Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Kamoro is spoken by approximately 9,000 people (1975) living around Yamur Lake and along the coast from the southeast shore of Etna Bay in the west to the Mukumuga River in the east in Indonesia's West Papua province (Voorhoeve 1975: 370.) Its nearest linguistic relative is Sempan immediately to the southeast.
Kamoro was the first Asmat-Kamrau Bay language, and according to Voorhoeve the very second Papuan language, to be documented, during the 1828 voyage of the Tríton (Modera 1830, Ray 1912: 323-324.) Modern analysis of Kamoro has been based almost exclusively upon Drabbe's (1953) grammar of the Tarya dialect.
Drabbe (1953: 1, 2-3) distinguishes six dialects of Kamoro, with locations and populations (1953) from west to east as follows:
Kamoro
Western – Japakòparè, Kéàkwa and Umari Rivers, 450 speakers
Tarjà – Opa River, 500 speakers
Middle – Wàkia river to the upper Mimika river, 4,300 speakers
Kàmora –Kàmora River, 400 speakers
Wània – Wània River 1,300 speakers
Mukumùga – Mukumùga river, 800 speakers
To these Voorhoeve (1975: 370) adds a seventh dialect spoken in the far west around Yamur Lake and Etna Bay, some vocabularies of which are discussed and compared in Ray (1912: 326-30.) A survey vocabulary of the Etna Bay dialect is presented in Peckham (1991: 160-166.) The diversity of Kamoro's dialects is such that it might reasonably be asked if they should be considered to represent several languages. No lexicostatistical survey of Kamoro has been conducted.
Modera (1830) variety (unobtained)
Miklucho-Maclay (1876) variety (unobtained)
Robidé van der Aa (1879) Lakahia variety (unobtained)
van der Sande (1907) vocabularies of Nagramadu, Angadi and Goreda varieties (unobtained)
Dumas (1911) large vocabulary of Mimika variety (unobtained)
Ray (1912: 326-330) comparative study of Angadi-Mimika (Kamoro) dialects, including Robidé van der Aa's Lakahia and van der Sande's Angadi, Nagramadu and Goreda as well as Utanata River, Mimika, Kupera Pukwa and Kiruru varieties
Drabbe (1937) dictionary (unobtained)
Drabbe (1950) unpublished comparative vocabulary
Boelaars (1950: 90-102) English-language recension of Drabbe's then-unpublished grammar of Tarjà Kàmoro
Drabbe (1953) grammar of Tarjà Kàmoro, comparison of and (pp. 96-104) 378 comparative terms for Kamoro dialects
Drabbe (1954: 232-255) 100 comparative terms
Galis (1955) 16 comparative terms and numbers drawn from the preceding literature
Voorhoeve (1975: 370-371) general description based upon Drabbe (1953)
Voorhoeve (1980) survey of Asmat dialects and (pp. 61-121) 455 reconstructed terms for Proto-Asmat, including supporting forms from Kamoro drawn from Drabbe (1953)
Voorhoeve (2005: 148-149, 152-154, 158-164) Proto-Asmat-Kamoro correspondences and (unexempified) reconstructions
Peckham (1991:160-166) 208 comparative terms for Nanesa (Etna Bay) variety
Drabbe (1953: 4-6) gives 8 consonants and 7 vowels for Tarya Kamoro as follows:
| m | n | ||
| p | t | k | |
| w | r | j |
| i | u | |
| e | ə | |
| ɛ | ɔ | |
| a |
Apical non-stop /r/ does not generally occur initially. Medial /w/ does not occur in Tarya. There are no underlying consonant clusters. Final consonants appear to occur only on inflected verbs (pp. 9-37, ibid.)
Tarya has undergone a series of sound shifts from Proto-Asmat-Kamoro which make many of its forms superficially quite different from those of its close relatives. First, Asmat-Kamoro /*k/ was dropped from non-medial positions. Apical /*t/ was then backed to /k/, merging with the preserved reflexes of /*k/. Fricative /*s/ was occluded to /t/, a development shared with Ekagi to the north, filing the gap left by the backing of /*t/. Meanwhile, Asmat-Kamoro /*f/ has in the Tarya dialect become /w/ or medially, like /*w/, been dropped altogether, leaving Tarya Kamoro with no phonemic fricatives (q.v. Voorhoeve 2005: 149.) Compounded with proto-Asmat-Kamoro's loss of voice contrast in Asmat-Kamrau Bay stops, the result is a system greatly simplified over a relatively short period of time.
The lack of phonemic voiced stops leaves nasals /m n/ free to vary with phonetic [mb nd b d] in some varieties of Kamoro (Ray 1912: 327, Drabbe 1953: 6) as occurs in Sempan and the dialects of Asmat as well as in the Cook River languages far to the southeast, which likewise lack phonemic /b d/ (Drabbe 1953: 88, 1963: 10-11, Voorhoeve 1971: 84, 1980: 14-42.) This allophony represents the northwestern terminus of a southwest coastal regional phenomenon.
Proto-Kamoro had 9 consonants and probably 5 vowels as follows:
| *m | *n | ||
| *p | *t | *k | |
| *f | |||
| *w | *r | *j |
| *i | *u | |
| *e | *o | |
| *a |
We assume Drabbe's qualities [e ɛ ə] to be allophones of mid front vowel /e/, an assumption shared by Voorhoeve (1975: 370.) Drabbe drew these contrasts in most languages he described, giving the impression of a standardized phonetic rather than phonemic transcription. These correspond to /e/ in Peckham's Nanesa, and we know of no external evidence to support their originality. Accordingly, we suggest only five proto-Kamoro vowels, in keeping with Voorhoeve's (1980, 2005) proto-Asmat and Asmat-Kamoro.
There is a good deal of phonological variation between dialects, as described in Drabbe (1953: 80-86.) Only segments which vary between dialects are presented here. Nanesa forms are drawn from Peckham (1991: 160-166;) Tarya from Drabbe (1953: 80-86, 96-104, ibid.) all other dialects from Drabbe (1953: 80-86.) Nanesa appends to most words a final glottal stop [ʔ], sometimes heard as [t]; these are subphonemic and should be discounted for purposes of comparison.
Medial /*t/ is reflected as /t/ or zero in Wania and as as /ʔ/ or zero in Mukumuga:
| Kamoro | Nanesa | Tarya | Wania | Mukumuga | |
| *-t- | t | t | ø | ʔ [ʔ ø] | |
| sago | *amota | amuˈta | aˈma | ||
| 3 pl. sbj. | *-ate | -atə | -ɛ | ||
| 3 dl. sbj. | *-muti | -muti | -mi | ||
| body/contents | *nata | nataʔ | naˈta | na | |
| very true | *nata-oko | nataʔoʔ | ˈnaɔkɔ | naʔɔ | |
| *-t- | t | t | t | ʔ [ʔ ø] | |
| big | *atowa | atoaʔ | atɔˈa | atɔˈa | |
| thus | *akita | akitaˈrajmuru | aˈkajta | ||
| only | *nata[n/r]e | natarə | narə |
Kamoro /*k/ is reflected as glottal stop /ʔ/ or zero in Nanesa and Mukamuga. It is preserved in Tarya and Wania as well as in the West and Middle dialects:
| Kamoro | Nanesa | Tarya | Wania | Mukumuga | |
| *k | ʔ [ʔ ø] | k | k | ʔ [ʔ ;ø] | |
| wind | *kimi[n/r]i | iːmiriʔ | ˈkimiri | ||
| leech | *kifi | mei-ʔi | kii | ||
| give | *kema- | emaʔ | kɛmə-k | ||
| rain | *kefe | eʔ | kee | kehe | |
| 2 pl. | *ka-rV | a-roʔ | ka-rɛ | ||
| lie down | *kai | ma-ʔaij-aʔ | kai-k | ||
| house | *kame | aːmeʔ | kame | ||
| evil | *kata | aːtaʔ | kaˈta | ||
| hit/beat | *kafo | ma-ʔao-mari | kaɔ-k | ˈkahɔ-k | |
| banana | *kafu | aːfuʔ | ˈkau | ˈkahu | |
| woman/female | *kawoka | aowa-roʔ | ˈkaɔka(-rə) | ||
| heavy | *ikitu | iʔiuʔ | ˈikiti | ||
| one | *ena-k[o]wa | ena owaʔ | eˈna-kɔa | ||
| fish | *e[n/r]eka | ereijaʔ | ereka | ||
| snake sp. | *ameroko | aːmeroʔoʔ | |||
| near | *afaro-kopea | afaro-peaʔ | aˈwarɔ-ˈkɔpea | ahɔ-ˈkɔpea | afa-ˈʔɔpea |
| thus | *akita | akita-ˈrajmuru | aˈkajta | ||
| speech/voice | *akuwera | auwera-mari | akwerə | aʔuerə | |
| new | *aji-ku | aiʔuʔ | ˈajku | ||
| fly (n.) | *opoko | opoʔoʔ | ˈkɔpɔkɔ [sic] | ||
| true | *oko | ɔkɔ | ɔ | ||
| thunder | *uraiki | ʔuraiʔiʔ | ˈuraki | ||
| weep/cry | *make-make | maʔe-maʔe- | makə makə | ||
| long | *majiku | maiuʔ | ˈmajku | ||
| wet | *moko | moʔoʔ | mɔkɔ | ||
| short | *murukuwa (?) | muruwaʔ | muruˈkua | ||
| skin | *pikini | firit | ˈpikiri | ||
| wide | *pajako | paijaʔo | paˈjakɔ | ||
| hard | *pawoko | ˈpaɔkɔ | ˈpaɔkɔ | ||
| mountain | *puka[n/r]e | puareʔ | pukarə | ||
| heart | *neneke | neneʔeʔ | ˈnenəkə | ||
| very true | *nata-oko | nataʔoʔ | ˈnaɔkɔ | naʔɔ | |
| dry | *totoko | totoʔoʔ | |||
| man/male | *jupuka | upua-roʔ | ˈupuka(-rə) |
Asmat-Kamoro medial /*f/ is preserved as [f h] in the Wania dialect, with [f] used by the inlandmost subdialect of Kafukapu (Tarya /kaukapu/) village, but is dropped in (at least) Tarya and West Kamoro. It is also found as [f] in the Lakahia variety and as [h] in the Angadi variety of Yamur Lake (Robidé van der Aa 1879, van der Sande 1907 q.v. Ray 1912: 328):
| Kamoro | Nanesa | Tarya and West | Coastal Wania | Inland Wania | |
| *-f- | f ~ ø | ø | h | f | |
| ear | *ifeni | dʒeni | ˈiini | ˈihini | ˈifini |
| leaf | *efe | seʔ | ee | ||
| near | *afaro-kopea | afaro-peaʔ | aˈwarɔ-ˈkɔpea | ahɔ-ˈkɔpea | |
| pig | *ofo | ofoʔ | ˈɔɔ | ˈɔhɔ | ˈɔfɔ |
| crowned pigeon | *ufu | ˈuu | ˈuhu | ˈufu | |
| head | *ufu | u-peo | u-paɔ | ˈuhu | |
| hand | *mafane | maireʔ | ˈmaarə | ˈmaharə | ˈmafarə |
| dead | *nafo kafo | naɔ kaɔ-k | ˈnahɔ ˈkahɔ-k | ˈnafɔ ˈkafɔ-k | |
| leech | *kifi | mei-ʔi | kii | ||
| rain | *kefe | eʔ | kee | kehe | kefe |
| banana | *kafu | aːfuʔ | ˈkau | ˈkahu | ˈkafu |
| step | *jafe | ˈjae | ˈjahe | ˈjafe | |
| forest | *wafo | wafoʔ | ˈwaɔ |
Likewise, Wania preserves medial /*w/, which is lost in Nanesa and Tarya:
| Kamoro | Nanesa | Tarya | Wania | |
| *-w- | ø | ø | w | |
| lip | *iwini | iiri | ˈiiri | |
| breast | *awo | aoːʔ | ˈaɔ | |
| ghost | *miwi | ˈmii | miˈwi |
Drabbe (1953: 71-72) gives the following pronouns for Tarya Kamoro in five case forms. As in proto-Asmat-Kamoro, there is no number distinction in the third person:
| base form | unmarked | subject | accusative | dative | possesive | |
| 1 sg. | nɔ | no-ˈrɔ | nu-ˈru(-wə) | nɔ-ˈa | nɔ-ˈma | ˈnɔ-atja |
| 2 sg. | ɔ | ɔ-ˈrɔ | u-ˈru(-wə) | ɔ-ˈa | ɔ-ˈma | ˈɔ-r-atja |
| 3 sg./pl. | a | a-rɛ | a-ˈru(-wə) | a | a-ˈma | ˈa-r-atja |
| 1 pl. | na | na-rɛ | na-ˈru(-wə) | ˈna-a | na-ˈma | ˈna-atja |
| 2 pl. | ka | ka-rɛ | ka-ˈru(-wə) | ˈka-a | ka-ˈma | ˈka-atja |
Drabbe's duals are of recent origin and are compounds with /jamane/ “two”. In the first person, this is followed by the possessive suffix. Second/third person feminine forms are based upon /kaoka/ “woman”. Second and third person duals are distinguished in the dative by the postposition of the plural dative forms:
| unmarked | subject | accusative | dative | possesive | |
| 1 dl. | na-re jaˈmin-atja | na-ˈru jaˈmin-atja | ˈna-a jaˈmin-atja | na-ˈma jaˈmin–atja | ˈna-atja jaˈmin-atja |
| 2/3 dl. m. | ˈk-imane | ˈk-imane wə | ˈk-imane | ˈk-imane ka-ˈma (2), a-ˈma (3) | ˈk-iman-atja |
| 2/3 dl. f. | ˈkaɔka-mane | ˈkaɔka-mane wə | ˈkaɔka-mane | ˈkaɔka-mane ka-ˈma, a-ˈma | ˈkaɔka-man-atja |
Like all Asmat-Marianne Strait languages, Kamoro lacks the prefixed inalienable possessors and undergoers common to other Trans New Guinea families.
[under construction]