Upper Sepik languages explained

Upper Sepik
Also Known As:Upper Sepik River
Region:Sandaun Province and western East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Familycolor:Papuan
Fam1:Sepik
Child1:Abau–Iwam
Child2:Yellow and Wanibe Rivers
Map:Sepik_as_classified_by_William_A._Foley.svg
Mapcaption:The Sepik languages as classified by Foley (2018)
Glotto:none

The Upper Sepik languages are a group of ten to a dozen languages generally classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea.[1]

Languages

The Upper Sepik languages are:[2]

Although even the pronouns do not appear to be cognate, Foley classifies the Abau–Iwam languages with the Wogamus languages rather than with the Yellow and Wanibe River languages on the basis of a unique noun-class system in the numeral systems (see Wogamus languages#Noun classes). Additionally, Foley considers Sepik Iwam and Wogamusin noun class prefixes to be likely cognate with each other. Abau is more divergent, but its inclusion by Foley (2018) is based on the similarity of Abau verbal morphology to that of the Iwam languages.Foley observes that much of the lexicon and pronouns of these languages do not derive from proto-Sepik.[1]

Numerals

Upper Sepik morphological numerals are (Foley 2018):[1]

gloss Chenapian
‘one’-eyn ~ -mon ~ -ron -or -Vd -rə
‘two’-(r)eys -is -us -si
‘three’-(r)ompri -um -um -mu

Notes and References

  1. Book: Foley, William A. . 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/sepik-river/upper-sepik-river Upper Sepik River