Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
[under construction]
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.)
[under construction]
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
[under construction]
Z'graggen … Isumrud …
Ross (…) …
Pick (2020) …
We find that …
Pick (2020: 165-171) gives 14 consonants and 5 vowels for Gavak of Dimir village as follows
| m | n | ŋ | |
| p | t | k | |
| b | d | g | |
| s | |||
| l | |||
| w | r | j |
| i | u | |
| e | o | |
| a |
In addition ot the simple vowels given above, two diphthongs are found as follows:
| 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.
Mid front vowel /e/ is not found initially. Initial mid back rounded /o/ has been found in only one word, /okojo/ “five”.
Consonant clusters are found only medially.
Pick (2020: 209-212) gives free pronouns for Gavak of Dimir village in two case forms as follows:
| 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.
In addition to these (p. 180-181, 211) are verbal objects found fossilized upon a few roots::
| 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- |
[under construction]
Pick (2020: 171-177) …
…
| sg. | pl. |
…
| sg. | pl. |
…
| sg. | pl. |
Pick (2020: 177-180) gives subject desinences for Gavak of Dimir village in four tense forms as follows:
| 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.)
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/.