Engan languages

The Engan, or more precisely Enga – Southern Highland languages are a small family of Papuan languages of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The two branches of the family are rather distantly related, but were connected by Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973).

Engan
Enga – Southern Highlands
Geographic
distribution
New Guinea
Linguistic classificationNortheast New Guinea and/or Trans–New Guinea?
  • Engan
Subdivisions
  • North (Engan)
  • South (Kewa–Huli)
Glottologenga1254
Map: The Engan languages of New Guinea
  The Engan languages
  Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Name

The name "Engan" is often restricted to the northern branch of the family, to those languages transparently related to Enga, but also sometimes to the family as a whole.

Languages

The languages fall into three quite distinct branches: Engan proper, Huli, and Southern Highlands:

Classification

The Engan family constitutes a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but the evidence for this is weak.

There are a considerable number of resemblances with Wiru. Borrowing has not been ruled out as the reason for this, though the pronouns are similar as well.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[1]

*m*n
*p*t*k
*mb*nd*ŋg
*w*l*j

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

Pronouns

Pronouns are easy to reconstruct for the northern and southern branches, but much more difficult for Engan as a whole. Ross (2005) has the following for the singular, Wiru has been added for comparison:

pEnganN EnganS EnganWiru
1 **nə*na-ba*níno (gen. anu)
2 **ne-ke*ne-ba*ne-kene (gen. ne-ke)
3 ?*ba*[n]i-buone

Usher (2020) has not yet published reconstruction of Engan as a whole, but has done Engan proper:[2]

Engan proper
sgdupl
1 *na(-mba)*nali(-mba)*nani(-ma)
2 *ni(-mba)
3 *[e]-mba

Vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Trans Enga (Proto-Engan) by Usher (2020) are:[1]

glossProto-Trans-EngaProto-Southern HighlandsHuli
name *ŋge*[i]mbimi-ni
fire/tree *ita*tiiɾa
moon *kana*eke, *jumbaege
four *tumenda*malama-
path *kaita*potahaɾiga
stand *kata*kaha
cassowary *laima*jatijaɾi
skin *jan[o/u]*joŋgaledoŋgo-ne

Evolution

The Enga-Kewa-Huli reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, if Engan languages are indeed members of the Trans-New Guinea family, are:[3]

Enga:

  • mona ‘heart’ < *mundun
  • yaka ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
  • lyaŋa ‘ashes’ < *la(ŋ,k)a
  • ŋaŋa ‘baby < *ŋaŋ(a)
  • (m)ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
  • kuri ‘bone’ < *kondaC
  • kare ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]
  • ne- ‘eat’ < *na
  • apa(ne) ‘father’ < *apa
  • iti ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
  • endo ‘fire’ < *kend(o,u)p
  • lema ‘louse’ < *niman
  • kana ‘moon’ < *takVn[V]
  • mana ‘instructions’ < *mana
  • kitama ‘morning’ < *k(i,u)tuma
  • kumi- ‘die’ < *kumV-
  • re- ‘speak’ < *nde-
  • maa ‘taro’ < *mV
  • ita ‘tree’ < *inda

Huli:

  • ega ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
  • na- ‘eat’ < *na-
  • aba ‘father’ < *apa
  • iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
  • ira ‘tree’ < *inda
  • ma ‘taro’ < *mV

Kewa:

  • ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
  • ibi ‘name’ < *imbi
  • iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
  • uni ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC
  • apu ‘tail’ < *a(mb,m)u
  • lema ‘louse’ < *niman
  • oma ‘die’ < *kumV-
  • reka- ‘stand’ < *t(a,e)kV-
  • la- ‘talk’ < *nde-
  • maa ‘taro’ < *mV
  • yaa ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)

Mendi:

  • am ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
  • ap ‘father’ < *apa
  • mbi ‘name’ < *imbi
  • ome- ‘die’ < *kumV-

Vocabulary

Basic vocabulary of Enga and Kewa from William A. Foley (1986):[4]

glossEngaKewa
‘two’ramalaapo
‘man’akariali
‘water’ipaipa
‘fire’itarepona
‘tree’itaare
‘leaf’yokoyo
‘root’pingipitaa
‘house’adaada
‘breast’aduadu
‘tooth’negeagaa
‘bone’korikuli
‘ear’karekale
‘hair’itiiri
‘leg’kapeaa
‘blood’kupapukupaa
‘hand’rumaki
‘egg’kapayaa apaa
‘sun’nitanare
‘axe’patamarai
‘netbag’nuunu
‘eat’ne-na-
‘die’kumi-koma-
‘say’re-la-
‘give’mai-/gi-gi-
‘big’adakeadaa

References

  1. New Guinea World, Enga--Southern Highlands
  2. New Guinea World, Trans-Enga
  3. 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. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. Foley, William A. (1986). The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28621-2.
  • 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.

Further reading

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