kamula phonology:[7]
Kamula has 12 consonants.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | p | t̪ | d | k ɡ | |||
| nasal | m | n | |||||
| fricative | s | h | |||||
| approximant | w | j | |||||
| lateral approximant | l |
Kamula has 7 vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | i | u | ||
| close-mid | e | o | ||
| open-mid | ɛ (a꞉) | ɔ (o꞉) | ||
| open | a |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Dutton (2010),[8] Reesink (1976),[9] and Shaw (1986),[10] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[11]
| gloss | Kamula | |
|---|---|---|
| head | dokupala; tɔkɔnʌlʌ | |
| hair | kokosasi; kɔkɔsʌse | |
| ear | molo; mɔlɔ | |
| eye | inʌma; inoma | |
| nose | mu; mũ | |
| tooth | ɛpe | |
| tongue | te; tɛ | |
| leg | ɛtɛ; hetei | |
| louse | iyʌ; iya | |
| dog | ɛsemala; esemʌlʌ | |
| pig | ʌľiʌ | |
| bird | tea | |
| egg | temoko; temɔkɔ | |
| blood | umali; umʌ:li | |
| bone | ɛľu; ɛro | |
| skin | kapala; kʌpʌlʌ | |
| breast | mɛmɛ | |
| tree | dali; tʌli | |
| man | ɔpɔlʌimi; opřami | |
| woman | eya; ɛ̃yã | |
| sun | sali; sʌľi | |
| moon | mama; mʌmʌ | |
| water | yu | |
| fire | deľʌpʌ; dřaƀa | |
| stone | ewʌľʌ; yawařa | |
| road, path | api | |
| name | hi | |
| eat | dampřoma; tʌɛdɔma | |
| one | hatropɛ; hʌtɔlɔp | |
| two | dapiamɛtɛ; depiʌmɛtɛ |
Languages of the World
. 22nd . Eberhard . David M. . Simons . Gary F. . Fennig . Charles D. . 2019 . Dallas . SIL International.