The Kutubuan languages are a small family of neighboring languages families in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
.
They are named after
Lake Kutubu
Lake Kutubu is the second-largest lake in Papua New Guinea,[Lake Kutubu](_blank)
at Ramsar site after Papuan Gulf
The Gulf of Papua is located in the southern coast region of New Guinea. It has a total surface area of .
Geography
Some of New Guinea's largest rivers, such as the Fly River, Turama River, Kikori River, Purari River, and Wawoi River flow into ...
stock.
Within the two branches, the lexicostatistical figures are 60–70%. Between the two branches, they are 10–20%.
*
East Kutubuan
**
Foe,
Fiwaga
*
West Kutubuan
**
Fasu,
Some,
Namumi
Lexical reconstruction
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:
[Timothy Usher, New Guinea World]
Proto–Lake Kutubu
/ref>
:
Modern reflexes
Proposed Kutubu reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:Foi language
Foi, also known as Foe or Mubi River, is one of the two East Kutubuan languages of the Trans-New Guinea family spoken along Lake Kutubu and Mubi River, located in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Dialects of Foi are Ifigi, ...
:
* ‘carry on back’ < *
* ‘die’ < *
* ‘eat’ < *
* ‘leg’ < *
* ‘neck’ < *
* ‘tree’ < *
* ‘wind’ < *
* ‘bird’ < *
* ‘mother’s sister’ < * ‘older same sex sibling’
Fasu language
Fasu, also known as Namo Me, is one of the Kutubuan languages of New Guinea.
Varieties
Wurm and Hattori (1981) considered its three principal dialects, Fasu, Some and Namumi, to be three languages, which they called the West Kutubuan family. Ho ...
:
* ‘die’ < *
* ‘eat’ < *
* ‘stand’ <
* ‘mother’ < *
* ‘father’ < *
* ‘heart, stomach’ < *
* ‘hair’ < *
* ‘leg’ < *
* ‘shoulder’ < *
* ‘skin’ < *
* ‘hand’ < *
* ‘urine’ < *
* ‘make the law’ < * ‘instructions’
* ‘long’ < *
* ‘husband’ < *
* ‘mother’s sister’ < * ‘older same sex sibling’
* ‘tree’ < *
* ‘sand’ < *
* ‘wind’ < *
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Franklin (1975), Franklin & Voorhoeve (1973), McElhanon and Voorhoeve (1970), and Shaw (1986), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
References
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Lake Kutubu
{{Papuan languages
Languages of Southern Highlands Province
Kikorian languages