Ono-Sialum

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Ono-Sialum family, also known as the Kalasa family, consists of two languages, Ono and Sialum-Qambu, spoken between the eastern slopes of the Cromwell mountain and the sea in Papua New Guinea's Morobe province. Suter's term Kalasa is the name of a government station in the Amugen (Ono) language area and of a census division (McElhanon 1967: 6, Hooley and McElhanon 1970: 1070-1071, q.v. p. 1081. Suter 2018: 3, q.v. p.4.)

The internal classification of Ono-Sialum is as follows:

Ono-Sialum

Ono

Amugen

Ziwe

Sialum-Qambu

Qambu (Kwamkwam)

Sialum-Nama

Hooley and McElhanon (1970: 1070-1071) give lexicostatistical figures between both Ono dialects and Sialum dialects at 95% but do not provide a figure between Ono and Sialum.

Dempwolff (1905) … Pon and Keseraua (Sialum)

Stolz (1911) Sialum text (unobtained)

Ray (1919) … Pong and Keseraua after Dempwolff (1905)

Pilhofer (1928-1929) 290 comparative terms for Ono

Wacke (1931) morphology of Ono (unobtained)

McElhanon (1967: 34-43) 140 comparative terms for Ono

McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970) 67 Trans New Guinea comparisons include examples from Kip, Zankoa and Karako dialects of Ono and from Sialum

McElhanon and Gambungtine (1976) dictioary of Ono (unobtained)

McElhanon (2012) 806 comparative terms for Sialum of Sialum and Qambu villages and Ziwe and Amugen dialects of Ono

Phinnemore (1976) phonology of Ono (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1982) Ono participants (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1983) Ono ergative (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1985) phonology of Ono of Xip village, Amugen dialect

Phinnemore and Phinnemore (1985) grammar of Ono (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1988) Ono coordination (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1989) Ono questions (unobtained)

Phinnemore (1990) Ono verbs (unobtained)

Suter (2018) comparative Kalasa grammar including (pp. 34-40) Kalasa object-marking verbs and (pp. 160-173) Kalasa desinences

McElhanon (1967: 6-9,) which did not consider Sialum, placed Ono in its own Northern Family subgroup of the North-Central Huon Stock, the other member of which was the Central Family (i.e. South Huon Peninsula.) Hooley and McElhanon (1970: 1069, 1070-1071) expanded this subgroup to include not only Sialum but also Nomu, Kinalakna (Kinalaknga) and Kumukio (i.e. Northeast Huon Peninsula) which likewise weren't included in McElhanon (1967.) McElhanon (1975: 531) avoided the subdivisions of earlier works in favor of an undifferentiated Western Huon Family, in which all these languages were placed alongside those of Huon's other western subgroups, a classification which was reiterated in McElhanon (1984: 15.).

Suter (2018: 2, 3, 5) distinguishes Ono and Sialum from all the western languages, placing them together in the Kalasa family, named after a government statio in the Ono language area, which he asserts to be a first-order member of the Eastern Huon family immediately coordinate to Kovai and Huon Tip.

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Proto-Ono-Sialum had … consonants and … vowels as follows:

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