Sialum-Qambu

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Situation

Sialum-Qambu, commonly known as Sialum, is spoken by approximately 640 people (1975) living in three villages, Qambu, Sialum and Nama, in Papua New Guinea's Morobe province (McElhanon 1967: 6, Hooley and McElhanon 1970: 1070-1071, q.v. p. 1081, McElhanon 1975: 533, 1984: 24, Suter 2018: 3, q.v. p.4.)

Dialects

Siialum-Qambu has two dialects as follows (Hooley and McElhanon 1060: 1071):

Sialum-Qambu

South – Qambu (Kwamkwam)

North – Sialum, Nama

Sources

[under construction]

Dempwolff (1905) … Pon and Keseraua (Sialum)

Stolz (1911) Sialum text (unobtained)

Ray (1919) … Pong and Keseraua after Dempwolff (1905)

McElhanon (1968) field note on Sialum (unobtained)

McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970) 67 Trans New Guinea comparisons include examples from Sialum

McElhanon (2012) 785 comparative terms for Sialum of Sialum and Qambu villages

Suter (2018) …

Phonology

[under construction]


Pronouns

Suter (2018: 289 after McElhanon 1968) gives personal pronouns for Sialum in five case forms as follows (morpheme separations ours):

basicergativegenitivepossessiveemphatic
1 sg.n-a n-aŋa n-aŋano -Ø-na na-ja
2 sg.g-a g-aŋa g-aŋano -Ø-na ge-na
3 sg.jaŋ-ajaŋ-aŋa j-aŋano -i-na jaŋ-i-na
1 pl.in-a in-aŋa in-ono -i-dza in-i-dza
2 pl.ŋeŋ-aŋeŋ-aŋa ŋeŋ-ono -ŋe-na ŋe-na
3 pl.eŋ-a eŋ-aŋa eŋ-ono -e-na -e-na
1 dl.ir-a ir-aŋa ir-oro -i-sa ir-i-sa
2 dl.ŋer-aŋer-aŋa ŋer-oro -ŋet-na ŋet-na
3 dl.er-a er-aŋa er-oro -et-na et-na

Careful analysis of these forms shows the base of the second person singular to be underlyingly not /ga/ but /ge/ as it is in Ono (Wacke 1931: 185, Phinnemore 1985: 197, q.v. Suter 2019: 289.) The emphatics are usually formed by the suffixation of the possissive to the base.

Verbal morphology

Suter (2018: 303 after McElhanon 1968) gives Sialum subject desinences for final verbs in seven tenses/moods as follows. Second and third persons are dinstinguished from one another only in singulars (morpheme separations ours):

near pastfar paastfuture present imperativefuture irrealispast irrealis
1 sg. -i-a -ika-ja -gi-a -magi-a -ba -dza-ja -wa-darap
2 sg. -i-na -ika-na -gi-na -magi-na -i -dza-na -i-darap
3 sg. -i-ŋe -ika -gika -mage-ŋe -kap -dzan -ki-darap
1 pl. -i-na -ika-na -gina -magi-na -ŋam -dza-ŋam -ŋam-darap
2/3 pl.-i-ne -ika-ne -gi-ne -magi-ne -we -dza-ne -ne-darap
1 dl. -i-ta -ika-ta -gi-ta -magi-ta -ta -dzan-ta -ta-darap
2/3 dl.-i-net -ika-net -gi-net-magi-net-wet -dza-net -net-darap

Different-subject medial verbs distinguish three aspects as follows;

unmarkedsequentialdurative
1 sg. -ba -ba-ko -mage-ba-ko
2 sg. -i -i-ko -mage-i-ko
3 sg. -ki -ki-ko -mage-ki-ko
1 pl. -ŋam -ŋam-ko -mage-ŋam-ko
2/3 pl.-we -we-ko -mage-we-ko
1 dl. -ta -ta-ko -mage-ta-ko
2/3 dl.-wet -wet-ko -mage-wet-ko