The Greater Awyu or Digul River languages, known in earlier classifications with more limited scope as Awyu–Dumut (Awyu–Ndumut), are a family of perhaps a dozen

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia. Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...

spoken in eastern West Papua in the region of the

Digul River The Digul River () is a major river in southern Papua province, Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea. It is the fourth longest river in New Guinea after Sepik River, Mamberamo River and Fly River. With a total length of and has a drainage b ...

. Six of the languages are sufficiently attested for a basic description; it is not clear how many of the additional names (in parentheses below) may be separate languages.

History

The Awyu (pronounced like English ''Ow you'') and Awyu–Dumut families were identified by Peter Drabbe in the 1950s. Voorhoeve included them in his proposed Central and South New Guinea group. As part of Central and South New Guinea, they form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea.

Classification

The classification below is based on Usher and de Vries et al. (2012), who used morphological innovations to determine relatedness, which can be obscured by lexical loanwords. * Sawi (Sawuy) *Awyu–Dumut (Central Digul River) ** Awyu languages: Aghu (Jair), Shiaxa (Jenimu, Edera), Pisa (Asuwe) **Ndeiram–Ndumut *** Dumut (Wambon) branch: Mandobo (Kaeti, Dumut), Wambon *** Ndeiram River: Kombai–Wanggom *North Digul River ** Awbono-Bayono **Becking–Dawi *** Dawi River: Komyandaret, Tsaukambo *** Becking River: Korowai Sawi is classified on pronominal data, as the morphological data used for the rest of the family is not available. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) exclude Awbono-Bayono, treating it as a separate family. Various other languages can be found in the literature. Ario (Sumagaxe) is listed in Wurm, Foley, etc., but not in the University of Amsterdam survey and has been dropped by ''Ethnologue''. ''Ethnologue'' lists a 'Central Awyu', but this is not attested as a distinct language (U. Amsterdam). In general, the names in ''Ethnologue'' are quite confused, and older editions speak of names from Wurm (1982), such as ''Mapi, Kia, Upper Digul, Upper Kaeme'', which are names of language surveys along the rivers of those names, and may actually refer to

Ok languages The Ok languages are a family of about a dozen related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known i ...

rather than to Awyu. van den Heuvel & Fedden (2014) argue that Greater Awyu and Greater Ok are not genetically related, but that their similarities are due to intensive contact.

Reconstruction

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs "perhaps" 15 consonants and 8 vowels, as follows:New Guinea World
/ref> : :

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as: : Ross (2005) reconstructs the pronouns of the Awyu–Dumut branch as follows: : The suffix *-p and the change of the final TNG *a vowel to *u do not appear in the possessive pronouns: ''*na, *ga, *ya/wa, *na-ga, *ga-ga, *ya-ga''.

Basic vocabulary

Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2000)

The following selected reconstructions of Proto-Awyu-Dumut, Proto-Awyu, and Proto-Dumut by Voorhoeve are from Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2000), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

Usher (2020)

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Digul River and lower-level reconstructions by Usher (2020) are: :

Evolution

Greater Awyu reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: Wambon language: *''maŋgot'' ‘teeth, mouth’ < *maŋgat *(Wambon S.) ''kodok'' ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok *''mok'' ‘seed’ < *maŋgV *''kotay'' ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu *''kondok'' ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC *''kim-'' ‘die’ < *kumV- *''kinum-'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''ok'' ‘water, river’ < *okV *''enop'' ‘fire’ < *kendop *''(ko)sep'' ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu *(Wambon N.) ''kumut'' ‘thunder’ < *kumut or *tumuk *''ururuk ko-'' ‘to fly’ < *pululu Mandobo Atas language: *''am'' ‘breast’ < *amu *''magot'' ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat *''koman'' ‘neck’ < *k(o,u)ma(n,ŋ) *''(a)moka'' ‘cheek’ < *mVkVm ‘cheek, jaw’ *''kere(top)'' ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V] *''betit'' ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C *''kodok'' ‘foot, leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok *''otae'' ‘bark, skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu *''kiow'' ‘wind’ < *kumbutu *''komöt'' ‘thunder’ < *kumut *''üp'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''kinum-'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''(ko)tep'' ‘ashes’ < *(kambu-)sumbu *''ok'' ‘water, river’ < *okV *''apap'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta

Pisa language Pisa, also known as West Awyu and Asue Awyu, is an Awyu language of South Papua, Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of ...

: *''mugo'' ‘egg’ < *maŋgV, kiri *''mogo'' ‘eye’ < *kiti-maŋgV *''kifi'' ‘wind’ < *kumbutu *''ise'' ‘mosquito’ < *kasin *''apero'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta *''kunu (ri-)'' ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)- *''kekuŋ-'' ‘carry on the shoulder’ < *kak(i,u)- Syiaxa language: *''fi'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''apa'' ‘butterfly’ < *apa( aata *''boro'' ‘to fly’ < *pululu

References

External links

The Awyu–Ndumut languages in their linguistic and cultural context
(University of Amsterdam) * Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Digul River – Ok
**(ibid.
Proto–Digul River
(see also reconstructions of North and Central Digul River) **(ibid.
Digul River
New Guinea World. {{DEFAULTSORT:Awyu-Dumut languages Languages of Indonesia Awyu–Ok languages