Sepik languages

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Sepik
Sepik River
Geographic
distribution		 Sepik River region, northern Papua New Guinea (mostly in East Sepik Province)
Linguistic classification One of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions
Glottolog sepi1257 [1]
Sepik languages in PNG.svg
Distribution of Sepik languages in Papua New Guinea

The Sepik or Sepik River 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.

Contents

The best known Sepik language is Iatmül. The most populous are Iatmül's fellow Ndu languages Abelam and Boiken, with about 35,000 speakers each.

The Sepik languages, like their Ramu neighbors, appear to have three-vowel systems, /ɨ ə a/, that distinguish only vowel height in a vertical vowel system. 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).

Classification

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.

Palmer (2018) classifies the Leonhard Schultze languages as an independent language phylum. [2]

Usher (2020)

In the cladogram below, [3] the small, closely related families in bold at the ends of the branches are covered in separate articles.

 Sepik 
 Leonhard Schultze 
 

Walio family

 
 

Papi family (Papi, Suarmin/Asaba)

 
 
 Upper Sepik 
 
 

Abau

 
 

Iwam family

 
 
Yellow–Wanibe Rivers
 

Ram family

 
 

Yellow River family

 
 

Amal–Kalou

 
 
 
 Middle Sepik 
 
 

Tama family

 
 

Nukuma family

 
 
 
 

Yerakai

 
 

Ndu family

 
 
 
 Sepik Hills 
 

Sanio

 
 

Hewa–Paka: Niksek (Paka, Gabiano), Piame, Hewa

 
 

Bahinemo family

 
 

Alamblak family

 
 
 
The Sepik languages as classified by William A. Foley Sepik as classified by William A. Foley.svg
The Sepik languages as classified by William A. Foley

Foley (2018)

Foley (2018) provides the following classification, with 6 main branches recognized. [4]

Sepik family

Like the neighboring Torricelli languages, but unlike the rest of the Sepik languages, the Ram and Yellow River languages do not have clause chaining constructions (for an example of a clause chaining construction in a Trans-New Guinea language, see Kamano language#Clause chaining ). Foley (2018) suggests that many of the Ram and Yellow River-speaking peoples may have in fact been Torricelli speakers who were later assimilated by Sepik-speaking peoples. [4] :298

Foley classifies the Leonhard Schultze languages separately as an independent language family. [4]

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Sepik are: [5]

I*wanwe two*na-nd, *na-pwe*na-m
thou (M)*mɨ-nyou two*kwə-pyou*kwə-m
thou (F)*yɨ-n, *nyɨ-n
he*ətə-d, *dəthey two*ətə-p, *tɨ-pthey*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*anwe two*nə-dwe*nə-n
thou (M)*nɨyou two*nə-pyou*nə-m
thou (F)(*nɨ-n)
he*tə-they two(*rə-p)they*ra-m
she*tɨ-
Pronoun Set II
I*kawe two*krə-dwe*krə-m
thou (M)*kɨyou two*kə-pyou*kə-m
thou (F)?
he*sithey two*sə-pthey(*sə-m)
she(*sae)

Most Sepik languages have reflexes of proto-Sepik *na ~ *an for 1sg, *no for 1pl, and *ni for 2sg. [4]

Cognates

Proto-Sepik forms reconstructed by Foley (2018) that are widespread across the family: [4]

glossproto-Sepik
‘breast’*muk
‘tongue’*ta(w)r
‘tree’*mi
‘dog’*wara
‘louse’*nim
‘feces’*ri
‘go’*(y)i
‘come’*ya
‘1sg’*na ~ *an
‘2sg’*ni
‘1pl’*no
‘dative suffix’*-ni
‘locative suffix’*-kV

Typological overview

Even internally within Sepik subgroups, languages in the Sepik family can have vastly different typological profiles varying from isolating to agglutinative, with example languages listed below. [4]

group isolating agglutinative
Ndu Ambulas Manambu
Sepik Hill Sanio-Hiowe Alamblak
Tama Yessan-Mayo Mehek

In contrast, languages within the Ramu, Lower Sepik, and Yuat families all have relatively uniform typological profiles. [4]

Gender

Like the isolate Taiap, but unlike the Lower Sepik-Ramu, Yuat, and Upper Yuat families, Sepik languages distinguish masculine and feminine genders, with the feminine gender being the more common default unmarked gender. Proto-Sepik gender-marking suffixes are reconstructed by Foley (2018) as: [4]

singulardualplural
masculine*-r*-f*-m
feminine*-t ~ *-s

In Sepik languages, gender-marking suffixes are not always attached to the head noun, and can also be affixed to other roots in the phrase.

Typically, the genders of lower animals and inanimate objects are determined according to shape and size: big or long objects are typically classified as masculine (as a result of phallic imagery), while small or short objects are typically classified as feminine. In some languages, objects can be classified as either masculine or feminine, depending on the physical characteristics intended for emphasis. To illustrate, below is an example in Abau, an Upper Sepik language: [4]

Except for the Middle Sepik languages, most Sepik languages overtly mark nouns using gender suffixes. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Tayap language

Tayap is an endangered Papuan language spoken by less that 50 people in Gapun village of Marienberg Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. It is being replaced by the national language and lingua franca Tok Pisin.

The Sepik–Ramu languages are a hypothetical language family of New Guinea linking the Sepik, Ramu, Nor–Pondo, Leonhard Schultze (Walio–Papi) and Yuat families, together with the Taiap language isolate, and proposed by Donald Laycock and John Z'graggen in 1975.

Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of Papua New Guinea.

Torricelli languages

The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh, with about 30,000 speakers.

The Kwomtari–Fas languages, often referred to ambiguously as Kwomtari, are an apparently spurious language family proposal of six languages spoken by some 4,000 people in the north of Papua New Guinea, near the border with Indonesia. The term "Kwomtari languages" can also refer to one of the established families that makes up this proposal.

The Left May or Arai languages are a small language family of half a dozen closely related but not mutually intelligible languages in the centre of New Guinea, in the watershed of the Left May River. There are only about 2,000 speakers in all. Foley (2018) classifies them separately as an independent language family, while Usher (2020) links them with the Amto–Musan languages.

The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and Madang languages.

The Senagi languages are a small family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They consist of the two languages Angor and Dera.

The Ramu–Lower Sepika.k.a.Lower Sepik–Ramu languages are a proposed family of about 35 Papuan languages spoken in the Ramu and Sepik river basins of northern Papua New Guinea. These languages tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.

The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm's Sepik–Ramu proposal. However, Foley and Ross could find no lexical or morphological evidence that they are related to the Sepik or Ramu languages.

The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. Ndu is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as a related family by Kirschbaum in 1922.

Lower Sepik languages

The Lower Sepik a.k.a. Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-defunct 1973 Sepik–Ramu family.

The Ramu languages are a family of some thirty languages of Northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by John Z'graggen in 1971 and linked with the Sepik languages by Donald Laycock two years later. Malcolm Ross (2005) classifies them as one branch of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family. Z'graggen had included the Yuat languages, but that now seems doubtful.

Middle Sepik languages

The Middle Sepik languages comprise diverse groups of Sepik languages spoken in northern Papua New Guinea. The Middle Sepik grouping is provisionally accepted by Foley (2018) based on shared innovations in pronouns, but is split up by Glottolog. They are spoken in areas surrounding the town of Ambunti in East Sepik Province.

Upper Sepik languages

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

The Grass languages are a group of languages in the Ramu language family. It is accepted by Foley (2018), but not by Glottolog. They are spoken in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, with a small number of speakers also located just across the provincial border in Madang Province.

The Papi and Asaba languages form a small family of two somewhat distantly related languages of northern Papua New Guinea, namely Papi and Suarmin (Asaba).

The Mongol–Langam, Koam, or Ulmapo languages are a language group of Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea belonging to the Ramu language family. Foley (2018) includes them within the Grass languages, but they were not included in Foley (2005).

The Arafundi languages are a small family of clearly related languages in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are conjectured to be related to the Piawi and Madang languages. They are named after the Arafundi River.

KambotAKAAp Ma, is a Keram language of Papua New Guinea. Compared to its nearest relative, Ambakich, Kambot drops the first segment from polysyllabic words.

References

  1. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Sepik". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. ↑ Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1–20. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ↑ NewGuineaWorld - Sepik River
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN   978-3-11-028642-7.
  5. ↑ Ross (2005)
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