Lakes Plain languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Lakes Plain languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Würm's Trans-New Guinea proposal and later classified with the Geelvink Bay languages by Clouse (1997).

1 Classification
2 Pronouns
3 See also
4 Reference

[edit] Classification

Awera isolate
Rasawa-Saponi: Rasawa, ? Saponi
East Lake Plain family: Foau, Taworta
Tariku family
- Turu: Edopi, Iau
- Duvle
- West Tariku: Fayu, Kirikiri
- Central Lake Plain family: Obokuitai, Biritai, Eritai, Kwerisa, Papasena, Kaiy, Doutai, Sikaritai, Waritai

[edit] Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Tariku are,

I	a/i	we	a/ai
thou	*de	you	*da
s/he	*au	they	?

The corresponding "I" and "thou" pronouns are proto-East Lake Plain *a, *do, Awera yai, nai (the latter from *dai; compare also e "we"), and Rasawa e-, de-. Saponi shares no pronouns with the Lakes Plain family; indeed its pronouns mamire "I, we" and ba "thou" are remenincent of proto-East Bird's Head *meme "we" and *ba "thou". However, Saponi shares half its basic lexical vocabulary with Rasawa, and Ross left it in the Lakes Plain family pending further investigation.

[edit] See also

Papuan languages

[edit] Reference

Malcom Ross (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages." In: Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide and Jack Golson, eds, Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, 15-66. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.