The Grass languages are a group of languages in the
Ramu
The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea.
Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...
language family. It is accepted by Foley (2018), but not by
Glottolog. They are spoken in
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 ...
,
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 ...
, with a small number of speakers also located just across the provincial border in
Madang Province
Madang is a province of Papua New Guinea. The province is on the northern coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and has many of the country's highest peaks, active volcanoes and its biggest mix of languages. The capital is the town of Madang.
...
.
External relationships
Foley (2018) notes that Grass languages share very few lexical items with the other Ramu languages, with virtually no lexical cognates
Banaro and
Ap Ma. However, the Grass languages are still classified as Ramu due to widely shared morphosyntax and typology.
Foley (2018: 205) leaves open the possibility of Grass being a third branch of the Lower Sepik-Ramu family, with
Lower Sepik and
Ramu
The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea.
Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...
being
sister branches.
Like the neighboring
Yuat languages
The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm' ...
, Grass languages distinguish between inclusive and exclusive first person pronouns, a feature not found in most other Papuan languages. This typological feature has diffused from Yuat into the Grass languages.
Classifications
The original Grass language proposal, also known as ''Keram'', included several languages, such as Banaro and
Kambot (Ap Ma), that are no longer thought to be closely related to Adjora and Gorovu.
Laycock (1973)
Laycock (1973) rejected Kambot and noted that Banaro was lexically divergent, and therefore grouped it with the Grass ''family'' in a higher-level Grass ''stock'', a position accepted by Pawley (2005).
Grass/Keram (Laycock)
*
Banaro
*Grass proper:
Aion (Ambakich),
Adjora (Abu), and
Gorovu.
Usher (2018)
Timothy Usher (as reported in ''
Glottolog'') broke it up still further, with only Abu (Adora) and Gorovu kept together (in a "
Porapora River" or "Agoan" branch), Aion (Ambakich) and Kambot (Ap Ma) grouped with 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 ...
, and Banaro left as a primary branch of Ramu proper.
[ ]
Foley (2018)
Foley (2018) provides the following classification.
*
Porapora languages:
Aion (
Ambakich),
Gorovu,
Adjora (
Abu
Abu or ABU may refer to:
Places
* Abu (volcano), a volcano on the island of Honshū in Japan
* Abu, Yamaguchi, a town in Japan
* Ahmadu Bello University, a university located in Zaria, Nigeria
* Atlantic Baptist University, a Christian university ...
)
*
Koam languages:
Mongol
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
,
Langam,
Yaul-Dimiri
*
Banaro
*
Ap Ma (
Kambot /
Botin)
Foley (2005)
did not include the
Koam languages within Grass, but added them to Grass in 2018.
References
*
{{Ramu–Lower Sepik languages
Ramu languages
Languages of East Sepik Province