The Fas languages are a small
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 ...
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 ...
.
Classification
Despite the fact that the family consists of just two closely related languages,
Baibai and
Fas (40% cognate), there has been considerable confusion over its membership, apparently due to a misalignment in the publication (Loving & Bass 1964) of the data used for the initial classification. (See Baron 1983.) The initial name of the family was Fas, but Laycock (1975) changed it to Baibai when he mistakenly moved the Fas language to the
Kwomtari family, an error perpetuated in much of the literature. Baibai (Baibai and Biaka) is therefore not a synonym for the Fas family (Baibai and Fas). See
Kwomtari–Fas languages for details.
A few regular sound correspondences are apparent (Baron 1983:21 ''ff):''
The odd change from *nd to /k/ (via *hr) has also occurred in the
Bewani languages and some of the
Vanimo languages.
* metathesis still operates in Fas. and metathesis has been reconstructed.
* is lost in some environments. Baibai may be phonemically .
Baron sees no evidence that the similarities between the Fas and Kwomtari families are any greater than with neighboring unrelated families, and thus doubts the validity of the putative Kwomtari–Fas family.
Phonological features
Two papers were published by Wietze Baron (1979, 1983a) on the phonology of Fas. Baron argued that the phonological processes of Fas contradict claims by proponents of Natural Generative
Phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
that
Paul Kiparsky
René Paul Victor Kiparsky (born January 28, 1941) is a Finnish professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He is the son of the Russian-born linguist and Slavicist Valentin Kiparsky.
Kiparsky is especially known for his contributions to ...
's Opacity Principle allowed no exceptions. See
Optimality theory
In linguistics, Optimality Theory (frequently abbreviated OT) is a linguistic model proposing that the observed forms of language arise from the optimal satisfaction of conflicting constraints. OT differs from other approaches to phonological ...
for later developments in phonological theory. Further papers are posted on his website. Recently an honours thesis by Fiona Blake (
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
) has also been posted on the web; she refers to Fas as Momu.
The Fas language apparently has a seven-vowel system. It also has a
bilabial trill
The voiced bilabial trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B\.
Features
Features of the voiced ...
(Baron 1979:95), even though Laycock (1975:854) had expressed his doubts about earlier reports of this feature by Capell (1962).
Proto-language
Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Baibai-Momu (i.e., Proto-Fas) by Usher (2020) are:
[Usher, Timothy. 202]
Baibai-Momu
''New Guinea World''.
:
References
*
*
* , posted at
* Blake, Fiona. 2007. 'Spatial reference in Momu'. Posted a
*
*
External links
Baibai-Momu New Guinea World.
{{language families
Fas languages,
Language families
Northwest Papuan languages