====== Gavak ======

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

===== Situation =====
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Gavak (Gabak,) also known as Dimir, is spoken by over 3.,800 people (2000) living in six villages … …along and inland from the coast … southeast of the Gilagil (Gilagi) river … district of Papua New Guinea's Madang pronvince. To the north and northwest are spoken the Waskia and Manep languages; to the southeast the only distatnly-related Bargam; to the south Garuh of the Mabuso family and …Takia… Dimir is the name of a Gavak-speaking village (Z'graggen 1971: 45, 1975: 24, Pick 2020:164-165.)

===== Sources =====
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Z'graggen (1980: 1-159) 315 comparative terms and (p. 160) pronominal paradigms for Dimir

Pick (2020: 164-183) grammar sketch, (pp. 209-212) pronominal paradigms and … for gavak of Dimir village

===== History of classification =====
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Z'graggen … Isumrud …

Ross (…) …

Pick (2020) …

We find that …

===== Phonology =====
Pick (2020: 165-171) gives 14 consonants and 5 vowels for Gavak of Dimir village as follows

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|  m  |  n  |     |  ŋ  |
|  p  |  t  |     |  k  |
|  b  |  d  |     |  g  |
|     |  s  |     |     |
|     |  l  |     |     |
|  w  |  r  |  j  |     |


|< - 60px 60px 60px >|
|  i  |     |  u  |
|  e  |     |  o  |
|     |  a  |     |

In addition ot the simple vowels given above, two diphthongs are found as follows:

|< - 60px 60px >|
|  aⁱ  |  aᵘ  |

Plain voiced stops /mb nd ŋg/ are realized as stuch intiially. Medial /g/ may be realized as either [g ŋg]. Acording to Pick, medials /b d/ do not generally exist as such because Adelbert Range /*mb *nd/ have been lenited to /w r/ in this poition; however there are several examples of medial [mb nd] which are considered to be allophones of /b d/ because they are not contrastive. Plain voiced stops are not found finally.

Fricative /s/ is not found finally.

Rhotic non-stop /r/ is not found intiially.

Bilabial non-stop /w/ is sometimes realized as a voiced fricative [β]. Non-stops /w j/ are not found finally.\\
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Mid front vowel /e/ is not found initially. Initial mid back rounded /o/ has been found in only one word, /okojo/ "five".\\
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Consonant clusters are found only medially.



===== Pronouns =====
Pick (2020: 209-212) gives free pronouns for Gavak of Dimir village in two case forms as follows:

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|     |nominative|possessive|
|1 sg.|jiŋ       |jem       |
|2 sg.|niŋ       |neme      |
|3 sg.|aᵘŋ       |umo       |
|1 pl.|jin       |indime    |
|2 pl.|nin       |nendime   |
|3 pl.|aᵘn       |undumo    |

Other case forms exist in Pick's examples but full paradigms are not given.\\
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In addition to these (p. 180-181, 211) are verbal objects found fossilized upon a few roots::

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|         |see    |hit/kill|give |
|1 sg.    |ip-ŋg- |i-ŋgar- |i-s- |
|2 sg.    |nap-ŋg-|na-ŋgar-|na-s-|
|3 sg.    |Ø-ŋg-  |u-r-    |u-s- |
|1/2/3 pl.|iru-ŋg-|Ø-gar-  |ir-Ø-|


===== Nominal morphology =====
**[under construction]**\\
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Pick (2020: 171-177) …\\
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…

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||sg.|pl.|
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…

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||sg.|pl.|
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…

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||sg.|pl.|
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===== Verbal morphology =====
Pick (2020: 177-180) gives subject desinences for Gavak of Dimir village in four tense forms as follows:

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|     |past  |present|future|imperative|
|1 sg.|-Ø-um |-e-m   |-a-m  |---       |
|2 sg.|-Ø-eŋ |-ŋ-eŋ  |-a-ŋ  |-ak       |
|3 sg.|-Ø-er |-ŋ-er  |-a-r  |          |
|1 pl.|-Ø-min|-e-min |-ui   |---       |
|2 pl.|-Ø-men|-e-men |-a-men|-ei       |
|3 pl.|-Ø-mit|-e-mit |-a-mit|---       |

(Morpheme analyses ours.)\\
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It may be seen that the present and the future are indicated by a vowel formant /-e-/ and /-a-/ respectively, except for the seonc and third person singulars where the present is indicated by velar nasal /-ŋ-/ presumably because the underliyng subject suffixes begin with /e/.\\
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