East South Bird's Head

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

The East South Bird's Head family is comprised of six languages spoken along the south coast of New Guinea's Bird's Head peninsula, with one language, Kemberano, also spoken immediately across the Maccluer Gulf on the Bomberai peninsula.

Subclassification

The internal classification of East South Bird's Head is as follows:

East South Bird's Head

Kais

Iwaro (Puragi)

Kaburi

Kokoda-Arandai

Kokoda

Dombano-Kemberano

Dombano

Kemberano

Berry and Berry (1987: 84) provide lexical similarity figures for nine East South Bird's Head villages as follows, with Kokoda represented by Kasuweri, Tarof and Negri Besar villages, Dombano by Tomu and Kemberano by Kalitami and Wariagar:

	Kais	Puragi	Kaburi	Kasuweri	Tarof	Negri B.	Tomu	Kalitami	Wariagar
Kais	—	28	32	28	45	30	45	41	41
Puragi	28	—	48	34	50	41	50	30	38
Kaburi	32	48	—	46	48	46	48	38	37
Kasuweri	28	34	46	—	86	77	56	55	53
Tarof	45	50	48	86	—	82	63	70	67
Negri B.	30	41	46	77	82	—	57	71	60
Tomu	45	50	48	56	63	57	—	71	66
Kalitami	41	30	38	55	70	71	71	—	86
Wariagar	41	38	37	53	67	60	66	86	—

Sources

[under construction]

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Historical phonology

[under construction]

Dombano (Sebyar) forms are drawn from Voorhoeve (1985: 23-38.) All other forms presented below are drawn from Berry and Berry (1987: 99-117) unless otherwise indicated; those drawn from Voorhoeve (1985: 23-38) and de Vries (2004: 130-137) are marked [cv] and [ldv] respectively.

[under construction]

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	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*m
nose	*mitob	mitubu	mitowi [ldv]	miobi
moon	*mo[k/q]	mokwo					mo'ko [cv]
path	*aum	aumu	aumi [ldv]	aumi	'amia [ldv]		ame [cv]

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*n
tongue	*nun	nuno	nuni	nuni	nini	'nune	nune
one	*onat	onate			onasia	onate	anate
person	*danet		daneta	daneʔi	danetia	'danet	danetu
bird	*kanen	karinu	konini	kaɲiɲi	kanenu	ka'neno	kanine
fog/mist	*sap[a/o]n		haponi [w]	ta'panɔ [ldv]	ta'pana [ldv]
sea	*s[a]wan	sawano		tuano	tuane
fly (n.)	*[k/q]araren	kareinu			kararen	kara'reno	kararene
tree	*qemin	keiminu	kimini	ɛ'mini [ldv]	kemini	ke'mino	kemine
tooth	*resin
man	*rabin	rabine	rafini	ravini	nabini(ja)	'rabini	rabine
leaf	*ron	runu	rona	roni	nonia		rone

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*p			p	p
fog/mist	*s[a]pan			ta'panɔ [ldv]	ta'pana [ldv]

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*t	t	t	ʔ [ʔ ø]	t	t	t
sun	*teg[ed]	tefe		egedi
bow/arrow	*taur	tauru [c&v]					taure [cv]
bone	*toq	toko	toʔa		toka(ija)	to'ke	toke
nose	*mitob	mitubu	mitowi [ldv]	miobi
four	*idat		iɟati		idaci	i'dati	idate
one	*onat	onate			onasia	onate	anate
person	*danet		daneta	daneʔi	danetia	'danet	danetu

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*k	k	k	k	k	k	k
bird	*kanen	karinu	konini	kaɲiɲi	kanenu	ka'neno	kanine
body hair/feather	*karar	kararo		kararu	ka'ra-umu [ldv]	ka'rar ≈ kara'ro	kararo
louse	*kon			'kɔnɔ [ldv]	'kɔnɔ [ldv]	'kono	ko'no [cv]
smoke	*kukub			kukubi	kukubi	kukubi
egg	*wuk	uku	uko	vuko	ukwo	'kuo	oku

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*q	k	k	ø	k	k	k
house	*qein		keini	eino	keni(a)	keine
ear	*qer[aw]	kidabu	kerawa	erawa	kera	ke'ra	kera
tree	*qemin	keiminu	kimini	ɛ'mini [ldv]	kemini	ke'mino	kemine
bone	*toq	toko	toʔa		toka(ija)	to'ke	toke

Voiced bilabial stop /*b/ is fricated and aspirated to /f/ in Kais. This probably followed a previous stage in which it was realized as [β], as in Kemberano:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*b	f	b	b […]	b […]	b	b […]
heart	*birad	firare	biraiɟi		biradi(a)		birare
new	*bo-is		bohi		boisija	'bojti	boite
flesh	*ebuk	fuko				-bu'ke	ovuke
fruit	*ebuk	fuko		-fui	vavuki	bu'ko	ovuku
thorn	*bib	fifo
bamboo	*sobar	sofaru [s&v]
black	*ribin	rififine			rivi-rivini	ri'bi-

Loans from Malay are likewise affected:

	Patipi	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	b	f
stone	'bati	faitu

Apical voiced stop /*d/ is reflected as /r/ in Kais:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*d	r		d ʔ
free augment	*-di	-ri	-ri	-di; -ʔi [ldv]	-di	-ndi	-di ≈ -ri; -ði [cv]
breast	*did	riro	ɟizo	diʔi; 'didɔ [ldv]	didu	du'do	dido
person	*danet		daneta	daneʔi	danetia	'danet	danetu
four	*idat		iɟati		idaci	i'dati	idate
heart	*birad

Initial voiced velar stop /*g/ is preserved as such in all descendants:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*g	g		g	g		g
snake	*ged	gidu		geidi
fat/grease	*gew			'gewa [ldv]	'gɛwa [ldv]		ge'we [cv]

Medial /*g/ is reflected as /f/ in Kais. This probably followed a previous stage in which it was realized as [ɣ], as in Kemberano:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*g	f		g	g		g […]
sun	*teg[ed]	tefe		egedi
dog	ropo [sic]			eroga	roga		rokei

Loans from Malay are likewise affected:

	Patipi	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*g	f
big	ma'gɛn	mafado		maga

Compare Grass Koiari and Humene or the westernmost Oro languages for analagous mergers of peripheral non-stops.

Final /*g/ …:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*-g
two	*[ou]g	uge	uge	oge	ogia	o'gi	oge

Fricative /*s/ is merged with /*t/ in Kokoda-Arandai:

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*s	s			t [t s]	t	t
wipe/rub	*si
lightning	*sika						ti'ka [cv]
wet	*siriri		hiriri		tiriri-a ≈ siriri-ja	ti'riri-e	tiriri
bird of paradise	*sijaŋga						tiaŋg-e [cv]
fog/mist	*s[a]pan			ta'panɔ [ldv]	ta'pana [ldv]
water	*sai	sau			taii	ta'je	taii
sea	*sawan	sawano		tuano	tuane
foot/leg	*sor
sago palm	*sowo(-mo)					to'wo-mo	to'wo [cv]
wash
nail
foot/leg
vein
count
thorn
tooth
	*-s-
new	*(bo-)is	iso	bohi	ito	boisija	'bojti	boite
nail	*asi
count	*mesi
same	*resa
	*-s
new	*is
blood	*a[m/p]as

Loans from Patipi are likewise affected:

	Patipi	Kais	Iwaro	Kaburi	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	s
salt
rattan/rope	waras					wa'rate	wa'rato [cv]

…

	East SBH	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*ts
die
vein
horn
tooth
smoke
hair

Bilabial fricative /ɸ/ in Patipi loans is reflected as /*w/ in Kokoda-Arandai, or dropped before /*u/:

	Patipi	Kais	Kaburi	Iwaro	Kokoda	Dombano	Kemberano
	*ɸ
stingray						'waido	'wajo
mosquito	'kiɸen				kivino	kiki'bino	kivino
	*ɸ/_u				ø		ø
banana	'ɸudi			udi(a)			u'ndi

Pronouns

[under construction]

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Nominal gender

[under construction]

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Verbal morphology

[under construction]

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East South Bird's Head

Situation

Subclassification

Sources

Historical phonology

Pronouns

Nominal gender

Verbal morphology

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