Central Awyu

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

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The Central Awyu family is comprised of perhaps two languages spoken to either side of the Mappi River, from the Wildeman River in the west to the Digul in the east, in Indonesia's …

The best known member of Central Awyu is Drabbe's (1957) Aghu, … The term /*ɾaxu/ [aɣu] means “person” in all attested dialects.

The internal classification of Central Awyu is as follows:

Central Awyu

Mappi River Awyu

Pasue River Awyu

Mappi River is represented here by Drabbe's (1957) Aghu and by Digul Mappi of the Holle lists (Stokhof ed. 1982: 133-140); Pasue River by Kriens and Lebold's (2010) Taim, Nohon and Ketah. This division can only be tentative, as no data is available for the varieties spoken in the center of the Central Awyu region.

Kriens and Lebold (2010: 26-27) provide lexical similarity figures between nine Central Awyu villages as follows:

Of these, vocabularies are given for only Keta, Nohon and Taim (pp. 40-53.) As lexicostatistical figures are provided only for the villages at the western edge of Drabbe's Aghu range on the east bank of the Mappi River (q.v. 1957: vii,) it's probable that none of these precisely represents the variety which Drabbe documented, but it's reasonable to assume that this would continue this chain.

Drabbe (1957) grammar and (pp. 47-51) 401 comparative terms for Aghu (Mappi River)

Drabbe (1959: 162-181) 400 comparative terms for Aghu

Stokhof ed. (1982: 133-140) comparative vocabulary of Digul Mappi after van Doorn

Kriens and Lebold (2010: 40-53) 239 comparative terms for Awyu of Ketah, Nohon and Taim villages (Pasue River)

Wester (2014) Awyu-Dumut comparative morphology including (pp. 195-210) 430 comparative terms for Aghu after Drabbe (1959: 162-181)

Proto Central Awyu had 14 to 18 consonants and 6 vowels as follows:

The status of prenasalized stops /*mb *nd *ŋg/ depends upon whether they are to be analyzed as unit phonemes or as clusters.

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These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with …

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

Apical nasal /*n/ is significantly less common than biliabial /*m/. It is retained as such in all descendants:

Bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is uncommon. It is retained as such in all descendants:

Apical voiceless stop /*t/ is somewhat uncommon, as it had been palatalized and fricated to merged with /*s/ when followed by high and high mid vowels /*i *ʉ *u *e̞ *o̞/ (Healey 1970: 1001, 1007.) It is retained as such in all descendants:

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

Bilabial voiced stop /*b/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial apical voiced stop /*d/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Medial apical /*d/ is lenited to [r] in Nohon and sometimes in Taim. Kriens and Lebold's <r>, presumably a trill, is never palatalized or dropped and remains distinct from the retained reflexes of apical non-stop /*ɾ/ (below):

Velar voiced stop /*g/ is retained as such in all descendants:

When medial /*g/ follows nasal /*m/ in a previous syllable, it is prenasalized to [ŋg] in Nohon and Ketah:

Prenasalized stops /*mb *nd *ŋg/ occur only medially. …

One example is indeterminate between /*d/ and /*nd/, an uncertainty also found in West Awyu in the same root:

Bilabial fricative /*ɸ/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Fricative /*s/ is most often but not always followed by high vowels /*i *ʉ *u/, because /*t/ had previously merged with /*s/ in this environment. It remains contrastive with /*t/ when followed by non-high vowels /*a *ɔ/:

When followed by high central cowel /*ʉ/, /*s/ is typically but not invariably realized as [ʃ] in Drabbe's Aghu:

Velar fricative /*x/ …

In several words with three or more syllables, /*x/ is dropped in Drabbe's Aghu between successive like vowels /*a *ɔ/; this is not exceptionless (above):

Apical non-stop /*ɾ/ is alternately retained, palatalized or dropped in all descendants except Drabbe's Aghu, in which it is invariably dropped:

Palatal glide /*j/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Glide /*w/ is generally retained as such in all descendats:

Additionally, there is a correspondence, represented here as /*xʷ/, which is found only in loans from Marind or Marind-Yaqay, where glide /*w/ is realized as [hʷ] in the western dialects of Marind (q.v. Drabbe 1955: 148-151):

High front vowel /*i/ is retained as such in all descendants:

High central vowel /*ʉ/ is retained in all descendants following fricative /*s/:

In all other environments, high central /*ʉ/ is merged with the reflexes of high back /u/ in the western dialects:

High back vowel /*u/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Mid front vowel /*ɛ/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Mid back vowel /*ɔ/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Low central vowel /*a/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

When low central /*a/ is followed in the next syllable by high vowels /*i *ʉ *u/, there is a tendency for it to be raised to [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectively. This isn't exceptionless in any dialect (above,) but appears to be strongest in Taim:

Diphthongs /*ɔⁱ *aⁱ *aᵉ/ are uncommon:

Central Awyu free pronouns are reconstructed as follows, with forms drawn from Drabbe (1957: 6-7) and from Kriens and Lebold (2010: 42):

Singular pronouns are reconstructed as follows. The third singular is attested only prefixed to kin terms: