Barem
Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Situation
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Barem (Brem,) also known as Bunabun, is spoken by nearly 1,200 people people (2003) living … … around Masor mountain to the coast, from the Dibor river in the south to Bunabun village in the north … … To the southwest is spoken Barem's nearest relative Manep; to the northwest is spoken Amako … … in the Sumkar (formerly Bogia) district of Papua New Guinea's Madang province (Z'graggen 1971: …, 1975: …, Pick 2020: 36-38.)
Dialects
Pick (2020: 36-38) distinguishes four dialects of Barem as follows:
Barem
Bunabun – Bunabun village north of the Dibor near the coast
Asumbin – inland
Qkuan Kambuar – around the Dibor and in Tokain village to the south
Kimbu Kambuar – inland from Tokain
Kimbu Kambuar is now extinct, the Kimbu community having abandoned it in favor of Qkuan Kambuar and Tok Pisin. Qkuan Kambuar is now itself endangered.
It is unclear from the information given how these dialects should be classified relative to one another, though Pick gies a few words to illustrate how Kimbu Kambuar differed from Bunabun and Qkuan Kambuar.
Bunabun | Qkuan | Kimbu | |
branch | ombek | ombek | ombe |
you're talking | mataβ orakan | mataβ oramkan | mata urampkan |
liver | gaman | gaman | gamaŋ |
Sources
[under construction]
Capell (1951-1952: 193-195) grammar sketch of and (pp. 203-205) 84 comparative terms for Bunabun
Z'graggen (1980: 1-159) 315 comparative terms and (p. 161) pronominal paradigms for Bunabun
Pick (2020: 36-76) sketch grammar of and (pp. …) … for Barem
Phonology
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Pick (2020: 39-56) gives 15 to 18 consonats and 5 vowels for Barem as follows:
m | n | [ŋ] | |
p | t | k | |
b | d | dʒ | g |
[mb] | [nd] | [ndʒ] | [ŋg] |
ɸ | s | ||
w | r | j |
i | u | |
e | o | |
a |
In addition ot the simple vowels given above, five diphthongs are found as follows:
iᵉ | |
iᵃ | uᵃ |
aⁱ | aᵘ |
While not listed in the inventory, a sixth apparent diphthong /uᵒ/ is found in a number of examples.
Plain voiced and prenasalized voiced stops are nearly in complementary distribution. Initially, only plain voiced /b d dʒ g/ are found<. Medially, /mb nd n dʒ ŋg/ are much more common; however a small number of words, perhaps all loans, are found with medial plain voiced stops, such that what were originally position-governed allophones have become contrstive. This motivates Pick to analyze them synchronically as clusters, which in turn requires velar nasal /ŋ/ to be treated as a phoneme. It is highly probably then that Barem originally had only 14 consonants as follows:
m | n | ||
p | t | k | |
mb | nd | ndʒ | ŋg |
ɸ | s | ||
w | r | j |
When preceding another stop in a cluster, voiceless stops /p t k/ can be realized as fricatives [ɸ θ s x]. Velar /k/ is always realized as [x] when preceding another /k/.
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Pronouns
Pick (2020: 313-315) gives free pronouns for Bunabun and Qkuan Kambuar dialects in two case forms as follows:
Bunabun | Qkuan | Bunabun | Qkuan | |
nominative | nominative | possessive | possessive | |
1 sg. | inie | ine | iniar | inor |
2 sg. | nene | nane | nanar | nanor |
3 sg. | ono | une | onor | unor |
1 pl. | inuo | ino | inior | ininor |
2 pl. | ane | nano | anar | nananor |
3 pl. | ono | uno | onor | ununor |
Pick (2020: 65-69, 308-310) gives verbal direct and indirect objects for both Bunabun and Qkuan Kambuar dialects in four paradigms as follows:
direct object | direct object | indirect object | indirect object | |
/aŋg-/ “see” | /aŋgar-/ “show” | /Ø-/ “give” | /kima-/ “tell” /kanaw-/ “ask” |
|
1 sg. | iw- | iw- | -i | -i |
2 sg. | naw- | naw- | -n | -n |
3 sg. | Ø- | uw- | -w | -t |
1/2/3 pl. | imb- | imb- | -ind | -ind |
Verbal morphology
Pick (2020: 57-65) gives subject desinences for final verbs in three tense/mood forms as follows:
Bunabun | Qkuan Kambuar | Bunabun | Qkuan Kambuar | Bunabun | Qkuan Kambuar | |
remote past | remote past | hodiernal | hodiernal | irrealis | irrealis | |
1 sg. | -me | -eme | -ke | -ke | -imba | -imba |
2 sg. | -an ~ -en ~ -on | -Vn | -kan | -kan | -embin | -eŋambin |
3 sg. | -ad ~ -ed ~ -od | -Vr | -ko ~ -ka | -eko | -emda | -eŋgara |
1 pl. | -min | -mind | -kin | -gind | -ombin | -ombin |
2 pl. | -ma | -ema | -ka | ? | -emba | -eŋamba |
3 pl. | -mid | -mind | -kid | -gind | -omdi | -omdi |
(The designations of Qkuan Kambuar tenses are historically accurate, but the distinction between the two realis tenses is well into the process of collapsing, with some subject markers falling out of use.)
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 Iimperatives are found with only three person.numbers as follows:
Bunabun | Qkuan | |
2 sg. | -ak | -ak |
1 pl. | -om | -em |
2 pl. | -awmbo | -amnor |
Pick (2020: 69-74) gives subject desinences for same-subject medial verbs as follows:
Bunabun | Qkuan | both dialects | both dialects | |
perfective | perfective | imperfective | irrealis | |
1 sg. | -memba | -memba | -omada | -mba |
2 sg. | -minbi | -minbi | -omada | -mbi |
3 sg. | -da | -era | -omada | -mba |
1 pl. | -minbi | -minbi | -omadi | -mba |
2 pl. | -mamba | -mamba | -omadi | -mba |
3 pl. | -di | -minda | -omadi | -mba |
Different-subject medial verbs are indicated by the addition of a suffix /-na/ to the hodiernal tense form of final verbs (above.)
Loans to and from neighboring languages
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