| Proto-Pama–Nyungan | |
| Also Known As: | pPNy |
| Familycolor: | Australian |
| Era: | perhaps ca. 3000 BCE |
| Region: | Gulf Plains, NE Australia |
| Target: | Pama–Nyungan languages |
| Child1: | Proto-Arandic |
| Child2: | Proto-Thura-Yura |
Proto-Pama–Nyungan is a hypothetical ancestral language from which all Pama–Nyungan languages are supposed to have derived. It may have been spoken as recently as about 5,000 years ago, much more recently than Aboriginal Australian peoples are believed to have been inhabiting various parts of Australia.
How the Pama–Nyungan languages spread over most of the continent and displaced any pre-Pama–Nyungan languages is unknown; one possibility is that language could have been transferred from one group to another alongside culture and ritual.[1] [2] Given the relationship of cognates between groups, it seems that Pama-Nyungan has many of the characteristics of a sprachbund, indicating the antiquity of multiple waves of culture contact between groups.[3] Dixon in particular has argued that the genealogical trees found with many language families do not fit in the Pama-Nyungan family.[4]
Using computational phylogenetics, Bouckaert, et al. (2018)[5] posit a mid-Holocene expansion of Pama-Nyungan from the Gulf Plains of northeastern Australia.
Proto-Pama–Nyungan's phonological inventory, as reconstructed by Barry Alpher (2004), is quite similar to those of most present-day Australian languages.[6]
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| High | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | |
| Low | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Peripheral | Laminal | Apical | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial | Velar | Postalveolar | Alveolar | Retroflex | ||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Lateral | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Semivowel | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
Nevertheless, there are a small number of words in which an alveolo-palatal stop is found where a dental would be expected, and these are written pronounced as /
Reconstructed Proto-Pama–Nyungan pronouns from Alpher (2004):[6]
| gloss | Proto-Pama-Nyungan | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Sg Dir. Object |
| |
| 1 Sg Oblique |
| |
| 1 Sg Oblique |
| |
| 2 Sg |
| |
| you SG OBL |
| |
| we EXnonSg |
| |
| we INDU |
| |
| you PL |
| |
| they DU |
| |
| they PL |
|
Reconstructed Proto-Pama–Nyungan vocabulary and morphemes from Alpher (2004):[6]
| gloss | Proto-Pama-Nyungan | |
|---|---|---|
| (ablative, elative) suffix or postposition |
| |
| acacia (sp.) |
| |
| alive |
| |
| all |
| |
| anger |
| |
| ankle |
| |
| another |
| |
| auntie |
| |
| away |
| |
| back |
| |
| beard |
| |
| behind |
| |
| belly (inside) |
| |
| big |
| |
| ||
| bite |
| |
| black |
| |
| bone |
| |
| bottom |
| |
| bream (sp.) |
| |
| breast |
| |
| by and by |
| |
| cavity |
| |
| cheek |
| |
| child (to woman), sister's child |
| |
| clean |
| |
| cold |
| |
| cook in earth oven |
| |
| cooked food |
| |
| cousin |
| |
| cry |
| |
| damage |
| |
| dig |
| |
| dig |
| |
| digging stick |
| |
| drink |
| |
| drink |
| |
| dry |
| |
| eat |
| |
| excrement |
| |
| eye |
| |
| fall |
| |
| fall |
| |
| fast |
| |
| father's sister |
| |
| fish |
| |
| flame |
| |
| foot |
| |
| foot |
| |
| forehead |
| |
| ghost |
| |
| ||
| ground |
| |
| hand |
| |
| having |
| |
| heart |
| |
| here |
| |
| hip |
| |
| hit |
| |
| hold together |
| |
| I |
| |
| later |
| |
| laugh |
| |
| lay (egg), give birth to (young) |
| |
| left hand |
| |
| lick |
| |
| lick |
| |
| louse |
| |
| moon |
| |
| moon (full) |
| |
| mother |
| |
| mother's brother |
| |
| mother's father |
| |
| mother's mother |
| |
| mother's older brother |
| |
| mouth |
| |
| mouth |
| |
| mud |
| |
| nasal mucus |
| |
| neck |
| |
| nose |
| |
| nose |
| |
| not |
| |
| one |
| |
| ||
| pierce |
| |
| pigeon (sp.) |
| |
| pull |
| |
| pus, matter |
| |
| put |
| |
| put |
| |
| rat |
| |
| rotten |
| |
| saltpan |
| |
| sand |
| |
| ||
| scratch, scrape |
| |
| seagull |
| |
| see |
| |
| shade |
| |
| shell, bivalve (sp.) |
| |
| shin |
| |
| sickness |
| |
| singe it |
| |
| sister (older) |
| |
| sit |
| |
| smell |
| |
| some |
| |
| sore |
| |
| speak |
| |
| spear |
| |
| spear |
| |
| spear |
| |
| stand it up |
| |
| stick |
| |
| sting |
| |
| taboo |
| |
| tail |
| |
| take |
| |
| ||
| there |
| |
| thigh |
| |
| to wet (something) |
| |
| together |
| |
| tongue |
| |
| tongue |
| |
| tooth |
| |
| turn |
| |
| two |
| |
| urine |
| |
| urine |
| |
| vegetable food |
| |
| water |
| |
| what |
| |
| what |
| |
| where |
| |
| who |
| |
| wife's mother's brother |
| |
| wind |
| |
| wing |
| |
| woman |
| |
| woman |
|
In addition to Hale's 1982 list of words unique to Pama–Nyungan, and in addition to pronouns and case endings they reconstruct for the proto-language, Evans and McConvell report that while some of their roots are implausible, O'Grady and Tryon, nevertheless provide "hundreds of clear cognate sets with attestations throughout the Pama–Nyungan area and absent outside."[7]