Arafundi River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Arafundi River family, also known as Alfendio, consist of four closely-related languages, Andai, Tapei, Nanubae and Awiakay, spoken along the Arafundi and Konmei rivers, tributaries of the Karawari river which in turn feeds the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea's East Sepik Province just across the border from Enga Province to the south. According to Kassell (2005: 2-4,) a fifth language Mongolo, also known as Meakambut after the name of one of their former villages, might be distinguished, but no data was collected to verify this and Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter offer conflicting reports from speakers in Imboin and Kaiyam (Andai) villages (2017: 13.) Hoenigman (2015: 46) gathered data for the now-nomadic Meakambut and concludes their dialect to be immediately allied with Andai within the Arafundi family.

The internal classification of Arafundi River is as follows:

Arafundi River

Upper Arafundi River

Andai

Tapei

Lower Arafundi River

Awiakay

Nanubae

South Nanubae

North Nanubae (Tuaimunda)

These subgroups are very similar to one another and are differentiated by only a small number of mutually exclusive isoglosses. Hoenigman (2015: 46 after Hoenigman and Evans 2013) designates Nanubae as Lower Arafundi and Andai-Meakambut as Upper Arafundi, with what we guess to be Tapei labelled simply Imboin after the name of a village where Tapei (Awim) as well as Andai (Namata) and Awiakay (Karamba) are spoken (Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter 2017: 13.) However, she assigns the Tapei-speaking Awim village to the Lower Arafundi language, which contradicts our data from Haberland (1966: 62-64) and Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter (2017: 48-54.)

These subgroups are distinguished from one another by a small number of mutually exclusive isoglosses:

Haberland (1966: 62-64) 98 comparative terms and (p. 66) number systems for Alfendio of Imbwain village (Andai,) Auvim and Angarat villages (Tapei) and Imanmeri and Wamblamas villages (Nanubae)

Dye (n.d.) survey vocabularies of Avambro village (Andai,) Wamblamas village (Nanubae) and Imboin and Kansomai villages (Awiakay,) provided in spreadsheet format by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics

Davies and Comrie (1985: 283-311) 91 comparative terms for Alfendio (Nanubae) of Wamblamas village after Dye

Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter (2017) 158 comparative terms for Nanubae of Imanmeri, Wambrumas and Yamandim villages, Tapei of Awim and Imboin villages and Andai of Imboin and Kaiyam villages

Hoenigman (2015) grammar of Awiakay of Kanjimei village

Foley (2017: 232-238) Arafundi pronouns and grammar notes for Lower Arafundi (Nanubae) of Auwim and Imanmeri villages

Additionally, a vocabulary from the Penari (Penali) region was provided in comparative spreadsheet format by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics, but it's undated and unattributed. According to Kassell (2005: 2,) the term Penali refers to both the region including the villages around the Arafundi and the Mongolo region as well as a tribe of which the Mongolo and others are members. As its vocabulary is most similar to Andai, it seems likely that this represents the speech of the nomadic Meakambut.

[under construction]

Proto-Arafundi River had perhaps 13 consonants and 5 vowels as follows:

…

Apical non-stop [*ɺ] [ɺ ɾ l] appears to be an allophone of voiceless stop /*t/ as [*ɺ] is not found initally while medial and final /*t/ vary between the two values and palatal non-stop [j].

…

Initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels and diphthongs correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with …

Any consonant besides prenasalized voiced stops /*mb *nd *ndz *ŋg *ŋgʷ/ can occur initially.

Initial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial apical nasal /*n/ s retained as such in all descendants:

Initial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial apical voiceless stop /*t/ …:

Initial laminal voiceless /*s/ is uncommon. …:

Initial velar voiceless stop /*k/ is retained as such in all descendants:

When initial /*k/ is followed by front vowels /*i *e/ …:

Initial rounded velar voiceless stop /*kʷ/ is deoccluded to /w/ in Nanubae and merged with plain velar /k/ in Tapei, Andai and Akwakay:

Prenasalized voiceless stops /*mb *nd *ndz *ŋg *ŋgʷ/ do not occur intiially.

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

When followed by a nasal /*m *n/ or a prenasalized voiced stop /*mb *nd *ndz *ng/ in the onset of the next syllable, initial /*j/ is often nasalized and occluded to apical nasal /*n/ in Andai:

Any consonant can occur medially.

Medial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Medial apical nasal /*n/ …:

… /*n/ …:

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ …:

Medial apical voiceless stop /*t/… :

Three examples in which medial /*t/ is lenited but not palatalized …:

Medial laminal voiceless /*s/ …:

Medial velar voiceless stop /*k/ …:

… /*k/ …:

Medial rounded velar voiceless stop /*kʷ/ …:

Medial bilabial prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ …:

Medial apical prenasalized voiced stop /*nd/ …:

Medial laminal prenasalized /*ndz/ …:

Medial velar prenasalized voiced stop /*ŋg/ …:

… [*ŋgʷ] …:

Medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

… /*p/ …:

Medial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

… final consonants …

Final bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants. In some instances apparent final /*m/ might really be prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ (below):

Final apical nasal /*n/ is generally retained as such in all descendants, though is ocassionally heard as velar [ŋ] or palatal [ɲ]:

Final bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ …:

Final apical voicelss stop /*t/ …:

Final laminal voiceless /*s/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Final velar voiceless stop /*k/ is generally retained as such in all decendants:

When final /*k/ is preceded by high front vowel /*i/ it is palatalized and fricated to laminal /s/ in Awiakay:

Final bilabial prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ …:

Final apical prenasalized vioced stop ./*nd/ …:

Final velar prenasalized voiced stop /*ŋg/ …:

Final bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

Final palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

… vowels and diphthongs …

High front vowel /*i/ …:

High back rounded vowel /*u/ …:

High mid front vowel /*e/ …:

High mid-back rounded vowel /*o/ …:

Low central vowel /*a/ …:

…:

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