Kambot Ap Ma (Ap Ma Botin, Botin, also ''Karaube''), is a

Keram language The Keram languages of New Guinea are part of the Ramu family. They are the Mongol–Langam languages and a pair of languages sometimes thought to belong to the Grass family. (See Grass languages for the history of classification.) Foley (2018 ...

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 ...

. Compared to its nearest relative, Ambakich, Kambot drops the first segment from polysyllabic words. Kambot is spoken in Kambot village (), Keram Rural LLG,

East Sepik Province East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size. History Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier b ...

Classification

Kambot was assigned to the

Grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

within Ramu by

Laycock Laycock is an English surname, likely originating from the placename Lacock, in Wiltshire (which is pronounced ''Laycock'') or Laycock in West Yorkshire. According to the 1990 United States Census, Laycock is the 22,119th most common surname. N ...

and Z'graggen (1975). Foley (2005) finds the data does not support this assignment, but re-adds them to the Grass family in 2018. Foley and Ross (2005) agree that the language belongs to the Ramu – Lower Sepik family.Andrew Pawley, 2005, ''Papuan pasts'', p 56. Usher restores it to the Ramu family, but closer to the

Mongol–Langam languages The Mongol–Langam, Koam, or Ulmapo languages are a language group of Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea belonging to the Ramu language family. Foley (2018) includes them within the Grass languages, but they were not includ ...

Phonology

Ap Ma consonants are: :

Pronouns

Foley (1986) proposed that Kambot had borrowed its pronouns from the Iatmul language of the Sepik family (

Ndu languages The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. ''Ndu'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as a related famil ...

). His suggestion was that ''nyɨ'' 'I' (1sg), ''wɨn'' 'thou' (2sg), and ''nun'' 'ye' (2pl) are taken from Iatmul ''nyɨn'' 'thou', ''wɨn'' 'I', and ''nɨn'' 'we', with a crossover of person. That is, the Iatmul may have called the Kambot ''nyɨn'' "you", and they then used that pronoun for themselves, resulting in it meaning "I". However, Ross (2005) and Pawley (2005) show that the pronoun set has not been borrowed. The Kambot pronouns are indigenous, as they have apparent cognates in Ramu languages. Similarly, the Iatmul pronouns have not been borrowed from Kambot, as they have cognates in other Ndu languages.

References

* * * * {{Languages of Papua New Guinea Keram languages Languages of East Sepik Province Language isolates of New Guinea