Trans-Enga
Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Situation
The Trans-Enga family, one of two primary subgroups of Enga-Southern Highlands, is comprised of six languages spoken over nearly the whole of Papua New Guinea's Enga Province and into the southernmost portions of East Sepik Province, with one language, Kyaka, spoken just over the eastern border in Western Highlands Province.
Subclassification
The internal classiication of Trans-Enga is as follows:
Trans-Enga
Ipili
Nete-Bisorio
Nete
Bisorio
East Trans-Enga
Lembena
Enga
Tsaka
Kyaka
History of classification
[under construction]
Historical phonology
[under construction]
Proto-Trans Enga had 11 consonants and 5 vowels as follows:
| *m | *n | ||
| *p | *t | *k | |
| *mb | *nd | *ŋg | |
| *w | *l | *j |
| *i | *u | |
| *e | *o | |
| *a |
All Ipili forms in this section and those following are from Franklin (1975: 264-268, 1978: 84-85,) Nete from Davies and Comrie (1985: 283-311,) Lembena from Heineman (1998,) Tsaka Enga from Lang (1973), and Kyaka from Draper and Draper (2002.) Bisorio attestations are drawn from Davies and Comrie (1985: 283-311,) signified by [d&c], and Conrad and Lewis (1988: 260-264) [c&l].
Pronouns
The basic (absolutive) forms of personal pronouns in Trans-Enga languages are as follows:
| Trans-Enga | Ipili | Nete | Lembena | Tsaka | Kyaka | |
| 1 sg. | *na(-mba) | ni(-mba) | na-mba | na(:)(-mba(la)) | ná{:)(-mbá) | na-(mba) |
| 2 sg. | *ni(-mba) | (n)i-mba | ni-mba | ni(:)(-mba(la)) | é-mbà | e-mba |
| 3 sg. | *[e]-mba | (e)-mba-ka | ? | mba(:)(-la) | mbá: | mba: |
| 1 pl. | *nani-ma | ? | nani-ma? | nani(-mba(la)) | náì-ma | na-mʷɨ |
| 2 pl. | jaka-mba | jaɺa-mba | ɲa(:)(-mba(la)) | ɲaká-mà | naka-ma | |
| 3 pl. | jaka-mba | [ɸidowa] | ɲa(:)(-mba(la)) | ɲaká-mà | naka-ma | |
| 1 dl. | *nali-mba | nali-pa | naɺi-mba | nali(-mba(la)) | naɽí-mbà | na-mbʷɨ |
| 2 dl. | lija-mba | ? | nili(-mba(la)) | ɲaká-mbà | naka-mba | |
| 3 dl. | lija-mba | niɛ-'mbʌ | nili(-mba(la)) | ɲaɽámbo ≈ ɲiʎámbò | naka-mba |
No Bisorio pronouns are attested besides first person singular [la-mba] (Davies & Comrie 1985: 310.)
Verbal morphology
[under construction]