Kalam

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Kalam (Karam) is spoken by approximately 15,000 people (1991) living in the valleys of the Bismarck-Schraeder ranges around the Kaironk river, a tributary of the Jimi, and the Asai and Simbai rivers, tributaries of the Ramu, in the Middle Ramu district of Papua New Guinea's Madang Province, just north of the border with Jiwaka (formerly Western Highlands) province. Its nearest relative is the Kobon language spoken immediately to the west. Kalam settlements are situated between 1,500 to 2,000 meters in altitude and take the form of homesteads from five to thirty people organized into larger kin-based territorial units of up to 300 people. Their primary food sources are sweet potato and domesticated pigs, with taro, yams, kudzu, sugarcane, bananas, pitpits, beans, gourds, greens and now maize also cultivated, but their diet is supplemented by hunting and gathering in the mountain forests (Pawley 1966: 1-9, Lane 1991, 2007: 2-3.)

Pawley (1966: 5-6) distinguishes two dialects of Karam as follows:

Karam

Erɨp Mɨnɨm – lower Simbai and Kaiment valleys and upper Kaironk valley

Ti Mɨnɨm – upper Kaironk valley, Asai valley and Aunjang valley

These dialects are mutually intelligible but differ somewhat in lexicon and morphology. Both names literally \mean “what language.” They are aloso called Etɨp Apay and Ti Apal, the second words meaning “they speak”. Further distinctions may be drawn within these main dialects, with the variety spoken in Kumbɨrɨp and the Kaiment Valley called Mbok Mɨnɨm or Kumbok Mɨnɨm while the variety spoken in the Asai Valley is called Ŋgay Mɨnɨm by some speakers in the upper Kaironk.

Pawley (1966) grammar of Karam

Pawley (1975) Kalam syntax (unobtained)

Pawley (1987) Kalam serial verbs (unobtained)

Pawley (1991) Kalam adjunct-verb constructions (unobtained)

Pawley (1992) Kalam pandanus language

Pawley (1993) Kalam discourse (unobtained)

Pawley (1994) (unobtained)

Pawley and Lane (1998) Kalam serial verbs (unobtained)

Pawley, Kias and Majnep (2000) Kalam bodily and mental processes (unobtained)

Pawley and Bulmer (2003) dictionary of Kalam (unobtained)

Blevins and Pawley (2010) Kalam syllable structure

Pawley and Bulmer (2011) dictionary of Kalam

Sugimoto (1975) Kalam relative clauses (unobtained)

Young (1975) Kalam resultative compounds (unobtained)

Givón (1990) comparison of Kalam serial verbs with Tok Pisin and Tairora (unobtained)

Lane (1991) Kalam serial verbs (unobtained)

Lane (2007) Kalam serial verbs

Pawley (1966: 21-52) gives 16 consonants and only 3 vowels for Karam as follows:

Pawley's vowel inventory, however, was reduced by minimalist phonemic interpretations such that high central vowel [ɨ] is automatically instered between consonants and following single consonants while high front and high back rounded vowels [i u] are reduced to non-stops /j w/ respectively. Consequently, some utterances are given with as many as eight sequential consonants, while some roots are presented as only single consonants where high central /[ɨ/ might otherwise be given. A less interprative treatment would have given six vowels as follows:

It may be telling in this respect that Pawley and Bulmer's (2011) Kalam dictionary indicates [i u] as «i u ».

In addition to the simple vowels given above, five pohnetic diphthongs are found, although Pawley treats these as segments /Vj Vw/:

Voiceless stops /p t c k/, voiceless fricative /s/ and prenasalized voiced stops /mb nd ndʑ ŋg/ have allophones by position as follows:

Pawley characterizes the lateral non-stop as palatalized /ʎ/, but with apical and retroflex [l ɭ] in free variation. Systemically, it is apical an is shown as such above, palatalization being most likely an affectation cquired from the Wetern Highlands languages to the south.

If we assume the phonemic status of high central vowel /ɨ/, there are no consonant clusters except across morpheme boundaries. High central /ɨ/ is not found initially, and is found finally only in monosyllables of the form /Cɨ /.

Pawley (1976: 76, 88-90) gives Karam free pronouns in four case forms as follows:

(Pawley does not explanin the difference between the first and second cases shown here except that first person singular /jɨ-k/ is given as emphatic.)

The dual suffix /-maj/ has variations /-mɨŋal/ and /-mɨŋaj/.

A number of kin terms are differentiated by prefixed inalienable possessors (Pawley 1966: 85-87.) The first person form varies betwen /a-/, /mbV-/ and zero /Ø-/, with the presence of initial /a/ in the root being discernible by whether the third person possessor /nu-/ is relaized as [nu-] or [no-] (i.e. /nu-a…/.)

(Root form analysis ours.)

[under construction]

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