Ram languages

Last updated
Ram
Geographic
distribution
central Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classification Sepik
Subdivisions
Glottolog ramm1241
Sepik as classified by William A. Foley.svg
The Sepik languages as classified by Foley (2018)

The Ram languages are a small group of 3 languages spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. They are spoken directly to the northeast of the Yellow River languages and directly to the south of the Wapei languages, both of which are also Sepik groups. Ram is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group.

Contents

The languages are, [1]

They are classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea.

Awtuw is the best documented Ram language.

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Ram are: [2]

I*wanwe two(*na-n)we*na-m
thou*yɨ-nyou two(*yɨ-n/*a-n)you*yɨ-m/*a-m
he*ra (*atə-)they two(*ra-p, *atə-)they(*ra-m, *atə-m)
she(*ta-i)

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Laycock (1968) [3] and Foley (2005), [4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. [5]

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. nipia, nipikəm for “louse”) or not (e.g. nəpay, aukwə for “dog”).

gloss Awtuw Karawa Pouye
headmakəlakmoulakanouraka
earmaːna; nanemaklakamaroalaka
eyenew; nünoulakanowar
nosewitil; wutilwaklakawolokə
toothpilak; piylakepilakapiyapa
tonguelale; laːləlaləpilaləmu
legriiwe; riwelaləlalə
louseninnipianipikəm
dogpiːrən; piyrennəpayaukwə
pigyaw
birdyiawrayio
eggpaŋkə; watewaːtəwarə
bloodaipieipiaywi
bonelake; lakərlakəlakə
skinyaimouwilnəpyei
breastmuy; mwiməymuy
treetau; tawtautau
manrame; ramiyanyaŋkailamo
womantaləranteloutʔlum
sunmæy; maymaytaliyə
moonyelmek; yilmakeyalmayalma
wateryiw; yüwyouyou
firetapo; tapwotapotapo
stonetiltiditɨl
nameyenyiy
eatra
onenaydowo
twoyikiryikəramoyikən

Morphology

Awtuw (Feldman 1983 [6] ) and Pouye present many morphological commonalities: they share cognate prefixes in six out of eight prefixal slots, but on the other hand they present very little cognate material in their suffixal chain. [7]

Ram languages have a rich verbal morphology, which can encode unusual categories such as celerative -imya 'quickly', grammaticalized from the verb imya 'run' as in (1), [8] periodic tense and simulative.

(1)

Rey

3sg:MASC

aeye

food

rokr’-imy’-e.

cook-CELER- PST

Rey aeye rokr’-imy’-e.

3sg:MASC food cook-CELER-PST

'He cooked the food quickly.' (Feldman 1983: 122–123)

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepik languages</span> Papuan language family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lower Sepik languages</span> Language family of Papua New Guinea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle Sepik languages</span> Groups of 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 divided by Glottolog. They are spoken in areas surrounding the town of Ambunti in East Sepik Province.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Sepik languages</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sepik Hill languages</span> Sepik language branch of Papua New Guinea

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finisterre–Huon languages</span> Trans–New Guinea language family

The Finisterre–Huon languages comprise the largest family within the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classification of Malcolm Ross. They were part of the original TNG proposal, and William A. Foley considers their TNG identity to be established. The languages share a small closed class of verbs taking pronominal object prefixes some of which are cognate, strong morphological evidence that they are related.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tama languages</span> Small family of languages of northern Papua New Guinea

The Tama languages are a small family of three clusters of closely related languages of northern Papua New Guinea, spoken just to the south of Nuku town in eastern Sandaun Province. They are classified as subgroup of the Sepik languages. Tama is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group.

The Nukuma languages are a small family of three clearly related languages:

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).

Awtuw (Autu), also known as Kamnum, is spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. It is a polysynthetic language closely related to Karawa and Pouye. It is spoken in Galkutua, Gutaiya, Kamnom, Tubum, and Wiup villages in Kamnom East ward, East Wapei Rural LLG, Sandaun Province.

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.

The Lower Ramu or Ottilien–Misegian languages consist of two branches in the Ramu language family. They are all spoken in Yawar Rural LLG, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea.

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

The Wogamus languages are a pair of closely related languages, Wogamusin and Chenapian.

References

  1. Ram, New Guinea World
    • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN   0858835622. OCLC   67292782..
  2. Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics , 7 (1): 36-66.
  3. Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
  4. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea" . Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  5. Feldman, Harry (1983). A grammar of Awtuw (PhD thesis). Australian National University. doi: 10.25911/5D723CE831842 . hdl: 1885/132945 .
  6. Jacques, Guillaume (2024). "Essai de comparaison de la morphologie verbale des langues ram (awtuw et pouye), famille sepik". Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris . 118 (1): 275–288. doi:10.2143/BSL.118.1.3292785.
  7. Jacques, Guillaume (2024). "Celerative: the encoding of speed in verbal morphology". STUF. 77 (2): 261–282. doi:10.1515/stuf-2024-2006.