South Kewa

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

Pole, also known as Erave, is spoken around the Erave River in the southeast portion of Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands Province.

Sources

Lind (1921-1922) 69 comparative terms for Tugi Valley

Franklin (1968) comparison of Kewa dialects, partially reprinted in Franklin and Franklin (1978)

Rule (1977) comparative description of Pole, Huli and Foe including including 351 comparative terms (pp. 12-26) and 100 Swadesh terms (pp. 121-124.)

Franklin and Franklin's (1978) dictionary of West Kewa contains a number of South Kewa forms

Additionally, the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Ukarumpa provides a sketch phonology of Pole, but it's undated and unattributed.

Phonology

Rule (1977: 8-10) gives the following 14 consonants and 6 vowels for Pole:

m n
p t s k
g
mb nd ŋg
ɾ
w ɭ j
i u
e o
a

Vowels are further distinguished by the presence vs. absence of nasalization:

i ĩ
e
ɐ ɐ̃
a ã
o õ
u ũ

Initials /p k/ are aspirated, with /p/ optionally realized as bilabial affricate [pɸ]. Alveolar /ɾ/ is realized as [tɾ] initially, and is historically the reflex of /*t/. Initial /g/ is realized as voiceless unaspirated [k].

No information on Pole tone is available.

Pronouns

Rule (1977: 47-48) gives the following personal pronouns for Pole:

simplepossessive
1 sg.na ni-na
2 sg.ne ne-na
3 sg.ipu ipi-na
1 pl.na na-na
2 pl.imi imi-na
3 pl.nimu nimu-na
1 dl.sa sa-na
2 dl.ipi ipi-na
3 dl.nipu nipu-na

Verbal morphology

[under construction]