Kainantu–Goroka languages
language family
The Kainantu–Goroka languages are a family of Papuan languages established by Arthur Capell in 1948 under the name East Highlands. They formed the core of Stephen Wurm's 1960 East New Guinea Highlands family (the precursor of Trans–New Guinea), and are one of the larger branches of Trans–New Guinea in the 2005 classification of Malcolm Ross.
Languages
The constituent Kainantu and Goroka families are clearly valid groups, and both William A. Foley and Timothy Usher consider their TNG identity to be established. The languages are:
Pronouns
The pronouns reconstructed by Ross (2005) for proto-Kainantu–Goroka, proto-Kainantu, and proto-Goroka are as follows:
The possessive forms are:
Modern reflexes
Kainantu–Goroka reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:
Awa language:
are 'ear' < *kand(e,i)k(V]
nu 'louse' < *niman
Tairora language:
ato 'ear' < *kand(e,i)k(V]
ir 'tree' < *inda
(n)am 'breast' < *amu
nume 'louse' < *niman
kubu 'short' < *k(a,u)tu(p,mb)aC
mi- 'give' < *mV-
Fore language:
na- 'eat' < *na-
numaa 'louse' < *niman
mi- 'give' < *mV-
amune 'egg' < *mun(a,i,u)ka
kasa 'new' < *kVndak
mone 'nose' < *mundu
Gende language:
ami 'breast' < *amu
mut 'belly' < *mundun 'internal organs'
mina- 'stay' < *mVna-
nogoi 'water < *[n]ok
(tu)nima 'louse' < *niman
me- 'give' < *mV-
Innovations in proto-Kainantu-Goroka replacing proto-Trans-New Guinea forms:
*tá[za] '1pl' replaces pTNG *ni, *nu
*tá-na '2pl' replaces pTNG *ŋgi, *ja
genitive forms ending in *-i
Vocabulary comparison
Gorokan basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986).
Despite the presence of reconstructions in the left column, the words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. ya, yafa, yava for “tree”) or not (e.g. tuva, logo, hali for “fire”).
Kainantu basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986):
Proto-languages
Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-East Kainantu and Proto-North Kainantu by Usher (2020) are:
See also
East New Guinea Highlands languages, an expansion of Kainantu–Goroka in Wurm 1975, which was later abandoned by Ross due to a lack of unifying morphological data.
Bibliography
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages".
“Kainantu–Goroka languages” enters the record as language family. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kainantu, Goroka and languages can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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