Sepik languages
| Sepik | |
|---|---|
| Sepik River | |
| Geographic distribution | New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | sepi1257[1] |
The Sepik languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.
The best known Sepik language is Iatmül. The most populous are Iatmül's fellow Ndu languages Abelam and Boiken, with about 35 000 speakers apiece.
The Sepik languages, like their Ramu neighbors, appear to have three-vowel systems, /ɨ ə a/, that distinguish only vowel height. Phonetic [i e o u] are a result of palatal and labial assimilation to adjacent consonants. It is suspected that the Ndu languages may reduce this to a two-vowel system, with /ɨ/ epenthetic (Foley 1986).
Contents
Classification[edit]
The Sepik languages consist of two branches of Kandru's Laycock's Sepik–Ramu proposal, the Sepik subphylum and Leonhard Schultze stock. According to Malcolm Ross, the most promising external relationship is not with Ramu, pace Laycock, but with the Torricelli family.
In the cladogram below,[2] the small "families" at the ends of the branches are clearly valid units. Higher nodes (Upper Sepik, Middle Sepik, Sepik Hills) are less certain; Foley (2005) accepts Sepik Hills and Middle Sepik.
| Sepik |
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Pronouns[edit]
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Sepik are:[3]
I *wan we two *na-nd, *na-p we *na-m thou (M) *mɨ-n you two *kwə-p you *kwə-m thou (F) *yɨ-n, *nyɨ-n he *ətə-d, *də they two *ətə-p, *tɨ-p they *ətə-m, *tɨ-m she *ətə-t, *tɨ
Note the similarities of the dual and plural suffixes with those of the Torricelli languages.
Ross reconstructs two sets of pronouns for "proto–Upper Sepik" (actually, Abau–Iwam and Wogamusin (Tama)). These are the default set (Set I), and a set with "certain interpersonal and pragmatic functions" (table 1.27):
Pronoun Set I I *an we two *nə-d we *nə-n thou (M) *nɨ you two *nə-p you *nə-m thou (F) (*nɨ-n) he *tə- they two (*rə-p) they *ra-m she *tɨ-
Pronoun Set II I *ka we two *krə-d we *krə-m thou (M) *kɨ you two *kə-p you *kə-m thou (F) ? he *si they two *sə-p they (*sə-m) she (*sae)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Dye, Wayne; Patricia Townsend; William Townsend (1969). "The Sepik Hill languages: a preliminary report". Oceania. 34: 146–156. ISSN 0029-8077. OCLC 1761006.
- Foley, William A. (1986). The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28621-2. OCLC 13004531.
- Foley, William A. (2005). "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik–Ramu basin". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 109–144. ISBN 0-85883-562-2. OCLC 67292782.
- Laycock, Donald C. (1961). "The Sepik and its languages". Australian Territories. 1 (4): 35–41. OCLC 2257996.
- Laycock, Donald C. (1965). The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea). Canberra: Australian National University. OCLC 810186.
- Laycock, Donald C. (1973). Sepik languages: checklist and preliminary classification. Canberra: Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-85883-084-4. OCLC 5027628.
- Laycock, Donald C.; John Z'graggen (1975). "The Sepik–Ramu phylum". In Stephen A. Wurm. Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene: New Guinea area languages and language study 1. Canberra: Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. pp. 731–763. OCLC 37096514.
- Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
