The Markham languages form a family of the
Huon Gulf languages. It consists of a dozen languages spoken in the
Ramu Valley,
Markham Valley
The Markham Valley is a geographical area in Papua New Guinea. The name "Markham" commemorates Sir Clements Markham, Secretary of the British Royal Geographical Society - Captain John Moresby of the Royal Navy named the Markham River after Sir ...
and associated valley systems in the lowlands of the
Madang
Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea.
History
Nicholai Miklukho-Maklai was probably the first Eur ...
and
Morobe Provinces of
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 ...
.
Unlike almost other
Western Oceanic languages
The Western Oceanic languages is a linkage of Oceanic languages, proposed and studied by . They make up a majority of the Austronesian languages spoken in New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papu ...
of New Guinea, which are spoken exclusively in coastal areas, many Markham languages are spoken in the mountainous interior of
Morobe Province
Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands Province ...
,
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 ...
, where they are in heavy contact with
Trans-New Guinea languages.
Although the Markham languages are
Austronesian
Austronesian may refer to:
*The Austronesian languages
*The historical Austronesian peoples
The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...
, they have had much contact with neighboring
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...
.
A phonological reconstruction of Proto-Markham is presented in Holzknecht (1989) and is summarized below.
Languages
Labu (= Hapa)
;Lower Markham:
Aribwaung (= Aribwaungg, Yalu),
Aribwatsa† (= Lae, Lahe),
Musom,
Nafi (= Sirak),
Duwet (= Guwot, Waing),
Wampar,
Silisili
Mount Silisili is the highest peak in Samoa and the Samoa Islands chain. It is located in the centre of a mountain chain running the length of Savai'i island. Mount Silisili is ranked 24th by topographic isolation.
Mount Silisili rises to a he ...
(Middle Watut),
Maralango (South Watut),
Dangal (South Watut)
;Upper Markham:
Adzera
Adzera (also spelled Atzera, Azera, Atsera, Acira) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 30,000 people in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.
Dialects
Holzknecht (1989) lists six Adzera dialects.
* ''Central'' dialect chain: 9,950 speaker ...
(dialect cluster: Sarasira, Sukurum),
Mari,
Wampur
Proto-Markham
Proto-Markham was reconstructed by
Susanne Holzknecht in 1989 in her paper ''The Markham Languages of Papua New Guinea''.
It descends from Proto-Huon Gulf on the basis of shared
phonological
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...
,
morphosyntactic
In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, wh ...
and
lexicosemantic innovations, such as the merger of Proto-Huon Gulf ''*t'', ''*r'', and ''*R'' as Proto-Markham ''*r'', the accretion of ''*ka-'' into focal pronoun bases (Proto-Oceanic ''*kamu'' "you" > Proto-Markham ''*ka-gam'' "id."), and the replacement of Proto-Oceanic ''*qacan'' "name" by Proto-Markham ''*biŋa'' "id.", among many others.
Vowels
The vowels of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:
Consonants
The consonants of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:
:
See also
*
Huon Gulf
Huon Gulf is a large gulf in eastern Papua New Guinea. It is bordered by Huon Peninsula in the north. Both are named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. Huon Gulf is a part of the Solomon Sea. Its northern boundary is marke ...
*
Huon Gulf languages
*
Numbami language
Numbami (also known as Siboma or Sipoma) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 200 people with ties to a single village in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in Siboma village (), Paiawa ward, Morobe Rural LLG.
Numbami is a p ...
*
Oceanic languages
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
*
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...
References
{{North New Guinea languages
Huon Gulf languages
Languages of Morobe Province