East Morehead River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The East Morehead River family, also known as Nambu after the name of one of its members, consists of eight languages spoken between the Morehead river to the west and the Mai Kussa to the east along and inland from the south coast in the Morehead district of Papua New Guinea's Western province (Evans et al. forthcoming.)

The internal classification of East Morehead River is as follows:

East Morehead River

Neme-Ndre

Ndre

Neme

Upper Wassi Kussa

Nen

Nambo-Namna

Nambo

Namna

Central East Morehead River

Namo-Län

Län

Namo

Nama-Namat

Nama

Namat

Nambo and Namna are similar enough to be considered dialects of a single language.

Neme and especially Ndre have borrowed extensively from Arammba to the west.

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Anonymous (1895-1896: 106-120) 816 comparative terms and phrases for Dungerwab Tsi (Län)

Ray (1907: 293-295) grammar sketch and (pp. …) comparative vocabulary of Dungerwab after Anonymous (1895-1896)

Lyons (1913-1914: 193-194) 89 comparative terms for Dapo (Län) of Torze and Buji villages, Nombuio (Nambo) of Taberam, Bebdibem, Gembeb, Pongali, Derder, and Rudal villages, Noraia (Nama) of Walal, Mata and Ruma villages and Potoia (Namat) of Wala, Tombuke, Mugakom and Miboni villages

Lyons (1914-1915:186-187) 89 comparative terms for Nenium (Nen)

Herbert (1914-1915: 185) 160 comparative terms for Tanjuamu (Nambo) of Gorigol village

Austen (1919-1920: 121) 118 comparative terms for Karigari (Neme) of Gaganabu village

Ray (1923) … (pp. 337-338) pronouns for Sanana, Potoia, Dorro, Karigari, Tanjuama, Dungerwab and Parb … (pp. 339-340) verbal paradigms for Sanana after Strong and Parb after Riley … (p. 343) numerals for Sanana, Potoia, Naraia, Nombuio, Dorro (Neme) after Riley n.d., Nenium, Karigari, Tanjuama, Dungerwab, Dapo, Parb (Län) after Riley (n.d.) … (p. 347-350) 20 comparative terms for …

Rentoul (1924-1925: 77-78) 104 comparative terms for Moi-e (Neme)

Riley (1930-1931: 832-850) 411 comparative terms for Dorro (Neme) and Parb (Län)

Williams (1936: 30-31) 7 comparative terms for Moive (Neme) after Rentoul (1924-1925,) Karigara (Neme) after Austen (1919-1920,) Tendavi (Namna) after Lyons and Lambden, Keraki (Nambo) after Lyons and Lambden, Wekamara (Nen) after Lyons and Lambden, Kaunje (Namo) after MacGregor, Lyons and Lambden and Tuj (Län) after Lyons (1913-1914)

Bouvé (1998) … comparative terms for Ndré-di of Kiriwo and Sedéfi villages

Bouvé (2000) 167 comparative terms for Nama of Geraita and Seraija villages

Tucker, Boevé, Fuller, Gustafsson and Rueck (2003) survey of Nambu dialects (unobtained)

Rueck (2011) sociolinguistic survey of Nambu languages

Evans (2012) notes on Nen typology and morphology with some comparisons to Nambo and Nama after Siegel (p.c.)

Evans (2012) Nen plurals (unobtained)

Evans (2015) Nen inflection (unobtained)

Evans, Arka, Carroll, Döhler, Kashima, Mittag, Quinn, Siegel, Tama and van Tongeren (forthcoming) reconstructions of proto-Nambu free and bound pronouns

Evans (2015) comparative vocabulariies of Len (Län) of Tais village, Namo Tais of Bimadbn village (?) and Nen of Bimadbn village in Carroll ed. (2015)

Siegel (2015) comparative vocabularies of Nama of Daraia village, Namat of Mibini village and Namo of Mari village in Carroll ed. (2015)

Kashima (2015) comparative vocabularies of Nambo of Drdr village and Namna of Fongarke village in Carroll ed. (2015)

Mittag (2015) comparative vocabularies of Ndre (no village) and Neme of Keru village in Carroll ed. (2015)

Miller and Evans (2015) comparative vocabulary of Nmbo (Nambo) of Arufi village in Carroll ed. (2015)

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Proto-East Morehead River had … consonants and … vowels as follows:

In addition to the simple vowels given above, at least … diphthongs are found as follows:

Velar nasal /*ŋ/ is found only root-initially followed by low vowels /*æ *a/.

While laminal affricates /*dz *ndz/ occur, it is doubtful that they date back to proto-East Morehead, being rather more likely loans from Central Morehead in which they regularly correspond to East Morehead's retroflexed stops.

Lateral non-stop /*l/ is uncommon.

Initial apical non-stop /*r/ in nominals is found in only in loans; however it is quite common in verb roots.

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Initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels and diphthongs correspond as follows:

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