Moam River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Moam River family consists of four languages spoken east of the Ramu river along and to the southeast of the Moam river, a tributary of the Ramu, in the Bogia subdistrict of Papua New Guinea's Madang province (Z'graggen 1971: 79-80.) It is called the Ataitan Family in the works of Z'graggen, after the names of its members,Andarum (i.e. Kaje,) Tanguat, Igom and Tangu (Tanggu.)

The internal classification of Moam River is as follows,with Z'graggen's language names in parentheses where they differ from current nomenclature::

Moam River

Kaje (Andarum)

Tanguat

Igom-Tanggu

Igom

Tanggu (Tangu)

Z'graggen (1971: 80) gives lexicostatistical relationships between the languages of the Ataitan Family as follows:

Capell (1951-1952: 141-143) grammar sketches of and (pp. 198-200) 78 comparative terms for Igom and (pp. 201-209) 81 terms for Tanggum

Z'graggen (1969, 1971: 79-80) brief descriptions of and (pp. 90-91) 16 comparative terms for Tangu, Igom, Tanguat and Andarum

Z'graggen (1972) 431 comparative terms for Tangu, Igom, Tanguat and Andarum

Burridge (1969) ethnography of Tangu

Lotterman (1992) sketch phonology of Tanggu (Nai)

Lotterman and Mackenzie (2005) Tanggu

Foley (2005: 119-121) 59 comparative terms for Tangu and 60 terms for Igom drawn from Capell (1951-1952)

[under construction]

Proto-Moam River had 14 or 15 consonants and at least 4 vowels as follows:

Any consonant can occur medially.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs initially in words with more than one syllable:

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally:

The majority of roots are of the form /*(C)VCVC(VC)/. Final vowels are not found on roots with more than two syllables. There are a small number of vowel-final roots /*(C)VCV/. Two pronouns are monosyllables /*CV/. Consonant clusters do not occur.

Initial consonants in monosyllables correspond as follows:

In roots with more than one syllable, initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with all attestations drawn from Capell (1951-1952) and Z'graggen (1971, 1972) as indicated. For clarity of presentation, the general dispositions of initial consonants will presented first, then those of medial consonants, then those of final cononants. Some details of the forms which follow are necessarily tentative.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs initially in roots with more than one syllable, namely nasals /*m *n *ŋ/ and non-stops /*w *r *j *ɣ/. Initial consonants of monosyllables develop differently than those of roots with more than one syllable, while the set of freestanding monosyllables is very limited, so it's difficult to say whether consonants which have not been found in initial position were formally prohibited in monosyllables or are simply not attested in the limited dataset.

…:

In the monosyllabic root for the third person, initial bilabial nasal /*m/ is dropped in Tanguat. It's not clear whether this is because initial /*m/ is always dropped in Tanguat, or because it has been suffixed so is no longer a monosyllable, such that the loss of /*m/ is regular anyway (below):

… prefix …:

…:

Verbal prefixes /*nd- *ŋg-/ are in a phonotactic class of their own, as they are monosyllabic roots but follow patterns of loss characterisstic of the initial consonants of roots with more than one syllable (below.) That these are prefixes is evident by the facts that these patterns don't occur in nominals and that several verbs can appear with either of them.

… /*nd-/ …:

… /*ŋg-/ …:

… /*s-/ …:

…initial consonants …

In disyllables of the form /*mVCVC/, initial /*m/ is dropped in Andarum and in Tanguat:

One example in which initial /*m/ is unexpectedly retained in Andarum is likely a compound of third person singular /*ma/ (above) plus Ramu River dual /*-ni/:

In one example known to have initial /*m/ in other subfamilies of Ramu River, /*m/ is unexpectedly dropped in Igom as well as in Andarum; this may indicate a loan from the Ruboni Range family to the north, or just a loan from Andarum into Igom:

Several examples in which initial /*m/ is unexpectedly retained in Tanguat are loans from the Tomui River and Sogeram River subgroups of Ramu Tributaries or from other families in the region; these initials are designated as /*m₂/, and are included here even though they were probably not present in proto-Moam River because these loans help illustrate other phonological trends:

The only clear examples of initial apical nasal /*n/ are found in the first person singular accusative pronoun, and in the first and second person duals which are likely to be compounds; here /*n/ is dropped in Andarum and retained as such elsewhere:

Several other pronouns which appear to have initial /*n/ in attested forms are known to reflect disyllables of the form /*VCV/.

Initial velar nasal /*ŋ/ …:

Neither voiceless stops /*p *t *s *k/ nor prenasalized voiced stops /*mb *nd *ndz *ŋg/ occur initially except in verbal prefixes (above.)

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is sometimes occluded to velar [ɣ g] in Tanguat, where it doesn't otherwise occur (below):

Initial apical non-stop /*r/ …:

…:

…:

…:

Only traces of initial non-stop /*j/ are discernible when it is retained sporadically in Igom:

It is possible that some roots shown here with an initial vowel actually had an initial /*j/ which is not attested in Igom.

Initial velar non-stop /*ɣ/ …:

Any consonant can occur medially.

Medial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

When word-medial /*m/ is the final segment of a verbal root …:

Medial /*n/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

When medial /*n/ is preceded or followed by high front vowel /*i/, it is typically realized as a palatal [ɲ]. This palatalization is not phonemic:

When word-medial /*n/ is the final segment of a verbal root …:

Medial velar nasal /*ŋ/ is retained as such in all descendants:

When word-medial /*ŋ/ is the final segment of a verbal root …:

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is sometimes lenited to [ɸ w] in Andarum and Tanguat:

Medial apical voiceless stop /*t/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Medial laminal voiceless /*s/ …:

Medial velar voiceless stop /*k/ is sometimes lenited to /ɣ/ in Andarum, and is otherwise retained as such in all descendants:

Medial bilabial prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ …:

Medial apical prenasalized stop /*nd/ …:

Medial prenasalized voiced /*ndz/ …:

Medial velar prenasalized voiced stop /*ŋg/ …

Medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is often occluded to [b mb] in Andarum, a phenomenon shared with the Porapora River languages to the west:

Medial /*r/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Medial /*j/ is sometimes occluded to [z] in Tangu and to [ʒ] in Tanguat:

When medial /*j/ follows high front vowel /*i/ …:

Medial velar non-stop /*ɣ/ …:

… /*ɣ/ followed by … /*ua/ …:

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally, including nasals /*m *n *ŋ/, voiceless /*p *t *s *k/ and non-stops /*r *j *ɣ/.

Final bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final velar nasal /*ŋ/ is retained as such except in Andarum where it is sporadically dropped:

Final bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is lenited to /w/ [w β] in Tanguat when followed by the nominal article /-ak/, and is otherwise retained as such in all descendants:

Final apical voiceless stop /*t/ is lenited to [r] in Tanguat when followed by the nominal article /-ak/, and is otherwise retained as such in all descendants:

Final laminal voiceless /*s/ is deoccluded to palatal [j] in Tanguat, a development shared with the languages of the Guam River subgroup to the south and southwest:

Final velar voiceless stop /*k/ …:

Prenasalized voiced stops /*mb *nd *ndz *ŋg/ do not occur finally.

Bilabial non-stop /*w/ does not occur finally.

Final apical non-stop /*r/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

Final patalal non-stop /*j/ …:

Final velar non-stop /*ɣ/ merges with /ŋ/ in Andarum and Igom, with /k/ [ k g ɣ] in Tanguat and with /w/ [β v p] in Tangu:

… vowels ….

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