Trans New Guinea Languages
The Trans-New Guinea languages (also: Trans-New Guinea-Phylum) are the largest language family within the non- Austronesian languages of New Guinea , the so-called Papuan languages , both numerically and geographically .
They include over 500 languages, they are spoken in around 80 percent of New Guinea and, at the same time, around 80 percent of the speakers of Papuan languages are speakers of a “trans New Guinea language”.
Major Trans New Guinea Languages
There are only seven Papuan languages with at least 100,000 speakers, they all belong to the Trans New Guinea macro family :
- Dani 270,000, Dani-Kwerba
- Enga 170,000, Eastern New Guinea Highlands
- Melpa ( Hagen ) 130,000, East New Guinea Highlands
- Wahgi 100,000, East New Guinea Highlands
- Bunak : 100,000, Timor-Alor-Pantar
- Makasae : 100,000, Timor-Alor-Pantar
- Ekari : 100,000, Wissel Lakes
Another important language is
- Chimbu ( Simbu , Kuman ) 80,000, Eastern New Guinea Highlands
Research history
The language group of the Trans New Guinea languages was postulated in 1970 by CL Voorhoeve and Kenneth McElhanon . In 1975 the group was redefined by Stephen Wurm , which included many more languages and would therefore be spread over large parts of New Guinea, Timor and small neighboring islands. In 2005, the group was reduced by about 1/6 through the work of Malcolm Ross , but Wurm's basic analysis was supported. Other linguists such as B. William A. Foley doubt the correctness of the worm-like analysis and prefer to set up various smaller groups that do not belong to this family in addition to the main Trans New Guinea group.
Grammatical peculiarities
Phonology
It is typical of the Trans New Guinea phylum that they usually have two rows of plosives and usually only one fricative . Most Trans New Guinea languages have a 5-vowel system consisting of a, e, i, o, u.
Voiced plosives are prenasalized in a great many of these languages . However, this is a characteristic that applies to many other Papuan languages as well.
Many Trans New Guinea languages only have open syllables, that is, those that end in a vowel.
morphology
A distinctive feature of the Trans New Guinea languages is that they show a correlation between a phonological characteristic and a grammatical category . Singular forms have back vowels (a, o, u), plural forms have front vowels (e, i). In many languages the plural pattern is also used for the 3rd person singular. A typical system of personal pronouns is that of the Tauya language , which is spoken on the Ramu River south of Madang :
| person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ya | sen |
| 2nd person | n / A | th |
| 3rd person | no | nen |
In addition, there are ablaut rules in many TNGP languages that change the verb stem depending on the number .
syntax
The existence of medial verbs is generally considered to be very typical of the Trans New Guinea phylum. Medial verbs are verbs with auxiliary verbs or affixes that are used to connect sentences and indicate whether the subject of the first sentence is the same or different from that of the second sentence. To illustrate this, an example from the Tauya mentioned above follows:
| ya | yate- pa | ni-e-ʔa |
| I | go- same subject | eat 1st / 2nd person indicative |
| I went and ate. | ||
Internal structure
| Subgroups | Number of languages | Number of speakers | place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trans New Guinea main branch | 294 | 2,600,000 | New Guinea (Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea) | ||
| Central & West TNG | 249 | 2,400,000 | Central and West New Guinea | ||
| Huon-Finisterre | 63 | 165,000 | Northeast Papua New Guinea | ||
| East New Guinea highlands | 64 | 1,400,000 | Papua New Guinea: Eastern Highlands | ||
| Central & South New Guinea | 57 | 190,000 | Irian Jaya, West Papua New Guinea | ||
| Kutuban | 3 | 5,000 | South Papua New Guinea | ||
| Angan | 13 | 95,000 | Southeast Papua New Guinea | ||
| Gogodala-Suki | 4th | 13,000 | South Papua New Guinea: Fly River | ||
| Kayagar | 3 | 15,000 | South Irian Jaya | ||
| Sentani | 4th | 37,000 | Northeast Irian Jaya | ||
| Marind | 6th | 22,000 | South Irian Jaya, Southwest Papua New Guinea | ||
| Dani -Kwerba | 17th | 340,000 | North-Central Irian Jaya | ||
| Wissel Lakes | 6th | 140,000 | West Irian Jaya | ||
| Mairasi | 4th | 5,000 | West Irian Jaya | ||
| West Bomberai | 3 | 7,000 | West Irian Jaya | ||
| Dem | 1 | 1,000 | West Irian Jaya | ||
| Mor | 1 | <1,000 | Irian Jaya ( Northwest Bomberai ) | ||
| Eastern Trans New Guinea | 45 | 170,000 | Southeast Papua New Guinea | ||
| I'm other | 10 | 80,000 | Southeast Papua New Guinea | ||
| Central-Southeast TNG | 35 | 90,000 | Southeast Papua New Guinea | ||
| Madang-Adelbert Range | 102 | 85,000 | North Papua New Guinea | ||
| Madang | 58 | 40,000 | North Papua New Guinea: Madang | ||
| Adelbert Range | 44 | 45,000 | North Papua New Guinea: Adalbert Chain | ||
| Teberan-Pawaian | 3 | 17,000 | North Papua New Guinea: Simbu | ||
| Turama-Kikorian | 3 | 3,000 | South Papua New Guinea | ||
| Inland Gulf | 4th | 1,000 | South Papua New Guinea | ||
| Eleman | 7th | 50,000 | South Papua New Guinea | ||
| Trans Fly - Bulaka | 30th | 45,000 | Southwest Papua New Guinea, South Irian Jaya | ||
| Mek | 7th | 40,000 | Irian Jaya: Highlands | ||
| Senagi | 2 | 3,500 | Northwest Papua New Guinea | ||
| Pauwasi | 4th | 1,200 | Northwest Irian Jaya | ||
| Northern Trans New Guinea | 27 | 25,000 | Northeast Irian Jaya, Northwest Papua New Guinea | ||
| Nimborane | 5 | 9,000 | Northeast Irian Jaya | ||
| Kaure | 5 | 1,000 | North Irian Jaya | ||
| South Vogelkop | 10 | 11,000 | Northwest Irian Jaya: South Vogelkop Peninsula | ||
| Colopom | 3 | 4,500 | Southwest Irian Jaya | ||
| Timor-Alor-Pantar | 22nd | 244,000 in Timor alone | Timor, Alor , Pantar , Kisar , Liran | ||
| Oksapmin | 1 | 8,000 | Papua New Guinea, Sandaun Province, Telefomin District | ||
| Elseng (Morwap) | 1 | 300 | Irian Jaya, south of Jayapura | ||
| Molof (Ampas) | 1 | 200 | Irian Jaya, south of Jayapura | ||
| Usku | 1 | nearly † | Irian Jaya, south of Jayapura, near Pauwasi | ||
| Tofamna | 1 | 100 | Irian Jaya, south of Jayapura, east of the Nawa River | ||
See also
literature
- Lorna MacDonald: A Grammar of Tauya . (MGL 6) Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990, ISBN 3-11-012673-7 (also contains a lot of general information about special features of the TNG languages)
- Ernst Kausen: The language families of the world . Part 2: Africa - Indo-Pacific - Australia - America. Buske, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-87548-656-8 , pp. 609–623.
Web links
- Ernst Kausen: The classification of the so-called Papuan languages. ( MS Word ; 170 kB)
- Materials on the languages in Papua New Guinea (PDF; English)