Northwest Huon
Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Situation
The Northwest Huon Peninsula family, also known as the Kabwum family, consistes of three closely-related languages, Komba, Selepet and Timbe, spoken north and northwest of the Cromwell range, from the Timbe river valley in the west to the Puleng r iver valley in the east, in the Kabwum district of Papua New Guinea's Morobe province. Suter's term Kabwum is the name of a town on the Pumune river in the Selepet language area for which the district is named (McElhanon 1967: 5, Hooley and McElhanon 1970: 1071, q.v. p. 1081, Suter 2018: 7, q.v. p. 4.)
Subclassification
The internal classification of Northwest Huon Peninsula is as follows:
Northwest Huon Peninsula
Timbe
Selepet
Komba
McElhanon (1967: 6-9) gives lexicostatistical figures between Timbe, Selepet and Komba as follows:
Timbe | Selepet | Komba | |
Timbe | — | 57.9 | 51.4 |
Selepet | 57.9 | — | 65.7 |
Komba | 51.4 | 65.7 | — |
In Hooley and McElhanon (1970: 1071) these figures are given as approximately 65%, 50% and 65% with no explanation offered for the significant increase in alleged matches between Timbe and Selepet.
Sources
McElhanon (1967: 34;43) 140 comparative terms for Komba, Selepet and Timbe
McElhanon (1970) dissertation on Selepet (unobtained)
McElhanon (1970) phonology of Selepet
McElhanon (1970) Selepet verbal morphology
McElhanon (1970) Selepet consonants (unobtained)
McElhanon (1970) Selepet pronouns
McElhanon and McElhanon (1970) dictionary of Selepet
McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970) 67 Trans New Guinea comparisons include examples from Timbe, Selepet and Komba
McElhanon (1972) grammar of Selepet
McElhanon (1977) Selepet birds
McElhanon (2012) 1,083 comparative terms for Selepet of Indum and Satop villages, Timbe of Derim and Towat villages andKomba of Indagen village, Gilang village and Puleng valley
Southwell and Southwell (1969) dictionary of Komba
Southwell and Southwell (1972) phonology of Komba of Muin (Koŋe) village
Southwell and Southwell (1972) Komba discourse
Southwell (1976) Komba dialect survey
Southwell (1979) grammar of Komba
Southwell (1992) sketch phonology of Komba
Foster and Foster (1972) phonology of Timbe of Yakop village
Foster (1972) grammar of Timbe (unobtained)
Foster (1981) grammar of Timbe
Foster (1986) Timbe ergativity
Foster (1992) sketch phonology of Timbe
Foster (n.d.) prominence in Timbe
Foster and Foster (n.d.) topicalization in Timbe
Foster and Foster (n.d.) dictionary of Timbe (unobtained)
Suter (2018) comparative Kabwum grammar including (pp. 62-64) Kabwum object-marking verbs and (pp. 204-209) Kabwum desinences
History of classification
The Northwest Huon Peninsula family was first established as the Western Family of the South-West Huon Stock by McElhanon (1967: 6-9, Hooley and MeElhanon 1970: 1069, 1071) the other member of which was said to be the Southern Family (i.e. Southwest Huon Peninsula.) Aside from a period in which the Western Huon families were presented as an undifferentiated mass (McElhanon 1975: 531, 1984: 15,) the immediate placement of these three languages together has not been contested.
Suter (2018: 5, 6-7,) rechristening it the Kabwum family after the name of a town in the Selepet language area, sees it as immediately coordinate to the Dallman family (i.e. Northeast Huon Peninsula) in a Cromwell subgroup of Western Huon.
Historical phonology
[under construction]
Proto-Northwest Huon Peninsula had … consonants and … vowels as follows:
…
…
…
…
…
…
… initial consonants …
…
NW. Huon | Timbe | Timbe | Selepet | Komba | Komba |
McElhanon | Foster | McElhanon | McElhanon | Southwell | |
*… | |||||
*… |
… medial consonants …
…
NW. Huon | Timbe | Timbe | Selepet | Komba | Komba |
McElhanon | Foster | McElhanon | McElhanon | Southwell | |
*… | |||||
*… |
… final consonants …
…
NW. Huon | Timbe | Timbe | Selepet | Komba | Komba |
McElhanon | Foster | McElhanon | McElhanon | Southwell | |
*… | |||||
*… |
… vowels and diphthongs …
…
NW. Huon | Timbe | Timbe | Selepet | Komba | Komba |
McElhanon | Foster | McElhanon | McElhanon | Southwell | |
*… | |||||
*… |
Pronouns
[under construction]
…
Verbal morphology
[under construction]
…
Loans to and from neighboring languages
[under construction]
…