Asmat–Kamrau languages
family of languages
The Asmat – Kamrau Bay languages are a family of a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Asmat and related peoples in southern Western New Guinea. They are believed to be a recent expansion along the south coast, as they are all closely related, and there is little differentiation in their pronouns.
Languages
The languages are:
Kamrau Bay (Sabakor):
Buruwai (Sabakor)
Kamrau
North Kamberau (Iria)
South Kamberau (Asienara)
Asmat–Kamoro
Kamoro
Sempan
Asmat languages
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:
There is near complementary distribution between *p and *ɸ. *t and *d are marginal, appearing in only a few words. *r does not occur initially. There are no consonant clusters.
Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.
Pronouns
Ross (2005) reconstructs the proto-Asmat–Kamoro pronouns as:
Usher (2020) reconstructs the free proto–Asmat–Kamrau Bay pronouns as:
Basic vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:
Evolution
Proto-Asmat-Kamoro reflexes (Voorhoeve 2005) of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, as listed in Pawley & Hammarström (2018):
*fiti 'fingernail' < pTNG *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C
*isi 'mosquito' < *kasin
*ese 'blood' < *kenja
*masap or *masip 'saliva' < *si(mb,p)atV
*yi 'urine' < *[si]si
*asa 'excrement' < *asa
*manaka 'eye' < *mun(a,e,i)ka
*sisi 'tooth' < *(t,s)i(t,s)i
*yirama 'night' < *k(i,u)tama
*tama 'morning' < *k(i,u)tama
*na- 'eat' < *na-
References
Bibliography
Drabbe, Piet. 1953. Spraakkunst van de Kamoro-taal.
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