Asmat-Kamoro

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Asmat-Kamoro family consists of six languages spoken along the nearly the entirety of the southwestern coastal lowlands of New Guinea, from the southwest shore of Etna Bay in the northwest to just north of Kolopom island in the southeast.

Modera (1830) variety of Kamoro (unobtained)

Miklucho-Maclay (1876) variety of Kamoro (unobtained)

Robidé van der Aa (1879) Lakahia variety of Kamoro (unobtained)

van der Sande (1907) vocabularies of Nagramadu, Angádi and Goreda varieties of Kamoro

Dumas (1911) 435 terms for Mimika and Atuka rivers variety of Kamoro

Ray (1912: 326-330) comparative study of Angadi-Mimika (Kamoro) dialects, including Robidé van der Aa's Lakahia and van der Sande's Angádi, Nagramadu and Goreda as well as Utanata River, Mimika, Kupera Pukwa and Kiruru varieties of Kamoro

Feuilletau de Bruijn (1913) Kaja-kaja variety of Asmat (unobtained)

Feuilletau de Bruijn (1915) Kaja-kaja variety of Asmat (unobtained)

Drabbe (1950) unpublished comparative vocabularies of Kamoro, Sempan and Asmat

Boelaars (1950: 90-102) English-language recension of Drabbe's then-unpublished grammar of Tarjà Kàmoro

Drabbe (1953) grammar of Tarjà Kàmoro, comparison of Kamoro dialects and (pp. 96-104) 378 comparative terms for Kàmoro, Sémpan and Asmat

Drabbe (1954: 232-255) 100 comparative terms for Kàmoro, Sémpan and Kawenak (Central Asmat)t

Drabbe (1958) grammar of Keenok (Central Asmat) of Amor village

Drabbe (n.d.) dictionary of Keenok (Central Asmat) of Amor village

Drabbe (1959) grammar of Kawenak (Central Asmat) (unobtained)

Drabbe (1959) dictionary of Kawenak (Central Asmat) (unobtained)

Drabbe (1963) study of Asmat dialects and (pp. 212-233) 377 comparative terms for Kawenak, Keenok and Keenakap varieties of Central Asmat, Kaünak (Citak) and Kaweinag (Casuarina Coast)

Drabbe (n.d.) dictionary of Kàmoro (unobtained)

Drabbe (n.d.) dictionary of Sémpan (unobtained)

Galis (1955) 16 comparative terms and numbers drawn from the preceding literature

Voorhoeve (1965) dictionary and grammar of Flamingo Bay variety (Surú village) of Kawenak (Central) Asmat

Voorhoeve (1975: 369-374) general description of member languages based primarily upon Drabbe (1953, 1963)

Voorhoeve (1980) survey of Asmat dialects and (pp. 61-121) 455 reconstructed terms for Proto-Asmat, including supporting forms from Kamoro and Sempan drawn from Drabbe (1953)

Voorhoeve (2005: 148-149, 152-154, 158-164) Proto-Asmat-Kamoro correspondences and (unexempified) reconstructions

Roesler (1972) phonology of Asmat of Ajam (unobtained)

Roesler and Roesler (2011) dictionary of Asmat (Kawenak) of Ayam village

Bromley (1973) orthography of Citak (unobtained)

Bromley (1975) orthography of Citak (unobtained)

van Arsdale (1974: 31-32) 66 comparative terms for Awok (Keenakap,) Wooi-Karmbis, Jinak (Tamnim,) Brazza and Upper Eilanden (Citak)

Peckham (1991:160-166) 208 comparative terms for Nanesa (Etna Bay) Kamoro

Lebold, Kriens and Susanto (2013) 239 comaprative terms for Central Asmat (Kawenak) of Isyaman village

Asmat-Kamoro

Kamoro-Sempan

Kamoro

Sempan

Asmat

Casuarina Coast Asmat

Citak Asmat

North Asmat

Central Asmat

The Kamoro-Sempan node is too shallow to merit a reconstruction of its own. The Asmat-Kamoro languages can also be viewed as a chain from Kamoro in the northwest to Asmat in the southeast.

[under construction]

Proto-Asmat-Kamoro had 11 consonants and probably 5 vowels as follows:

This is mostly identical to the system presented in Voorhoeve (1980: 53) for Proto-Asmat.

Apical non-stop /*r/ does not occur initially.

Consonant clusters do not occur within roots.

Initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels and vowel sequences correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with Kamoro and Sempan forms mostly drawn from Drabbe (1953: 96-104.) Forms drawm from Voorhoeve (1980: 61-121, 2007) are indicated by [CV]. The reconstruction presented here is based substantially upon Voorhoeve's (1980) Proto-Asmat in consultation with Drabbe (1963: 212-233,) and most of the comparisons below appear in one form or another therein. However our reconstructions of Proto-Asmat differ in some details, and Kamoro and Sempan comparisons have not hitherto been laid out completely and in a phonologically-driven manner, while comparisons involving only Kamoro and Sempan haven't hitherto been presented.

Any consonant can occur initially except for apical non-stop /*r/.

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

Initial apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in three subgroups:

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

Initial apical voiceless stop /*t/ is backed to velar /k/ in Kamoro:

When initial /*t/ is followed by high front vowel /*i/, it is merged with palatal /*c/ (below) in Asmat. It would be just as possible to recontruct these examples with /*c/ since the distinction between /*t *c/ is neutralized in Kamoro and Sempan, but we choose /*t/ because it assumed to be the less marked sound:

Initial palatal stop /*c/ is merged with the reflexes of /*t/ in Kamoro and in Sempan. Excepting sequences /*ci/ which are not contrastive with /*ti (above,) it appears to exist only followed by low central vowel /*a/, although medial /*c/ can be followed by /*o/ as well (below):

Initial velar voiceless stop /*k/ is uncommon. It is dropped in Kamoro and Sempan except in verb stems (below):

As /*k/ is retained only sporadically in Asmat varieties (Voorhoeve 1980: 90, 117, 118,) it's highly likely that some forms which have been reconstructed here with an initial vowel in fact began with /*k/. Some of these may be recoverable through outcomparison; for example /*ewo/ “crocodile” and /*apimi/ “sago pulp” may have really been /*kewo/ and /*kapimi/ as evidenced by Cook River /*keu/, Marind /*kiu/ “crocodile” and Cook River /*keipm/ “sago tree”, even though there is no longer any direct evidence for this in Asmat (q.v. p. 76.) We conclude that Asmat likely is (or was) in the process of eliminating initial /*k/ altogether.

Initial bilabial or labiodental voiceless fricative /*f/ is reflected as /w/ or zero /ø/ in Tarya Kamoro:

Initial apical voiceless fricative /*s/ is occluded to /t/ in Kamoro, filling the gap left by the shift of /*t/ to /k/ (above.) In Drabbe's Sempan, /*s/ is deoccluded to /h/, though Drabbe (1953: 88) states that this varies between [h s] by dialect:

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is generally retained as such in all three subgroups:

Two apparent exceptions in which Kamoro drops root-intiial /*w/ are kin terms which are typically prefixed by possessors:

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ is retained in all three languages when followed by mid and low vowels /*e *a *o/:

There is at least one unexplained exception:

When followed by high vowels /*i *u/, initial /*j/ is dropped in Kamoro and in Sempan. Note that initial /*ju/ develops differently from vowel sequence /*iu/ (below):

Kamoro retains /*j/ before /*i/ in only one word which is conspicuous for being a monosyllable; presumably Sempan would have retained it too had the root not been suffixed:

Any consonant can occur medially/

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

Medial apical nasal /*n/ …:

One example shows an seeminglyirregular loss of medial /*n/ in Kamoro and Sempan:

Many examples of medial /*n/ in subfinal position are reflecrted as /r/ in Kamoro, though this is not an exceptionaless rule as seen above. Perhaps the answer lies in borrowing across Kamoro dialects, for example Robidé van der Aa's (1879) Lakahia shows /n/ in this position (q.v. Ray 1912: 327):

…:

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is retained as such in all three subgroups:

One example shows an apparently irregular alternation between /*p/ and /*f/ (below):

Medial apical voiceless stop /*t/ is like intiial /*t/ (above) backed to velar /k/ in Kamoro, where it merges with the reflexes of /*k/ (below):

When medial /*t/ is followed by high front vowel /*i/, it is merged with palatal /*c/ (below) in Asmat. It would be just as possible to recontruct these examples with /*c/ since the distinction between /*t *c/ is neutralized in Kamoro and Sempan, but we choose /*t/ because it assumed to be the less marked sound:

When /*t/ is followed by /*u/, it is also palatalized in Asmat.:

Because the reflexes of /*t/ and /*c/ have merged in Kamoro and in Sempan (below,) it is sometimes impossible to distringuish the two where there is no Asmat attestation:

Medial palatal voiceless stop /*c/ is found before low central and low mid back rounded vowels /*a *o/, where it contrasts with the reflexes of /*t/ (above):

Unlike intiial /*c/ which is always followed by low central vowel /*a/, medial /*c/ is found also followed by mid front /*e/:

Media velar voicless stop /*k/, including root-initial /*k/ in compounds, is generally retained as such in all three subgroups:

Likewise, root-initial /*k/ is retained in verbs, which are typically prefixed:

…:

Medial bilabial or labiodental voiceless fricative /*f/ is, like the medial reflexes of bilabial non-stop/*w/ (below,) dropped completely in Tarya Kamoro; however it is retained as [f h] in Kamoro's Wania dialects (Drabbe 1953: 85.) It is retained only sporadically in Sempan. Because medial /*f/ is not reliably attested in any of our main sources, some examples can be inferred only indirectly from vowel length in Tarya Kamoro or from outcomparison to Kamrau Bay cognates:

… /*F/ …:

Medial apical voiceless fricative /*s/, like intiial /*s/ (above), is occluded to /t/ in Kamoro and deoccluded to /h/ in Drabbe's Sempan, though Drabbe (1953: 88) states that this varies between [h s] by dialect:

Where medial /*s/ follows another fricative /*f *s/, it is dropped in Sempan:

Medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is dropped in Tarya Kamoro. It is retained in the Kamoro's Wania dialects (q.v. Drabbe 1953: 84):

… medial /*w/ … dropped in Sempan as well as in Tarya Kamoro:

One example in which Kamoro unexpectedly retains medial /*w/ is probably a redupication, at least in Kamoro where the expected form would otherwise be [waa]:

Medial apical non-stop /*r/ is retained as such in all three subgroups:

Medial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

… compounds …

… vowels …

Initial high back rounded vowel /*u/ …:

Three seeming exceptions to this rule …:

One exception is probably a loan from Kamoro into Sempan:

Following initial palatal non-stop /*j/, /*u/ merges with /i/ in Kamoro and Sempan but remains /*u/ in Asmat:

One exception …:

Voorhoeve (1980: 56) observes that clear examples of /*u/ are uncommon in his data.

Sequence /*ui/ (below) is not affected.

Oneapparent exception to this rule might be explained as onomatopoeic, but even so, /*u/ is fronted in several Asmat varieties (q.v. Drabbe 1963: 224-225, Voorhoeve 1980: 116) and should probably be reconstructed with /*i/:

A more intractable example …:

Sequences of high vowels /*iu *ui/ are reduced to /u/ and /i/ respectively in Kamoro and Sempan. Note that the reflexes of /*iu/ differ from those of /*ju/ (above):

[under construction]

[under construction]

Asmat-Kamoro languages have a complicated system of verbal desinences which indicate not only subjects but also objects as well as tense, mood and aspect.

…