The Inland Gulf languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005). The unity of the languages was established by K. Franklin in 1969. Although the family as a whole is clearly valid, Ipiko is quite distinct from the other languages.

Inland Gulf
Geographic
distribution
New Guinea
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
Glottologinla1262
Map: The Inland Gulf languages of New Guinea
  The Inland Gulf languages
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Languages edit

Karami was once included, due to a large number of loanwords from Minanibai, but is best left unclassified for now.

Mahigi is also included by Pawley and Hammarström (2018).[2]

Phonemes edit

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[3]

*m *n
*p *t *k
*b *d *g
*s
*w [*ɾ] *j *ɣ̃

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.

Pronouns edit

The pronouns are:[3]

sg pl
1 *no *ni
2 *ɣ̃o *jo
3m *ete *eti
3f *etu

Evolution edit

Inland Gulf reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:[2]

  • Hoia Hoia, Mubami, Ipiko de ‘tree’ < *inda
  • Hoia Hoia mo’noto, Ipiko manoto ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat[a] ‘mouth, teeth’
  • Mubami mo’moʔo, Hoiahoia mo’mo:ko ‘seed’ < *maŋgV

References edit

  1. ^ New Guinea World, Fly River
  2. ^ a b Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ^ a b New Guinea World, Inland Gulf
  • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

External links edit