Muyu

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Muyu family consists of at least three languages spoken in the lowlands south of New Guinea's central cordillera and east of the Kao river, along and around the courses of the Muyu and Tedi rivers, on both sides of the border between Indonesia's Papua province and Papua New Guinea's Western province.

The internal classification of Muyu is as follows:

Muyu

North Muyu

South Muyu

Yongkom

Austen (1920-1921: 132) vocabulary of (North) Muiu of Kandam village

Austen (1921-1922: 159-162) 132 comparative terms for Marapka (Yongkom,) West Tedi River (Yongkom,) Kandam (North Muyu) and Anu (South Muyu)

Austen (1924-1925: 75) 37 comparative terms for Ionggom

Geurtjens (1933: 398-433) 457 comparative terns for Digoeleesch (South Muyu)

Boelaars (1950: 68-76) English language recension of Drabbe's then-unpublished grammar of Niinati (North Muyu)

Drabbe (1954: 150-211) grammar and (pp. 214-229) 419 comparative terms and (pp. 231-255) 100 comparative terms for Kati Niinatì (North Muyu) and Katì Metòkma (South Muyu)

Drabbe (1959: 162-181) 431 comparative terms for Kati I (Metomka) and Kati II (Niinati)

Healey (1964: 78-97) 120 comparative terms for Lowland Ok languages and (pp. 170-180) 156 Lowland Ok reconstructions

Voorhoeve (1975: 381-383) general descriptions of Southern Kati, Northern Kati and Yonggom

Voorhoeve (1975: 97) 29 comparative terms for Yonggom of Lake Murray and (p. 98) 40 for North Kati and South Kati drawn from Drabbe

Stokhof ed. (1982) Holle comparative vocabularies of (pp. 123-124) Central & Lower Uwimerah (South Muyu) (unattributed) , (pp. 151-161) Kaôh (South Muyu) after van Doorn, (pp. 163-173) Muyu (North Muyu) after van Doorn and (pp. 175-185) Tanah Merah area (mix of Muyu dialects) (unattributed)

Christensen (1995) grammar of Yongkom (unobtained)

Christensen (1999) orthography of Yongkom (unobtained)

Christensen (2000) phonology of Yongkom (unobtained)

Christensen (2000) grammar of Yongkom (unobtained)

Christensen (2002) sketch phonology of Yongkom

Christensen (2010) Yongkom discourse

Christensen (2013) grammar of Yongkom (unobtained)

Donohue (1996: 18-50) 151 comparative terms for (North) Muyu

[under construction]

Proto-Muyu had perhaps 12 consonants and 5 or 6 vowels as follows:

…

Due to vowel-levelling in pre-Muyu, proto-Muyu native roots are of three forms: 1) monosyllables /*(C)V₁(C) 2) disyllables /*aCV₂(C)/ and 3) disyllables /*(C)V₂CV₂(C)/, with a small number of trisyllables patterning with the disyllable types. Words which violate these structures are compounds or loans.

It might be argued that Proto-Muyu, like Mountain Ok to the northeast, distinguished vowel length, as is assumed for Lowland Ok in Healey (1964.) There are four circumstances in which contrastive long vowels are known to have arisen in Muyu languages: 1) an initial plain bilabial stop /*p/, probably realized as de-occluded fricative [*h] as in Ninggerum, once existed but has been dropped, with compensentory length added to the following now-initial vowel. 2) a word-medial plain velar stop /*k/ once existed but has been dropped, leaving a long vowel with the quality of the second. 3) an initial palatalized plain velar stop /*kʲ/ has been droppped in South Muyu and Yonggom, with the same effect as the loss of initial /*p/. 4) a medial non-stop /*w *j/ has been dropped between high vowels /*u/ or /*i/ respectively.

Since all three stops are needed in proto-Muyu anyhow (possibly excepting final /*p/, which, thought it reflects Ok /*p/ not final /*mb/ which has merged with /*m/, might be reassigned to an allophone of prenasalized /*mb/ per Healey 1964,) we've concluded it simpler to represent these instances at the proto-Muyu level with their lost segments where these are recoverable, rather than with phonemic vowel length.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally:

Initial consonants correspond as follows, with Healey's (1964: 169) Lowland Ok values presented for comparison:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with forms drawn from Austen (1921-1922: 162, 1924-1925: 75,) from Geurtjens (1933: 398-433,) from Drabbe (1954: 214-229, 1959: 162-181) from Donohue (1996: 18-50) and from Christensen (2002 ibid., 2010 ibid.) For clarity of presentation, the general dispositions of initial consonants will presented first, then those of medial consonants, then those of final cononants, followed by those of vowels. Some details of the forms which follow are necessarily tentative.

Any consonant can occur initially except prenasalized velar stop /*ŋg/ and apical non-stop /*r/, although there is no overt appearance of initial plain bilabial stop /*p/ (below.)

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

Initial apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Plain bilabial stop /*p/ is not directly visible, as Lowland Ok initial /*p/ has been dropped in all descendants. However, it is evidenced by the lengthening of the now-initial vowel which followed it:

Initial plain apical stop /*t/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Palatalized plain velar stop /*kʲ/ occurs only initially. It is generally fronted to apical /t/ in North Muyu and dropped in South Muyu and Yongkom:

Palatalized /*kʲ/ originated as the reflex of Lowland Ok plain velar and rounded velar stops /*k *kʷ/ when followed by front vowels /*i *e/, before the qualities of nuclear vowels were levelled to match those of following syllables.

The second person maculine singular and plural pronouns observe this correspondence, except that Donohue's (1996: 41, 44) North Muyu forms are given with velar [k]:

One high-profile exception in both Donohue's Muyu and in the South Muyu reflex is probably attributable to tension between compounded and uncompounded forms which underwent vowel levelling, although why the version /*kon-jop/ isn't /*kʲon-jop/ remains unexplained:

Initial plain velar stop /*k/ is retained as such in all descendants:

One example in which North Muyu /k/ is expected Drabbe gives with /t/, probably by analogy to the second persons masculine and plural with initial /*kʲ/ (above) where /t/ is regular:

Initial prenasalized bilabial stop /*mb/ is denasalized to plain stop [p] in North Muyu and to voiced [b] in Yongkom:

Initial prenasalized apical stop /*nd/ is, like medial /*nd/ (below,) merged with nasal /*n/ in North Muyu, disappearing as a phoneme. It is realized as voiced stop [d] in Yonggom:

Initial prenasalized velar stop /*ŋg/ does not occur, Lowland Ok medial /*ŋg/ having been merged with plain stop /*k/ (above).

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial apical non-stop /*r/ does not occur, Lowland Ok initial /*r/ having been merged with /*j/ (below.)

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ is retained as such in all descendants:

…:

Any consonant can occur medially except palatalized plain velar stop /*kʲ/. Root-medial bilabial stop /*p/ was rare in Ok, and has not been found to occur.

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

Medial apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Medial plain bilabial stop /*p/ is not known to occur.

Medial plain apical stop /*t/ …:

Medial plain velar stop /*k/ …:

One exception to this lengthening in Drabbe's Niinati and Metomka is only found in suffixed and presumably unstressed positions:

…:

…:

Medial prenasalized bilabial stop /*mb/ when preceded by initial low central vowel /*a/ is retained as such in all descendants:

When following a syllable with an initial consonant, /*mb/ is denasalized to [p] in North Muyu …:

Medial prenasalized apical stop /*nd/ is merged with nasal /*n/ in North Muyu and in Yongkom:

Medial prenasalized velar stop /*ŋg/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

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

Medial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally, including nasals /*m n/, plain stops /*p *t *k/, prenasalized velar stop /*ŋg/, which as in other Ok subgroups is invariably realized as [ŋ], and apical non-stop /*r/.

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

Final apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final plain bilabial stop /*p/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final plain apical stop /*t/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final plain velar stop /*k/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final prenasalized velar stop /*ŋg/ is realized as nasal [ŋ] in all descendants, as it is throughout the Ok family:

Final apical non-stop /*r/ … :

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

High central vowel /*ʉ/ …:

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

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

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

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

Due to vowel levelling rules, words of the form /*CV₁CV₂(C)/ are necessarily compounds or loans. …:

Muyu nominative pronouns are reconstructed as follows, with forms drawn from Austen (1921-1922: 162,) from Geurtjens (1933: 430-431,) from Drabbe (1954: 162-164) from Donohue (1996: 40-45) and from Christensen (2010 ibid.):

There is no attested distinction between first person exclusive /*nu/ and inclusive /*nup/ as there is in other Ok subfamilies.

Drabbe's North Muyu second person feminine pronoun is irregular; initial /k/ is expected. Conversely, Donohue's second person masculine and plural pronouns are irregular, where initial /t/ is expected (above.)

[under construction]

…

[under construction]

…