Nakai-Naki

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

[NOTE: this article is being updated to include Naki material from Williamson (2010)]

[under construction]

…in the Merauke Regency of Indonesia's Papua province

(Hughes 2009: 4, 11-12.) Nakai is spoken in at least two dialects, Nakai and Naki, named after their respective terms for “what?”

Jang (2003: 39-47) 239 comparative terms for Nagi of Kawor 2 village

Wilbrink (2004: 109a-110f) 239+ comparative terms for Sait (Nagi) and Nakai after Menanti

Hughes (2009: 27-37) 239 comparative terms for Nakai of Burunggop

Williamson (2010) grammar of Nagi

There is no published phonology of Nakai. Based upon comparason to Naki and Tangko, Nakai likely has 10 or 12 consonants and 5 vowels as follows:

As [mb] only occurs initially, and [p] only occurs finally, it would be synchronically reasonable to view them as allophones of a single phoneme, although historically this isn't the case.

Phonologically, the most conspicuous difference between Nakai and Naki is the loss of /*r/ in Naki, a devlopment shared with Ninggirum to the southeast.

Nakai-Naki free pronouns are reconstructed as follows, with Naki forms drawn from Williamson (2010: 12-13) and Nakai from Hughes (2009: 28-29) and Wilbrink (2004: 110a) respectively:

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