Kaser

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute, developed with Robert Petterson

Kaser, also known as Ikobi-Mena following Franklin (1973,) is spoken in at least seven villages along the Turama and Kikori rivers in Papua New Guinea's Gulf province. It is partially mutually intelligible with its nearest relatives, Mouwase along the Omati river to the southeast and Barikewa to the north. According to Petterson, there are three dialects of Kaser, the Turama River dialect spoken in Kuri, Moka Faia and Koumaio villages, the Kikori River dialect in Baina and Siaviti villages and the Dukemi dialect of Sorobo village (Petterson 2011: 4.) Franklin's Mena likely represents a fourth dialect.

Saunders (1923-1924: 57) 118 comparative terms for Dugeme (Dukemi)

Franklin ed. (1973: 573-575) 100 comparative terms for Ikobi-Kairi (Kikori River) and Mena

Carr (2006) 190 comparative terms for Kaser of Koumaiou village (Turama River)

Petterson (2011) phonology of Kaser of Koumaio village (Turama River)

Petterson (2011) dictionary of Kaser (531 terms)

Petterson (2014) Kaser verb morphology

Petterson (2014) Dukemi story

In addition to these, a survey vocabulary of Kaser was provided in spreadsheet form by Paul Whitehouse via the Summer Institute of Linguistics Ukarumpa, but it is unattributed. It is not the same as Franklin's or Carr's data.

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The phonology presented here is based largely upon Petterson's (2011, 2011) unpublished dictionary and phonology of Turama River Kaser, supplemented by personal communication, with other Kaser attestations provided by Saunders' (1923-1924,) Franklin's (1973,) and Carr's (2006) vocabularies, and informed by outcomparison to Mouwase, Barikewa and Rumu. As this is a phonology of archaic Kaser, it does not include the most recent loans or the phonemic contrasts that they've introduced.

Petterson (2011 ibid.) gives 11 consonants and 8 vowels for Turama River Kaser of Koumaio village as follows:

We present an only slightly modified system for Archaic Kaser, with 12 consonants and 7 vowels as follows:

Apical voiceless stop /t/, reflecting proto-Omati River /*d/, is found root-initially, with only a few examples of medial /t/.

Apical voiced stop /d/ occurs only root-initially and is found only in loans, particularly from Foiafoia of the Inland Gulf family; however it is well-established and likely predates archaic Kaser.

Unoccluded fricative /h/ is found only initially (Petterson 2011: 11,) where it reflects Omati River apical voiceless stop /*t/.

Bilabial non-stop /w/ is realized as a semivowel [w] initially and as voiced fricative or semivowel [β w] medially. Historically, medial [*β] reflects voiced stop /*b/, not /*w/, but medial [b] /b/ is well-established in loanwords, some of which may well date to the time of proto-Omati River, necessitating a phonemic reassignment of phonetic values. Petterson's system gives this combined phoneme, including what are given here as reflexes of final /b/ (below) as /β/ <v> with the stipulation that initial /β/ is realized as [w] (2011: 21-22.)

Apical non-stop /r/ does not occur initially except in recent loans. It is realized as tap [ɾ] medially and as trill [r] finally (2011. 9, 20.)

Consonant clusters occur only in across morpheme boundaries in compounds.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs word-finally:

Generally, any vowel can occur with any other vowel in the same root. High mid vowels /e̞ o̞/ are subject to a cooccurence restriction, such that high mid /e̞/ does not occur in the same root as other front vowels /i ɛ/, while high mid /o̞/ does not occur with other back vowels /u ɔ/.

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These phonemes and their distributions are exemplified as follows, with Turama River Kaser attestations drawn from Carr (2006) and Petterson (2011, 2011, p.c.) Mena and Ikobi-Kairi from Franklin (1973: 573-575) and Dugeme from Saunders (1923-1924: 57,) with Petterson's (2014) Dukemi attestastions indicated by [rp].

For clarity, our presentation is divided into four sections, beginning with initial and medial consonants, followed by final consonants, then vowels, then vowel sequences and diphthongs.

Bilabial nasal /m/ is retained as such in all dialects:

Apical nasal /n/ is retained as such in all dialects:

Apical voiceless stop /t/ is retained as such in all dialects. Root-medial /t/ is uncommon:

Velar voiceless stop /k/ is retained as such in all dialects:

Bilabial voiced stop /b/ is retained as such in all dialects. Medial /b/ [b] occurs only in loans:

Apical voiced stop /d/ is found only root-initially in loans. Medial [d] indicates a compound or reduplication (Petterson 2011: 9) The only example of initial /d/ in Franklin's Ikobi-Kairi vocabulary is given as non-stop [r]:

Bilabial fricative /ɸ/ is retained as such in all dialects:

Fricative /s/ is retained as such in all dialects:

Unoccluded fricative /h/ occurs only root-initially. It is retained as such in all dialects:

Bilabial non-stop /w/ …:

Apical non-stop /r/ does not occur initially. …:

Palatal non-stop /j/ …:

Only a restricted set of consonants /m n b ɸ s r/ occurs finally. Like Mouwase, the Mena and Dukemi dialects disallow final consonants, appending a vowel to them to conform with this rule. This is typically a duplication of the vowel in the preceding syllable, unless the preceding vowel is low central /a/, in which case a back vowel [u o̞ ɔ] is appended following bilabials /m b ɸ/ and a front vowel [i e̞ ɛ] following apicals /n s r/.

Bilabial nasal /m/ …:

Apical nasal /n/ …:

Bilabial voiced stop /b/ … :

Bilabial fricative /ɸ/ has only been found in one root where it is preceded by high back vowel /u/:

Fricative /s/ …:

Apical non-stop /r/ …:

… vowels /i u e̞ o̞ ɛ ɔ a/ …

High front vowel /i/ is retained as such in all dialects:

High back vowel /u/ is retained as such in all dialects:

High mid front vowel /e̞/ …:

High mid back vowel /o̞/ …:

Low mid front vowel /ɛ/ …:

Low mid back vowel /ɔ/ …:

Low central vowel /a/ …:

… diphthongs … (Petterson 2011: 18-19.)

… /əⁱ/ …

… /əᵘ/ …:

… /ɛⁱ/ …:

… /ɔᵘ/ …:

… /aⁱ/ …:

… /aᵉ/ has been found only root-finally:

… /aᵒ/ has been found only root-finally:

… vowel sequences …

… /iɛ/ …:

… /iɔ/ …:

… /ia/ :

…:

The sequence /ui/ has only been found following intiial /k/:

… /uɔ/ …:

… /o̞a/ …:

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Kaser pronouns … with attestations drawn from Carr (2006) and Petterson (2011 ibid.):

In addition to these, a third person singular ergative form [ai-ne] may be seen in several of Carr's example sentences.

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