Kamula–Elevala languages

There are three languages, namely Aekyowm (Awin), Pare (Pa), and Kamula. They are not obviously related to each other, but Aekyowm and Pare are closer to each other than to Kamula. • Kamula • Awin–Pa (Elevala River) • Aekyowm (Awin) • Pare (Pa) A more in-depth classification by Suter and Usher (2017) is as follows. ;Kamula-Elevala family • Kamula [1,100 speakers in 2000] • Elevala (= Awin-Pare) family • Pa (= Pare, Ba, Debepare) [6,500 speakers in 2000] • Aekyom (= Awin, Akium) [21,100 speakers in 2000] • Northeastern (= Aekyom-Skai) • North Central • Southeastern (= Aekyom-Pare) • Western ==Classification==

Stephen Wurm (1975) added Awin and Pa to an expanded Central and South New Guinea branch of TNG, a position reversed by Ross (2005). The connection between Awin–Pa and Kamula was established by Suter & Usher. ==Reconstruction==

Phonology Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as follows: : Proto-Elevala Proto-Elevala reconstructions from Suter and Usher (2017): : ==Vocabulary comparison==

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970), Shaw (1973), and Shaw (1986), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. kɔ, kro for “bone”) or not (e.g. mɔgɔ, kɛndɔkɛ for “ear”). Notice the very low number of cognate pairs between the two languages. : ==Evolution==

Proposed Awin–Pa reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma: Aekyom language: • kendoke ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k[V] • khatike ‘leg’ < *k(a,o) • ndok[V], kare ‘skin’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu • di ‘firewood, fire’ < *inda Pa language: • keba ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu • ama ‘mother < *am(a,i) • di- ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i) ==Loanwords==

Kamula and Doso Loanwords between Kamula and Doso:): ;Abbreviations • pAD = proto-Awyu–Dumut • pA = proto-Awyu • pD = proto-Dumut • pKE = proto-Kamula–Elevala • pK = proto-Kamula • pE = proto-Elevala : ==References==