Kayagar languages
Trans-New Guinea language group of Indonesia
The Kayagar languages are a small family of four closely related Trans-New Guinea languages spoken around the Cook River in Province of South Papua, Indonesia:
- Atohwaim (Kaugat)
- Gondu River
01Proto-language
Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:
Gondu River Atohwaim sg pl sg pl 1 *nax *nep naxa nipi, neβi 2 *ax *akan axa aʔani 3 *ek *wep , ,
Basic vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:
gloss Proto-Gondu River head *toxom hair *upm ear *itipaːm eye *sakam nose *jup tooth *o[x/ɣ]om tongue *maetap foot/leg *apit blood *jes bone *nomop skin/bark *pip breast *etum louse *num dog *epe pig *wakum bird *suopam egg *map-jaxam tree/wood *wom man/person *jo[k] woman *enop sun *taːm moon *xa[x/ɣ]atam water *o[x/ɣ]om fire *atu stone *maitn path *kamein name *na[k] eat *xapti one *pa[x/ɣ]amo[x/k] two *tousiki
02Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) and Voorhoeve (1971, 1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. tikem, toxom for “head”) or not (e.g. icoxop, iripam for “ear”).
gloss Atohwaim Kayagar Tamagario head tikem toxom tokom hair upm owpm upm ear icoxop iripam ipiram eye saam saxam sakam nose opom jup jup tooth ukoxom oxom ukom tongue menaxaram marap marap leg apir apir apir louse numu soːm dog upoc epere; epe(re) epe pig wakum wakum wakum bird wakem səpam towpam egg mapiam mapiaxam mapiakam blood wis jes; yes jet; yet bone nömöp namop; nəmop nomop skin piep pip pip breast ötöm erem tree wim wom wom man mapirie jo; yo jo; yo woman enepe onop onop sun teme taam taam moon kaʔaram xaxaram kakaram water oxom oxom okom fire acu aru aru stone iki kakup maitu road, path sepmop xami kame eat owp xapri kapri one papriaxap paxamu pakamok two coopm tosigi totigi
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kayagar languages”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Kayagar languages.svg by Kwamikagami, CC BY-SA 3.0
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