The Eleman languages are a
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
spoken around
Kerema Bay
Kerema Bay is a bay in Papua New Guinea. It is located in the Gulf Province next to the capital city Kerema, 230 km northwest of Port Moresby. The climate in the region is Tropical rainforest climate, tropical.
References
Bays of Papua ...
, Papua New Guinea.
Languages and classification
The five languages of Eleman proper are clearly related. They were identified as a family by
Sidney Herbert Ray
Sidney Herbert Ray (28 May 1858 – 1 January 1939) was a British comparative and descriptive linguist who specialised in Melanesian languages.Papers and field notes relating to his linguistic work are held bSOAS Special Collections/ref>
Bio ...
in 1907, and would later be incorporated in the
Trans–New Guinea classifications of
Stephen Wurm
Stephen Adolphe Wurm (, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
Early life
Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-speaking Anna Novroczky. ...
(1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005).
* ? ''
Kaki Ae (Tate)''
* Eleman family
**West:
Keuru,
Opao,
Orokolo
**East:
Toaripi,
Tairuma (Uaripi)
Purari was included by Brown (1968), but the only evidence is the 1sg pronoun ''nai'', which might simply be a reflection of TNG *na.
The purported evidence for including Eleman in the Trans–New Guinea family lies in Kaki Ae. Franklin (1995) shows regular sound correspondences between Kaki Ae and Eleman, including Kaki Ae ''n'' to Eleman *r, so Kaki Ae ''nao'' 1sg appears to be cognate with Eleman *ara, both perhaps descending from proto-TNG *na. Likewise, Kaki Ae ''nu'u'' may reflect pTNG *nu, and the forms of the 2sg pronouns, ''ao'' and *a, are common in TNG languages.
Ross states that the Kaki Ae isolate links Eleman proper within TNG. However, ''
Glottolog
''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...
'' notes that the sound correspondences are just what one would expect from loans, given the different phonologies of the languages: Eleman has no n/l/r distinction, and Kaki Ae has no t/k distinction.
Pawley and Hammarström (2018) classify
Kaki Ae as a
language isolate
A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
rather than as part of Eleman, noting that similarities with Eleman are mostly because of borrowing.
Pronouns
The pronouns are as follows:
:
:
Further reading
*
Ross, Malcolm. 2014
Proto-Eleman ''TransNewGuinea.org''.
*
Ross, Malcolm. 2014
Proto-Eleman-Koriki ''TransNewGuinea.org''.
*
Ross, Malcolm. 2014
Proto-East-Eleman ''TransNewGuinea.org''.
*
Ross, Malcolm. 2014
Proto-West-Eleman ''TransNewGuinea.org''.
*Brown, Herbert A.
The Eleman Language Family. In Franklin, K. editor, ''The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea''. C-26:279-376. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973.
*Brown, Herbert A. 1972. ''The Elema languages: A comparative study of the Toaripi, Orokolo and their related dialects''. PhD thesis: University of London.
*Franklin, Karl J.. 1973. Appendices. In Karl J. Franklin (ed.), ''The Linguistic Situation in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas, Papua New Guinea'', 539-592. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
References
*
{{Languages of Papua New Guinea
Kaki Ae–Eleman languages
Languages of Gulf Province