Uhunduni, also known as Damal (''Damal-kal'') and Amung (''Amung-kal'') after two of its dialects, is the language of the

Amung people The Amung (also known as Amungme, Amungm, Amui, Amuy, Hamung, or Uhunduni) people are a group of about 17,700 people living in the highlands of the Central Papua province of Indonesia. Most Amungme live in Mimika and Puncak, in valleys like Noem ...

and

Damal people The Damal or Damalme are a group of people living in the highlands of the Central Papua province of Indonesia. They primarily live in Beoga Valley along the river of Beogong. The Damal people are closely related to the Delem people and the Amu ...

. It is a Trans–New Guinea language that forms an independent branch of that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). However, it is treated as an isolate by Palmer (2018). This language family is also called Ingkipilu in a classification by

Anton Moeliono Anton Moedardo Moeliono (21 February 1929 in Bandung – 25 July 2011 in Jakarta) was an Indonesian linguist. He is notable for his contribution into codification of the Indonesian language and orthography, and also in the field of Indonesian te ...

. The word ''Damal'' came from the

Dani people The Dani (also spelled Ndani) are an ethnic group from the New Guinea Highlands, Central Highlands of Western New Guinea in Baliem Valley, Highland Papua, Indonesia. Around 100,000 people live in the Baliem Valley, consisting of representatives ...

, while ''Uhunduni'' came from the

Moni people The Moni (also known as the Migani, the Megani, the Djonggunu, or the Jonggunu) are an indigenous people in the Indonesian Paniai regency (kabupaten) of Central Papua in Western New Guinea. They speak the Moni language. The Moni revere the bon ...

. Dialects are Amongme, Amung, Damal, Enggipilu.

Classification

Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Uhunduni to be classified as part of Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between Uhunduni and proto-Trans-New Guinea. *''no''- ‘eat’ < *na- *''mo''- come’ < *me- *''mini''- ‘sit’ < *mVna- *''eme''- ‘give’ < *mV-

Pronouns

Ross (2005) lists the pronouns as: : ''Iru'' is an inclusive dual.

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words of Damal (Uhunduni) are from the Trans-New Guinea database, citing Voorhoeve (1975).Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. ''Languages of Irian Jaya Checklist''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. :

Literature

The

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

in Damal was published in 1988. *Damal people and CMA. 1988. ''Haik-A Ongam Kal: Perjanjian Baru Dalam Bahasa Damal aik-A Ongam Kal: The New Testament in Damal'. Jakarta: Lembaga Alkitab Indonesia.

References

{{Papuan languages Amung–Dem languages Languages of Western New Guinea