The Kwomtari–Fas languages, often referred to ambiguously as Kwomtari, are an apparently spurious
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
proposal of six languages spoken by some 4,000 people in the north of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
, near the border with
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. The term "Kwomtari languages" can also refer to one of the established families that makes up this proposal.
Classification history
Loving and Bass (1964)
A "Kwomtari" (= Kwomtari–Fas) phylum was first proposed by Loving and Bass (1964). The following classification is based on their proposal, with the addition of the Pyu and language, added by Laycock (1975):
Kwomtari–Fas phylum
*
Kwomtari–Nas family:
Kwomtari,
Nai (Biaka)
*
Fas family:
Fas,
Baibai
Laycock (1975)
Laycock (1973; 1975) grouped the languages differently, placing Kwomtari and Fas together in the "Kwomtari family", and Baibai and Nai (Biaka) together in a "Baibai family", and calling the overall grouping "Kwomtari–Baibai". Laycock also added the
Pyu
Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Phyu Township
Pyu Township is a township in Taungoo District in the ...
isolate, though he admitted, "A great deal more work is required on the Kwomtari Phylum before the classification can be regarded as established" (1973:43), and he published no evidence.
Kwomtari–Baibai phylum (spurious)
*Kwomtari–Fas family:
Kwomtari,
Fas
*Baibai–Biaka family:
Baibai,
Nai (Biaka)
*
Pyu
Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Phyu Township
Pyu Township is a township in Taungoo District in the ...
isolate
Baron (1983)
However, Baron (1983) notes that Laycock's reclassification appears to have been due to an alignment error in the published comparative data of Loving & Bass. Their raw field notes support their original classification: They found a
Swadesh list
The Swadesh list ("Swadesh" is pronounced ) is a classic compilation of tentatively universal concepts for the purposes of lexicostatistics. Translations of the Swadesh list into a set of languages allow researchers to quantify the interrelatednes ...
of Kwomtari to have 45%
cognates with Biaka (Nai), while they note that Baibai has only 3% cognates with Biaka, and so cannot be assigned to the same family. Compare (Baron 1983:5 converted to
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioners ...
):
Baron coined the name "Kwomtari–Fas" to explicitly correct "Kwomtari–Baibai", the name under which Laycock's arrangement was commonly known. Baron added a newly discovered language, Guriaso, as a divergent branch of the Kwomtari family proper, and noted that as of that date Laycock maintained the inclusion of Pyu. However, Baron believes there is little to suggest that the Kwomtari family, Fas family, and Pyu are actually related, except that Kwomtari and Fas use similar
kinship terms, which are shared by neighboring families that are not thought to be related to either Kwomtari or Fas.
Ross (2005)
Malcolm Ross linked Laycock's Kwomtari–Baibai family to the small
Left May (Arai) family in a
Left May – Kwomtari proposal, which is based on common
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...
s. However, the link appears less straightforward once the correction is made for Loving and Bass' data. See
Left May – Kwomtari for details.
Foley (2018)
Foley (2018) provides the following classification.
*
Momu (
Fas),
Baibai
*
Guriaso
*
Kwomtari,
Nai-Biaka
*
Pyu
Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar. It is the administrative seat of Phyu Township
Pyu Township is a township in Taungoo District in the ...
Foley (2018) considers the possibility that each of the four groups may in fact constitute a separate language family of its own. He remains open to the idea that they may be related to each other, though he leaves this question open at the time of publication.
Possible Pyu–Kwomtari pronominal cognates listed by Foley (2018) are:
:
Pronouns in
Momu (Fas) and
Kwomtari:
:
Unlike in many other
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogr ...
, nouns in Kwomtari and Fas languages do not have gender,
noun class
In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...
es, or number marking.
However, Kwomtari and Fas languages do have
case inflection, such as possessive suffixes, some of which are:
*-''u'' (
Momu)
*–''u'' ~ -''lu'' (
Kwomtari)
See also
*
Left May-Kwomtari languages
*
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogr ...
References
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*
External links
Kwomtari languages database at TransNewGuinea.orgWietze Baron, The Kwomtari Phylum(accessed 2011-4-15)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kwomtari-Fas languages
Proposed language families
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Papuan languages
br:Yezhoù kwomtarek
ru:Квомтари-фасские языки