Gondu River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

The Gondu River family consists of three languges, Yogo (Jogo, Joggo,) Tamagario (Tamario, Tamaraw) and Kaigir (Kajgir, Kaygir, also known as Kayagar) spoken along the Gondu (Juliana) river and its tributaries and along the upper reaches of the Cook river just inland of the Casuarina coast in the southwest of Indonesia's Papua province. Its nearest relative is Atowhaim, also known as Kaugat, spoken downsteam on the Cook River, with which it forms the Cook River family, also known as the Kayagar (Kajagar) family (Voorhoeve 1971: 79-82, 1975: 366-367.)

The internal classification of Gondu River is as follows:

Gondu River

Yogo

Central Gondu River

Tamagario

Kaigir

Voorhoeve (1971: 79-82) divides the Kajagar family into three languages , Kaugat, Kajgir and Tamagário. Kaugat (Atohwaim, Atoheim) spoken along the Cook river, is the nearest relative of the Gondu River family and with it constitutes the larger Cook River family. Within the Gondu River family, Voorhoeve follows the Roman Catholic Mission in dividing Tamagário into two dialects, one called Joggo or Jogo and the other designated Tamario in order to distinguish it from the use of Tamagário to refer to both dialects.

Lebold, Kriens, de Vries and Rumaropen (2010: 5): “Some previous researchers have written about the number of speakers and the location of theTamagario language. Voorhoeve (1971) in particular writes that the language is spoken byabout 3,500 people in 13 villages (Taragay, Anit, Kayegai, Kageir, Gaumi, Tereyemu, Makabak, Arare, Topum, Pagai, Xaytox, Yame, and Segere). He also reports that the Roman Catholic mission in the area distinguishes two dialects of this language: Joggo and Tamagario (which he shortens to “Tamario” to distinguish this dialect from the entire language). He states that the Tamario dialect is spoken in the central part of the language area, with Jogo being spoken in two areas—one area to the north and one area to the south-west.”

Kriens, Lebold and Menanti (2011: 5): “Previous research indicates that Kayagar and Tamagario [tcg] are closely-related languages. In fact, Voorhoeve (1971) states that the dialects of Kayagar and Tamagario may prove to be aberrant dialects of one language. The villages of Arare and Pagai, which were visited during the present survey, have been listed as Tamagario-speaking villages by both Voorhoeve and Silzer and Heikkinen (1984). Voorhoeve states that there are two Tamagario dialects: the Tamario dialect spoken in the center of the language area where Arare and Pagai are located, and the Yogo dialect spoken to the north and to the south-west. While the villages of Arare and Pagai have been considered to be Tamagario-speaking villages in the past, it will be shown in this report that the data gathered during this survey suggests that these two villages are better considered Kayagar-speaking villages.”

Lebold, Kriens, de Vries and Rumaropen's three villages, Kaitok, Sigare and Yame, are shown as Xajtox (36,) Jame (37) and Segere (38) in Voorhoeve's (1971: 80) list of villages, and constitute the northernmost enclave of Jogo in the accompaying map (p. 79.)

Drabbe (n.d.) grammar sktch of Tamagário (unobtained)

Anceaux (n.d.) vocabulary of Arare village as excerpted in Greenberg (n.d.)

Lommertsen (n.d.) grammar sketches of Joggo and Kaygir (unobtained)     Voorhoeve (1971: 79-88, 110-114) 107 comparative terms for Kajgir of Kawem village and Tamagário of Arare village

Voorhoeve (1975: 367-368) sketch phonologies and pronouns for Tamagário and Kaygir

Voorhoeve (2007) comparative vocabularies for Kayagar and Tamagario

Kim, Clouse and Price (1987) comparative vocabularies for Kayagar (Kaigir) of Amyam (Jamkap,) Kawem (Puayo,) Kumeru (Kundubawa,) and Kaibu (Haibugir) villages (unobtained)

Lebold, Kriens, de Vries and Rumaropen (2010: 44-53) 240 comparative terms for Tamagario (Yogo) of Kaitok, Sigare and Yame villages

Kriens, Lebold and Menanti (2011: 44-51) 239 comparative terms for Arare (Tamagario) and Atsipim, Okor and Tsemptaipim (Kaigir) villages and 50 for Pagai (Tamagario) and Gairipim (Kaigir) villages

Additionally, we have five survey vocabularies from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, obtained in rekeyed form via Paul Whitehouse. Two represent Kaigir of Kawem and Haipogir villages; these are attributed to “Clouse [SIL]” and presumably originate with the survey of Kim, Clouse and Price (1987.) Three more of Kiworo, Sigare and Yame villages (Yogo,) labeled as Wiyagar, are unattributed; these duplicate the material which was later presented in Lebold, Kriens, de Vries and Rumaropen (2010: 44-53.)

[under construction]

Proto-Gondu River had 8 or 9 consonants and 6 vowels as follows:

Fricative [f] is an allophone of /*p/ found before back rounded vowels /*u *o/.

Apical non-stop [r] is an allophone of medial and final /*t/

This inventory of consonants is somewhat less complicated than the 11 consonants Voorhoeve (1971: 82-85) suggests for proto-Kajagar, including Kaugat (Atohwaim):

Consonant clusters …

Vowels are nasalized when followed by nasals /*m *n/. This absence or presence of nasalization governs the realizations of preceding nasals /*m *n/ and in Yogo also non-stops /*w *j/ (below.)

Sequential vowels are quite common. Observed sequences include /*ie *ei *eu *ai *ae *oi *ou *uo/.

Stress generally falls on the final syllable of nominals, as Cook and Gondu River unstressed final vowels have been dropped. In Yogo there has been a trend towards initial stress.

Initial consonants correspond as follows, where /*N/ is a nasal consonant /*m *n/ and /*C/ is any non-nasal consonant:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Final consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels, vowel sequences and diphthongs correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with Yogo attestations drawn from Lebold, Kriens, de Vries and Rumaropen (2010: 44-53.) Tamagario and Kaigir words from Kriens, Lebold and Menanti (2011: 44-51) and Voorhoeve (1971: 79-88, 110-114) and Kaigir of Kawem and Haipogir villages from Clouse (n.d.)

Any consonant can occur initially.

Initial bilabial nasal /*m/ when followed by another nasal /m n/ in the onset of the next syllable is retained as such in all three languages:

… /*m/…

Initial apical nasal /*n/ when followed by another nasal /m n/ in the onset of the next syllable is retained as such in all three languages:

… /*n/ …:

Reflexes are inconsistent when followed by final /*k/ [ʔ]:

…:

Initial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ ….

…/*p/ … fricated to /f/ in Kaigir if followed by a back vowel /*o *u/.

Initial apical voiceless stop /*t/ …:

Initial laminal /*s/ has merged with /*t/ in Tamagario (Voorhoeve 1971: 82-83):

[NOTE: /*k/ vs. /*x/ has not yet been worked out]

…:

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ when followed by non-back rounded vowels /*i *e *a/ is retained as such in all three languages/:

When initial /*w/ is followed by mid back rou nded vowel /*o/, it is occluded to [gʷ g] in Tamagario and Yogo, or to [ŋʷ ŋ] in Yogo if the next consonant is a nasal:

… /*w/ …:

No examples of the segment /*wu/ have been identified.

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ …

… /*j/ …

… medial consonants …

Medial bilabial nasal /*m/, unlike intiial /*m/ (above,) is never denasalized:

Medial apical nasal /*n/, unlike intial /*n/ (above,) is never denasalized :

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is generally retained as such in all three languages

Medial /*t/ is lenited to /r/ in Tamagario and Kaigir and varies between [t d ɾ] in Yogo. Final clusters /*tn/ (below) are not affected:

In Tamagario, this created a new phoneme /r/, as medial and final /*s/ has become /t/ (below.)

The disposition of this loan from Indonesian suggests that Yogo does not distinguish [r] from /t/:

When medial /*t/ is followed by high front vowel /*i/ or high back rounded vowel /*u/, it is merged with the reflexes of /*s/ in Yogo:

Besides Tamagario's defrication of /*s/ to /t/, which creates a synchronic contrast between /t r/ medially and finally, another process is creating a contrast between /t r/ in Kaigir initially, where roots with initial vowels followed by /t/ drop the initial vowels such that [r] becomes sn initial consonant. Voorhoeve's (1971) Kajgir does not drop the vowel, suggesting the change to be of very recent origin, and still underway as both Kriens, Lebold and Menanti's (2011) and Clouse's (n.d.) Kaigir retain the vowel in a few instances. The root /*atu/ “fire” (above) is not affected, perhaps because it is two short (/*ete/ “get up/stand up” below is typically suffixed):

Medial laminal /*s/ has become apical stop /t/ in Tamagario (Voorhoeve 1971: 82-83,) where it contrasts with the lenited non-stop [r] reflex of /*t/ (above):

…

…[ɣ χ]…

…

…

Bilabial non-stop /*w/ has not been observed to occur medially.

Medial palatal non-stop /*j/ …

… final consonants …

Final bilabial nasal /*m/ is very common. It is retained as such in all three languages:

Many instances of final /*m/ reflect an article dating to pre-Cook River. This is discernible internally by the absence of /*m/ in first members of older compounds (below,) by comparisons to Atohwaim in which one descendent has /*m/ which is not present in the other, and by outcomparisons to other subfamilies of Trans-New Guinea in which /*m/ appears only in Cook River. For example, /*oxom/ “water” may or may not be a loan from Awyu /*oxo/ or vice-versa, but there is no final nasal in the Awyu form.

Final apical nasal /*n/ …

When preceded by …, final /*n/ is dropped in Yogo:

Final bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is very common. It is usually aspirated in Tamagario and Kaigir and less frequently so in Yogo:

Final apical voiceless stop /*t/ is lenited to non-stop [r ɾ] in all three languages:

In Tamagario, this created a new phoneme /r/, as final /*s/ has become /t/ (below.)

When final /*t/ is preceded by high front vowel /*i/, it is merged with the reflexes of /*s/ in Yogo:

… high back rounded vowel /*u/ …

Final laminal /*s/ has become apical stop /t/ in Tamagario (Voorhoeve 1971: 82-83,) as have initial and medial /*s/ (above):

Final velar voiceless stop /*k/ …

Final glottal stop [ʔ] in monosyllables

A segmental character for Yogo glottal stop is suggested by the following example, which is comparable to Clouse's (n.d.) Atoheim [dʒoʔom] “person”:

… consonant clusters….

…:

Finally, two homoorganic stop plus nasal clusters are found, /*pm/ and /*tn/.These nasals are syllabic and can be stressed (Voorhoeve 1971: 85):

… vowels….

High front vowel /*i/ …

When /*i/ is preceded by initial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

…:

High back rounded vowel /*u/ …

…

…

Mid front vowel /*e/ …

Initial /*e/ … Yogo /*j/ [j dʒ] or [ɲ] …:

…

Mid vowel harmony … :

Mid vowel harmony … :

A similar pattern …:

In combination with vowel harmony …:

Mid back rounded vowel /*o/ …

In one example of initial /*o/, Yogo …:

…

…

Low central vowel /*a/ …

When /*a/ is followed by /*i/ in the next syllable, Yogo varieties … /e/ [ɛ]:

When /*a/ is followed by /*u/ in the next syllable, Yogo varieties … /o/ [ɔ]:

…

…

Long low vowel /*aː/ is most typically found in monosyllables. It is distinguished from low central /*a/ (above) not only by length but by the interpolation of velars [x ɣ] in Kriens, Lebold and Menanti's (2011) Kaigir and of glotal stop [ʔ] in Clouse's (n.d.) vocabularies:

Outcomparison to Atohwaim and, in the instances of /*naːn/ and /*taːt/, to Trans New Guinea generally, supports the assumption that the Kaigir medial is a latter-day and probably subphonemic interpolation. This phenomenon is superficially reminiscent of the behavior of long low central /*aː/ in Iatmul of the Ndu subfamily of Sepik River, where a glottal stop [ʔ] looks to have likewise been interpolated (q.v. Staalsen 1969: 75-82.)

Several probable examples in non-monosyllables, for which evidence is restricted to Clouse's (n.d.) Kaigir, may well be compounds, for example the Kaugat (Atowhaim) cognate of “ear” is [itʃoxop] (Voorhoeve 1971: 110) while /*taːp/ may be the same root in all three examples below:

… diphthongs ….

The most common diphthongs are /*eⁱ *oᵘ/ …:

…

Final /*ou/ may be occluded in Yogo and Tamagario in a manner reminiscent of the occlusion of /*w/ when followed by /*o/ (above):

Diphthong /*eu/ is known from only one example, with outcomparisons to Asmat-Kamoro (/*[k]ew/) and Marind (/*kiu/):

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…/*uo/ has merged with /o/ in Yogo:

Compounding proceeds similarly to Asmat-Kamoro to the west in that final vowels of first members are dropped. Article /*-m/ is not present on the first members of older compounds: