Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Kemberano is spoken by over 1,400 people (1987) living on both coasts of the Maccluer Gulf on the Bird's Head and Bomberai peninsulas in the Teluk Bintuni regency of Indonesia's West Papua province. The Weriagar dialect is spoken in villages including Weriagar, Taroi and Kalitami, between the Wasian and Kamundan rivers in the southern portion of the Bird's Head. The Barau (Berau) dialect is spoken in Otaweri and Tomage on the Bomberai. The term Arandai more properly refers to its nearest relative Dombano, but has been used in the literature to refer to both Dombano and Kemberano, sometimes including Kokoda (Anceaux 1958: 114, Voorhoeve 1975: 33, 1985: 3, Berry and Berry 1987: 93, 98.)
[under construction]
Galis (1955: PAGE) 16 comparative terms for Jaban-Weriagar
Anceaux (1956) Dutch language predecessor of (1958) (unobtained)
Anceaux (1958) 10 comparative terms for Barau
Anceaux (n.d.) …
Greenberg (n.d.) …
Voorhoeve (1975: 102) 40 comparative terms for Barau
Smits and Voorhoeve (1998) …
Voorhoeve (1985: 4-16) grammar sketch and (pp. 23-38) 371 comparative terms for Weriagar, and 160 comparative terms for Barau drawn from Anceaux (n.d.)
Berry and Berry (1987) …
Hammarström (2010) 237+ comparative terms for Berau of Otaweri
Voorhoeve (1985: 4-7) gives 12 or 13 consonants and 5 or 6 vowels for Weriagar as follows:
| m | n | ||
| p | t | k | |
| mb | nd | ŋg | |
| β | ð | [dʒ] | ɣ |
| ɾ |
| i | u | |
| e | [ə] | o |
| a |
[under construction]
…
Word-final consonants do not occur. Consonant clusters other than /mb nd ŋg/ are rare and are probably secondary.
Voorhoeve (1985: 7-9, cf. Berry and Berry 1987: 107) gives Weriagar pronouns in five case forms as follows; it's unclear if the missing forms below are genuine gaps in the system or were merely unelicited:
| subject | alienable poss. | benefactive | inalienable | object | |
| 1 sg. | ˈneði | ˈnaɣo | ˈnando | na- ~ n- | na- ~ nam- |
| 2 sg. | ˈaði | ˈaɣo | a- | a- | |
| 3 sg. | de | ˈdeaɣo | ˈdaɾo | mu- ~ m- (?) | ø- |
| 1 pl. excl. | ˈniði | ˈniaɣo | nie- | ||
| 1 pl. incl. | ˈjeði | ||||
| 2 pl. | ˈeði | ˈe(ði)aɣo | e- | ||
| 3 pl. | ? | ˈdeaɣo | ø- | ||
| 1 dl. | niˈɣia | ||||
| 2 dl.. | ˈeɣia | ||||
| 3 dl. | ? | ˈdeaɣo | ø- |
Like other South Bird's Head languages, Kemberano distinguishes nominals by gender. On animates for which gender varies, it is typically signified by /e/ masculine and /o/ feminine (Voorhoeve 1985: 9-10):
| masculine | feminine | |
| e | o | |
| old person | mameˈn-e | mameˈn-o |
| sib-in-law | maɾkeˈn-e | maɾkeˈn-o |
| older sib | denaniˈk-e | denaniˈk-o |
| grandparent | detaˈt-e | detaˈt-o |
| grandchild | -ndeˈot-e | -ndeˈot-o |
Some nominals distinguish a plural form with the suffix /-u(-mu)/, the variant /-u-mu/ appearing only utterance-finally:
| masculine | plural | |
| e | u(-mu) | |
| fruit | eβuˈk-e | eβuˈk-u |
| village | ˈmaɾ-e | ˈmamaɾ-u |
| hand/arm | -mboɾ-e | -mboˈɾ-u(-mu) |
| house | tiˈtaɾ-e | tiˈtaɾ-u(-mu) |
[under construction]
…
…
| 1 | enˈati-jo |
| 2 | ˈoɣi-dʒo |
| 3 | ˈaɾo-jo |
| 4 | dʒaˈte-jo |
| 5 | ˈɾaðe-jo |
| 6 | ˈdende-jo |
| 7 | ˈapate |
| 8 | oɣuˈtati |
| 9 | ˈtapoti |
| 10 | toˈɣuti |
…