Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
The West Kainantu family is comprised of perhaps nine languages spoken in the Kainantu, Okapa and Obura-Wonenara subdistricts of Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands province.
The internal classification of West Kainantu is as follows:
West Kainantu
North Kainantu
Agarabi
Kambaira
Gadsup
Oyana
Ontena
Akuna-Tompena
Central and South Kainantu
Central Kainantu
Awiyaana
Usarufa
South Kainantu
Awa
Oweina
The placement of Oyana above is based upon McKaughan (1964: 99-101, 1973: xvi, 403, 695-698, 699) and Frantz (1976: 75,) as no Oyana data is available to us at this time.
Wurm (q.v. McKaughan 1973: 698) …:
| Gadsup | Oyana | Auyana | Awa | |
| Gadsup | — | 69 | 46 | ? |
| Oyana | 69 | — | 53 | ? |
| Auyana | 46 | 53 | — | 46 |
| Awa | ? | ? | 46 | — |
(Gadsup i.e. Akuna)
McKaughan (1964: 99-101, 1973: 695-698) calculates lexicostatistical resemblances between nine West Kainantu villages as follows:
| Gadsup | Auyana | Awa | ||||||||
| Oyana | Akuna | Tompena | Kawaina | Kosena | Asempa | Tauna | Ilakia | Mobuta | ||
| Gadsup | Oyana | — | 85.7 | 84.7 | 70.4 | 72.2 | 71.4 | 66.7 | 63.5 | 63.5 |
| Akuna | 85.7 | — | 97.9 | 65.6 | 66.3 | 67.7 | 66.0 | 63.9 | 63.3 | |
| Tomp. | 84.7 | 97.9 | — | 64.6 | 65.3 | 69.4 | 64.6 | 63.5 | 61.8 | |
| Auyana | Kawaina | 70.4 | 65.6 | 64.6 | — | 93.9 | 91.9 | 76.3 | 73.2 | 72.4 |
| Kosena | 72.2 | 66.3 | 65.3 | 93.9 | — | 97.9 | 76.0 | 73.9 | 71.9 | |
| Asempa | 71.4 | 67.7 | 69.4 | 91.9 | 97.9 | — | 78.3 | 75.2 | 74.2 | |
| Awa | Tauna | 66.7 | 66.0 | 64.6 | 76.3 | 76.0 | 78.3 | — | 82.6 | 86.3 |
| Ilakia | 63.5 | 63.9 | 63.5 | 73.2 | 73.9 | 75.2 | 92.6 | — | 88.4 | |
| Mobuta | 63.5 | 63.3 | 61.8 | 72.4 | 71.9 | 74.2 | 86.3 | 88.4 | — |
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Proto-West Kainantu had 8 consonants and 6 vowels as follows:
| *m | *n | |
| *p | *t | *s |
| *w | *ɾ | *j |
| *i | *u | |
| *e: | *ɐ | *o: |
| *ɑ: |
In addition to the simple vowels above, four diphthongs occur:
| *ɐⁱ | *ɐᵘ |
| *o:ⁱ | |
| *ɑ:ⁱ |
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Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally. Finals /*N/ and /*ʔ/ are archiphonemes resulting from the conflation of nasals and stops respectively in final position:
| *N | |
| *ʔ | |
| *ɾ | *j |
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Bee's (1965: 1-37, 1973: 739-768) reconstruction of Eastern Family, while formally including Tairora and Afaqina (Binumarien,) is in most respects a reconstruction of West Kainantu. Bee's values are not unreasonable, but are not entirely consistent, and are based upon too few (60) comparative terms to support a reliable system. Equivalences between the values adopted here and those of Bee are as follows:
| Usher | Bee |
| *m | *m *b |
| *n | *n |
| *p | *p |
| *t- | *k |
| *-t- | *r *d |
| *s | *t |
| *s | *h |
| *w- | *kw |
| *-w- | *w |
| *ɾ | *d |
| *j | *j |
| *-ø | *-V |
| *-N | *-N |
| *-ʔ | *-Q |
| *-ɾ | *-V |
| *-j | *-V |
| *i | *i |
| *u | *u |
| *ɐ | *ə *a |
| *e: | *e |
| *o: | *o |
| *ɑ: | *ɔ |
| *ɐⁱ | — |
| *ɐᵘ | *au |
| *o:ⁱ | *oi |
| *ɑ:ⁱ | — |
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