Northwest Huon

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Northwest Huon Peninsula family, also known as the Kabwum family, consistes of three closely-related languages, Komba, Selepet and Timbe, spoken north and northwest of the Cromwell range, from the Timbe river valley in the west to the Puleng r iver valley in the east, in the Kabwum district of Papua New Guinea's Morobe province. Suter's term Kabwum is the name of a town on the Pumune river in the Selepet language area for which the district is named (McElhanon 1967: 5, Hooley and McElhanon 1970: 1071, q.v. p. 1081, Suter 2018: 7, q.v. p. 4.)

The internal classification of Northwest Huon Peninsula is as follows:

Northwest Huon Peninsula

Timbe

Selepet

Komba

McElhanon (1967: 6-9) gives lexicostatistical figures between Timbe, Selepet and Komba as follows:

In Hooley and McElhanon (1970: 1071) these figures are given as approximately 65%, 50% and 65% with no explanation offered for the significant increase in alleged matches between Timbe and Selepet.

McElhanon (1967: 34;43) 140 comparative terms for Komba, Selepet and Timbe

McElhanon (1970) dissertation on Selepet (unobtained)

McElhanon (1970) phonology of Selepet

McElhanon (1970) Selepet verbal morphology

McElhanon (1970) Selepet consonants (unobtained)

McElhanon (1970) Selepet pronouns

McElhanon and McElhanon (1970) dictionary of Selepet

McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970) 67 Trans New Guinea comparisons include examples from Timbe, Selepet and Komba

McElhanon (1972) grammar of Selepet

McElhanon (1977) Selepet birds

McElhanon (2012) 1,083 comparative terms for Selepet of Indum and Satop villages, Timbe of Derim and Towat villages andKomba of Indagen village, Gilang village and Puleng valley

Southwell and Southwell (1969) dictionary of Komba

Southwell and Southwell (1972) phonology of Komba of Muin (Koŋe) village

Southwell and Southwell (1972) Komba discourse

Southwell (1976) Komba dialect survey

Southwell (1979) grammar of Komba

Southwell (1992) sketch phonology of Komba

Foster and Foster (1972) phonology of Timbe of Yakop village

Foster (1972) grammar of Timbe (unobtained)

Foster (1981) grammar of Timbe

Foster (1986) Timbe ergativity

Foster (1992) sketch phonology of Timbe

Foster (n.d.) prominence in Timbe

Foster and Foster (n.d.) topicalization in Timbe

Foster and Foster (n.d.) dictionary of Timbe (unobtained)

Suter (2018) comparative Kabwum grammar including (pp. 62-64) Kabwum object-marking verbs and (pp. 204-209) Kabwum desinences

The Northwest Huon Peninsula family was first established as the Western Family of the South-West Huon Stock by McElhanon (1967: 6-9, Hooley and MeElhanon 1970: 1069, 1071) the other member of which was said to be the Southern Family (i.e. Southwest Huon Peninsula.) Aside from a period in which the Western Huon families were presented as an undifferentiated mass (McElhanon 1975: 531, 1984: 15,) the immediate placement of these three languages together has not been contested.

Suter (2018: 5, 6-7,) rechristening it the Kabwum family after the name of a town in the Selepet language area, sees it as immediately coordinate to the Dallman family (i.e. Northeast Huon Peninsula) in a Cromwell subgroup of Western Huon.

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