Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Gants (Gantj, Gainj, Ganj, Gaj) is spoken by at least 1.880 people (1981) living in nine villages on the northeast side of the Schraeder range in the Simbai valley north and west of the Simbai river, a tributary of the Ramu, in the Usino-Bundi district of Papuan New Guinea's Madang province. Gants /ŋgaɲɟ/ [gaɲc] is the name that speakers call their language (Pawley 1966: 3, Z'graggen 1975: 11, Daniels 2015: 987, 2017: 83-84.) Gants has borrowed a significant number of words from the Kalam (Karam) language immediately to the west.
Biggs (1949) vocabulary of Gaj (unobtained)
Aufenanger (1960: 249) 19 terms and counting system for Gainj river
Scholtz (1965) vocabulary of Gants provided in spreadsheet form by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics
Pawley (1992) vocabulary of Gants (unobtained)
Daniels (2015: 356-392) 142reflexes of Proto-Sogeram for and (pp. 982-1083) grammar of Gants
Daniels (2017) comparison of Gants, Sogeram River and Kursav
Daniels (2020) (unobtained)
[under construction]
Wurm (1961) …
Wurm (1964: 60, 1965: 390) …
Wurm (1971: 551; 1975: 470, 486–488; Wurm and Hattori 1981)…
Pawley (p.c.) in Lane (?1991, 2007: …)
Pawley (1995: 97) …
Pawley (2006) …
Daniels (2015, 2017) … East Sogeram with its nearest relative said to be Kursav (Faita.)
Daniels (2015: 989) gives 14 to 16 consonants and 6 vowels for Gants as follows:
| m | n | ɲ | ŋ |
| p | t | c | k |
| mb | nd | ɲɟ | ŋg |
| s | |||
| [w] | ɾ | [j] |
| i | ɨ | u |
| e | o | |
| a |
In addition to the simple vowels given above, five diphthongs are found as follows:
| eⁱ | oⁱ | iᵘ |
| aⁱ | aᵘ |
The diphthong /iᵘ/ is very rare.
This inventory is basically identical to that Pawley (1966: 21-52) gives for neighboring Karam (Kalam) but without any attempt to reduce the high vowels to underlying /j Ø w/.
Voiceless stops /p t c k/ and prenasalized voiced stops /mb nd ɲɟ ŋg/ have allophones by position as follows:
| initial | medial | final | |
| /p/ | p ɸ | β ɸ | p ɸ |
| /t/ | t | ɾ | ɾ |
| /c/ | c | c | c |
| /k/ | k | ɣ | k |
| /mb/ | b | mb | mp |
| /nd/ | d | nd | nt |
| /ɲɟ/ | ɟ | ɲɟ | ɲc |
| /ŋg/ | g | ŋg | ŋk |
Daniels (2015: 1003-1005) gives free pronouns for Gants in four case forms as follows:
| subject | object | possessive | emphatic | |
| 1 sg. | ja | ja-k | ja-ndɨŋ | ja-mba |
| 2 sg. | na | na-k | na-ndɨŋ | na-mba |
| 3 sg. | nu | nu-k | nu-nduŋ | nɨ-mba |
| 1 pl. | a-ju | a-ju-k | a-i-duŋ | a-i-mba |
| 2 pl. | na-ju | na-ju-k | na-i-duŋ | na-i-mba |
| 3 pl. | ni-u | ni-uk | ni-duŋ | ni-mba |
Inalienable possessors of kin terms are marked by the prefixation of personal pronouns to the roots except that the first person is often /a-/ rather than /ja-/ (Daniels 2015: 999-1000.) The form of the third person possessor is determined by whether or not the root has an underlying initial low central vowel /a/, which induces the form [no-] rather than [nɨ-] :
| root | 1 sg./pl. | 2 sg./pl. | 3 sg./pl. | |
| a- ~ Ø- | na- ~ n- | nɨ - ~ no- | ||
| mother | ami/amɨŋ | Ø-ami | n-amɨŋ | no-mɨŋ |
| grandmother | apɨke | Ø-apɨke | n-apɨke | no-pɨke |
| daughter | mbeɲ | a-mbeɲ | na-mbeɲ | nɨ-mbeɲ |
| ja- ~ j- | na- ~ n- | nɨ - ~ no- | ||
| father | aŋ | j-aŋ | n-aŋ | no-ŋ |
| cross-cousin | mɨndaŋ | ja-mɨndaŋ | na-mɨndaŋ | nɨ-mɨndaŋ |
| man's brother | kamɨɾ | ja-kamɨɾ | na-kamɨɾ | nɨ-komɨɾ |
Daniels (2015: 1022-1041) gives subject desinences for Gants final verbs in seven tense/mood paraigms as follows. Unlike most other Sogeram River languages, mperatives, which are found only with second persons, do not have a distinct set of subject markers:
| immediate past | present | far past | recent past | middle past | future | imperative | |
| 1 sg. | -Ø-enɨŋ | -cɨ-nɨŋ | -me-nɨŋ | -ŋgɨ-nɨŋ | -ma-ŋgɨ-nɨŋ | -paŋ-nɨŋ | — |
| 2 sg. | -Ø-naŋ | -cɨ-naŋ | -me-naŋ | -ŋgɨ-naŋ | -ma-ŋgɨ-naŋ | -paŋ-naŋ | -pɨ-naŋ |
| 3 sg. | -Ø-ek | -cɨ-k | -me-k | -ŋg-ɾɨk | -ma-ŋg-ɾɨk | -paŋ-ndɨk | — |
| 1 pl. | -Ø-ɾuŋ | -cɨ-ɾuŋ | -me-ɾuŋ | -ŋg-ɾuŋ | -ma-ŋg-ɾuŋ | -paŋ-ɾuŋ | — |
| -2 pl. | -Ø-ɾaŋ | -cɨ-ɾaŋ | -me-ɾaŋ | -ŋg-ɾaŋ | -ma-ŋg-ɾaŋ | -paŋ-ɾaŋ | -p-ɾaŋ |
| 3 pl. | -Ø-ik | -c-ek | -m-aⁱk | -ŋg-ɾek | -ma-ŋg-ɾek | -paŋ-ndek | — |
Irrealis verbs take a slightly different set of subject suffixes and can be either final or medial:
| irrealis | |
| 1 sg. | -ɨɾɨŋ |
| 2 sg. | -ɨna |
| 3 sg. | -ɨɾe |
| 1 pl. | -ɾuŋ |
| -2 pl. | -ɨɾaŋ |
| 3 pl. | -i-ɾe |
Medial verbs are distinguished according to whether their subjects are the same as or different from the subject of the final verb:
| different subject | different subject | same subject | same subject | same subject | |
| sequential | simultaneous | unmarked | delayed | infinitive | |
| 1 sg. | -ke-nɨŋ | -ɨɾe-ɾɨŋ | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
| 2 sg. | -ke-naŋ | -ɨne-na | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
| 3 sg. | -ke-Ø | -ɨɾe-ɾe | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
| 1 pl. | -ke-ɾuŋ | -ɨɾe-ɾuŋ | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
| -2 pl. | -ke-ɾaŋ | -ɨɾe-ɾaŋ | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
| 3 pl. | -i-ke-Ø | -i-ɾe-ɾe | -nda | -mendi | -paŋ |
Daniels points out the identity between infitive /-paŋ/, which can also be used as a desideritive or a purposive, and future tense formative /-paŋ-/ above.
Gants has borrowed a large number of terms from its neighbor Kalam spoken immediately to the west. These which follow are incorrectly connected to Sogeram River etymologies in Daniels (2015: 356-392, 2020: 253-291;) a look at the underlying vocabulary from which these materials were drawn would presumably reveal many more. Kalam forms are drawn from Pawley and Bulmer (2011):
| Kalam | Gants | |
| bamboo | akiʎ | akɨ |
| vine | mɨɲ | mɨɲ |
| smoke | sikum | sukum |
Note that Gants' reflex of Sogeram River final apical non-stop /*ɾ/ as palatal /j (Daniels 2015: 114-115) continues Kalam's palatalization /ʎ/.