South-Central Papuan languages

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The South-Central Papuan languages are a family of Papuan languages proposed in 2005 by Malcolm Ross. It inherits much of the Trans Fly-Bulaka River branch of Stephen Würm's Trans-New Guinea proposal. Wurm himself concluded that some of the Trans Fly-Bulaka River languages were not Trans-New Guinea at all but rather heavily influenced by Trans-New Guinea languages. Ross removed the South-Central Papuan and Eastern Trans-Fly languages from Wurm's family.

1 Classification
2 Pronouns
3 See also
4 Reference

[edit] Classification

The three South-Central Papuan families are only distantly related.

South-Central Papuan

Bulaka River family: Yekmek, Maklew
Pahoturi family: Agöb (Dabu), Idi, Waia
Morehead & Upper Maro Rivers family:
- Yey language
- Nambu branch: Namo (Dorro), Nambo (Nambu), Neme, Namat, Nama, Nen
- Tonda branch: Blafe (Tonda), Rema, Guntai, Kunja, Arammba, Wára, Ngkâlmpw Kanum, Bädi Kanum, Sota Kanum, Smärky Kanum

[edit] Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for the three families are,

Proto-Morehead-Upper Maro

I/we	*ni
you	*bu
s/he/they	*be

Proto-Pahoturi

I	*ŋa-na	we	?
thou	ba or be	you	*-bi
s/he	*bo	they	?

Proto-Bulaka River

I	*ŋöl	we	*ŋag
thou	*ob	you	*el
s/he	*ib	they	*im

[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.