Dawi River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Dawi River family is comprised of two languages, Komyandaret (Taret, Komyedalin) and Tsaukambo (Tsakwambo,) spoken in four villages along and around the lower Dawi River in Indonesia's Papua province, between the Becking to the west and the Sauw (Tsaw) in the east (Hughes 2009: 2, 4, de Vries 2012: 165, 166-167, 178 after Baas.)

The internal classification of Dawi River is as follows:

Dawi River

Komyandaret

Tsaukambo

Hughes (2009: 3) calculates a lexicostatistical figure of 57% between Komyandaret and Tsaukambo, with a lexical similarity analysis by Sohn is reported to have given 61%. De Vries (2012: 189) suggests that they may be dialects of a single language.

Baas (1981) Tsakwambo (unobtained)

Versteeg (1983) Tsawkwambo (unobtained)

Hughes (2009: 27-37) 237 comparative terms for Komyandaret of Danokit village and Tsaukambo of Waiburu

de Vries (2012 ibid.) Tsaukambo after Baas (1981) with comparisons to Korowai

[under construction]

Proto-Dawi River had 15 consonants and 6 vowels as follows:

…

Root-finally, two archiphonemes occur, /*N/, which reflects Becking and Dawi Rivers final nasals /*m *n/, and /*C/, which reflects voiceless stops /*p *t *k/:

…

Initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels and diphthongs correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with attestations drawn from Hughes (2009: 27-37) and from de Vries (2012 ibid. after Baas 1981.)

For clarity, our presentation is divided into four sections, beginning with initial and medial consonants, followed by final consonants, then prenasalized stops and consonant clusters, then vowels and diphthongs. Fricatives /*ɸ *s *x *h/ are ordered before voiced stops /*b *d *g/ because they are historically reflexes of voiceless /*p *t *k *s/.

Bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in both languages:

Apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in both languages:

Bilabial fricative /*ɸ/ occurs only root-initially in native words,where it is retained as such in both languages:

Becking and Dawi Rivers medial /*ɸ/ has merged with non-stop /*w/ (below.) One example with medial /ɸ/ is a loan from Indonesian /kapak/:

Fricative /*s/ is found only root-initially:

Initial velar fricative /*x/ is usually deoccluded to [h] in Tsaukambo, and is in the late stages of merging with the reflex of unoccluded /*h/ (below.) In Komyandaret, it isusually realized as glottal stop [ʔ ø] but occasionally as a uvular fricative [χ ɢ] :

Root-medial /*x/ …:

…:

Unoccluded fricative /*h/ is found only root-initially:

Bilabial voiced stop /*b/ is retained as such in both languages. Initial /*b/ is sometimes realized as prenasalized [mb]:

Apical voiced stop /*d/ …:

Velar voiced stop /*g/ occurs only initially, where it is retained as such in both languages:

Medial velar prenasalized stop /*ŋg/ might be considered an allophone of /*g/, as they are nearly in complimentary distribution, except that voiced stops /*b *d/ now contrast with prenasalized /*mb *nd/, so such an equivalence would be systemically awkward, and there is at least one example of initial /*ŋg/ (below.)

Bilabial non-stop /*w/ is retained as such in both languages:

…:

Apical non-stop /*l/ …:

Palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

Final consonants ….

Final nasal archiphoneme /*N/ …:

Final stop archiphoneme /*C/ is realized word-finally as a glottal stop [*ʔ]. This is sometimes not heard in one or both languages, and is absent from de Vries' recapitulations of Baas' transcriptions altogether. Where /*C/ is not directly indicated by family-internal data, its presences rests upon outcomparison, usually to Becking River forms:

Prenasalized stops /*mb *nd *ŋg/ …

Bilabial prenasalized stop /*mb/ is uncommon. It is retained as such in both languages:

Apical prenasalized stop /*nd/ …:

Velar prenasalized stop /*ŋg/ …:

Consonant clusters ….

… /*Ns/ …:

…:

Medial apical voiceless stop [*t] indicates a cluster /*Cs/:

Medial velar voiceless stop [*k] indicates a cluster /*Cx/ (cf. Becking River /*mopka/, /*pepka/):

… /*Cd/ …:

Vowels ….

High front vowel /*i/ …:

High back vowel /*u/ …:

High mid front vowel /*e̝/ …:

When /*e/ is followed by a high vowel /*i *u/ in a following stressed syllable …:

High mid back vowel /*o̝/ …:

Low mid back vowel /*ɔ/ …:

When /*ɔ/ is followed by a high or mid high front vowel /*i *e̝/ or diphthong /*aⁱ/ in a following stressed syllable …:

When /*ɔ/ is followed by high back /*u/ …:

Low central vowel /*a/ is typically but not always fronted to low front [æ]:

….

…:

… /*aⁱ/ …:

…:

[under construction]

Dawi River free pronouns are reconstructed as follows, with attestations drawn from Hughes 2009: 28-29) and de Vries (2012: 173-174, 184-185 after Baas 1981):

[under construction]

…