Keram languages explained

Keram
Also Known As:Keram River
Region:Keram River watershed, Papua New Guinea
Familycolor:Papuan
Fam1:Ramu–Keram
Child1:East
Child2:West (Mongol–Langam)
Glotto:none

The Keram languages of New Guinea are part of the Ramu family. They are the Mongol–Langam languages and a pair of languages sometimes thought to belong to the Grass family. (See Grass languages for the history of classification.)

Foley (2018) classifies most of them in the Grass branch of the Ramu family,[1] while Usher classifies them as coordinate with the Ramu family, leaving a reduced number of languages in the Grass branch.[2]

They are named for the Keram River.

Languages

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of East Keram and West Keram as follows:[3]

East Keram West Keram
sgplsgpl
1
  • ni
  • anɨ
  • ni
  • an
2
  • [o/u]
  • [o/u]nɨ
  • u
  • un
3
  • ma
  • aLɨ
  • mɨ, *ma-
  • ndɨ

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Foley, William A. . William A. Foley

    . William A. Foley . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 197–432 . 978-3-11-028642-7.

  2. https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/keram-and-ramu-rivers/keram-river/west-keram-river West Keram River – NewGuineaWorld
  3. https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/keram-and-ramu-rivers/keram-river/east-keram-river East Keram River