Kalam language

Kalam is a Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to Kobon, and shares many of the features of that language. Kalam is spoken in Middle Ramu District of Madang Province and in Mount Hagen District of Western Highlands Province.[2]

Kalam
Native toPapua New Guinea
RegionMiddle Ramu District, Madang Province;
Mount Hagen District, Western Highlands Province
Native speakers
(15,000 cited 1991)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3kmh
Glottologkala1397

Thanks to decades of studies by anthropologists such as Ralph Bulmer and others, Kalam is one of the best-studied Trans-New Guinea languages to date.

Dialects

There are two distinct dialects of Kalam that are highly distinguishable from each other.[3]

  • Etp, with 20,000 speakers, is centered in the Upper Kaironk and Upper Simbai Valleys.
  • Ti, with 5,000 speakers is centered in the Asai Valley. It includes the Tai variety.

Kobon is closely related.

Kalam has an elaborate pandanus avoidance register used during karuka harvest that has been extensively documented. The Kalam pandanus language, called alŋaw mnm (pandanus language) or ask-mosk mnm (avoidance language), is also used when eating or cooking cassowary.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
[5]:5
Bilabial Dental-alveolar Palatalized dental Palatal Velar Labial-velar
Voiceless stops p t c k
Voiceless fricative s
Voiced prenasalized stops b d j g
Nasals stops m n ɲ ŋ
Lateral l
Semivowels j w

Vowels
[5]:6
Front Central Back
High (i) (u)
Mid e o
Low a

Evolution
See also: Madang languages § Evolution

Below are some Kalam reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea proposed by Pawley (2012, 2018).[3][6][7][8] Data is from the Etp dialect unless otherwise noted. Data from Ti, the other one of the two major dialects is also given when noted.

proto-Trans-New GuineaKalam
(?)*su- ‘bite’su-
*(mb,m)elak ‘light, lightning, brightness’melk [melɨk] ‘light’
*[w]ani ‘who?’an
*am(a,i) ‘mother’ami
*ambi ‘man’b [mbə]
*apus[i] ‘grandparent’aps [aβɨs] ‘grandmother’
*aya ‘sister’ay
*-i(t,l) ‘2DL verbal suffix’-it
*iman ‘louse’iman
*imbi ‘name’yb [yimp]
*-it ‘2/3 dual verbal suffix’-it
*k(aw,o)nan ‘shadow/spirit’kawnan ‘spirit of the dead’
*k(o,u)ma(n,ŋ)[V] ‘neck, nape’koŋam (metathesis) (cf. Kobon uŋam, loss of *k)
*kakV- ‘carry on shoulder’kak-
*kamb(a,u)u[na] ‘stone’kab [kamp]
*kanim ‘cuscus’kmn ‘game mammal (generic)’
*kin(i,u)[m]- ‘sleep’kn- [kɨn]
*kindil ‘root’kdl [kɨndɨl]
*kinV- ‘sleep’kn-
*kumut, *tumuk ‘thunder’tumuk
*kumV- ‘die’kum-
*m(o,u)k ‘milk, sap, breast’muk (Ti dialect mok)
*ma- ‘not’ma-
*ma(n,k,L)[a] ‘ground’man
*maŋgat[a] ‘teeth’meg [meŋk]
*maŋgV ‘compact round object, egg’magi
*mapVn ‘liver’mapn
*mbalaŋ ‘flame’malaŋ, maŋlaŋ
*mbapa ‘father’bapi
*mo[k,ŋg]Vm ‘joint’mogm
*muk ‘brain’muk
*muk ‘milk’muk (Ti dialect mok)
*mund-maŋgV ‘heart’mudmagi
*mV ‘taro’m
*mVkVm ‘jaw, cheek’mkem ‘cheek’
*mVn[a]-‘be, live, stay’md-
*n(o,u)man ‘mind, soul’noman ‘soul’
*na ‘1SG’-n-, -in ‘1SG subj. agreement’
*niman ‘louse’iman
*nok ‘water’ñg
*nu ‘1PL independent’-nu-, -un ‘1PL subj. agreement’
*nV ‘child’ñi ‘son’
*nVŋg- ‘know, hear, see’ng- (Ti dialect), nŋ- ‘see, perceive, etc.’
*ŋaŋ[a] ‘baby’-ŋaŋ ‘baby’
*panV ‘female’pañ ‘daughter’
*sambV ‘cloud’seb [semp]
*saŋ ‘story, song’saŋ ‘women’s song’
*saŋgil ‘hand, finger’(?) saglaŋ ‘little finger’
*si(m,mb)(i,u) ‘guts’sb [sɨmp]
*sisiss [sɨs] ‘urine’
*sVkVm ‘smoke’skum, sukum
*takVn[V] ‘moon’takn [taɣɨn]
*tu ‘axe’tu
*tuk- ‘cut’tk- ‘sever’
*tumuk, *kumut ‘thunder’tumuk
*tVk- ‘cut, cut off’tk- ‘sever, cut off’
*-un ‘1st plural subject’-un
*-Vn ‘1SG subj. agreement’-n, -in
*walaka ‘testicles’walak
*wani ‘who?’an
*wati ‘fence’wati
*yaka ‘bird’yakt

Verbs

Kalam has eight tense-aspect categories. There are four past tenses, two present tenses, and two future tenses, which are all marked using suffixes:[7]

  • past habitual
  • remote past (yesterday or earlier)
  • today’s past
  • immediate past
  • present habitual
  • present progressive
  • immediate future
  • future

Intransitive verbs in Kalam can be classified as either active or stative. Some active intransitive verbs are:[7]

  • am- ‘go’
  • kn- ‘sleep’
  • jak- ‘stand, dance’
  • kum- ‘die, cease to function’

Some stative verbs are:[7]

  • pag- ‘(of things) break, be broken’
  • sug- ‘(of a fire) go out’
  • yn- ‘burn, be burnt, fully cooked’
  • wk- ‘(of solid objects and surfaces) crack, burst, shatter’

Serial verb constructions

Transitivity is derived using resultative or cause-effect serial verb constructions.[7]

(1)

paksug-
strikeextinguished
‘put out a fire’

(2)

pakwk-
strikeshattered
‘knock something to bits, shatter something’

(3)

pugsug-
blowextinguished
‘blow out a flame’

(4)

puŋiask-
pierceopened
‘prise something open’

(5)

puŋilak-
piercesplit
‘split something by wedging or levering’

(6)

tawpagyok-
step.onbrokendisplaced
‘break something off by stepping on it’

(7)

tbklukyok-
cutgougedisplaced
‘gouge something out’

Other serial verb constructions in Kalam include:[7]:117

  • d ap (get come) ‘bring’
  • d am (get go) ‘take’
  • am d ap (go get come) ‘fetch’
  • d nŋ (touch perceive) ‘feel’
  • ñb nŋ (eat perceive) ‘taste’
  • tb tk (cut sever) ‘cut off’

Nouns

Compounds

Some examples of nominal compounds in Kalam:[7]

(1)

bin-b
woman-man
‘person, people’

(2)

ña-pañ
son-daughter
‘child, children’

(3)

aps-basd
grandmother-grandfather
‘grandparents’

(4)

ami-gon bapi-gon
mother-children father-children
‘nuclear family, parents and children’

(5)

kmn-as
game.mammal-small.wild.mammal
‘wild mammals’

(6)

kaj-kayn-kobti
pig-dog-cassowary
‘large animals’

(7)

kmn-kaj-kobti
game.mammal-pig-cassowary
‘animals that provide ceremonially valued meat’

(8)

mñ-mon
vine-tree
‘land, country, territory, world’

(9)

knebamebowepwogwatigep
sleepinggoingcominggardenfencemaking
‘everyday activities’

Animal names

Fauna classification (folk taxonomy) in the Kalam language has been extensively studied by Ralph Bulmer and others. Kalam speakers classify wild mammals into three major categories:[7]

Other animal categories are:[7]

  • yakt ‘flying birds and bats’
  • kobti ‘cassowaries’
  • kaj ‘pigs’ (formerly including cattle, horses, and goats when first encountered by the Kalam)
  • kayn ‘dogs’
  • soyŋ ‘certain snakes’
  • yñ ‘skinks’

Rodent names include:[6]

Marsupial names include:[6]

Reptile names and folk taxonomy in Kalam:[10]

Frog names in Kalam are:[9]

Note: Cophixalus shellyi, Choerophryne darlingtoni, and Oxydactyla brevicrus also tend to be identified by Kalam speakers as lk if calling from low vegetation, but as gwnm (usually applied to Cophixalus riparius and Xenorhina rostrata) if found in daytime hiding spots.[9]

Plant categories include:[7]

  • mon ‘trees and shrubs’ (excluding palms and pandans); e.g., bljan ‘Macaranga spp.’ is a mon that has four named kinds
  • mñ ‘vines and robust creepers’

Semantics

Colors

Kalam speakers distinguish more than a dozen color categories.[6]

  • tud ‘white, light coloured’
  • sum ‘grey, esp. of hair’
  • tun ‘light grey; ash’
  • mosb ‘black, dark coloured’
  • lkañ ‘red/purple; blood’
  • pk ‘orange/bright reddish-brown/bright yellowish-brown/rich yellow; ripe’
  • sml ‘rather bright red-brown/yellow brown’
  • waln ‘yellow’
  • mjkmab ‘green’
  • ksk ‘pale green, yellow-green; unripe (of fruit)’
  • lban ‘rich green, sheeny; succulent or mature (of foliage)’
  • gs ‘dull brown, green or olive’
  • mlp ‘straw coloured; withered (of foliage)’
  • muk ‘blue’
  • sŋak ‘blue-grey, as blue-grey clay’
  • kl ‘striped, spotted, mottled’

Time

Pawley and Bulmer (2011), quoted in Pawley and Hammarström (2018), lists the following temporal adverbs in Kalam.[7][6]

  • mñi ‘today’
  • toy ‘tomorrow’
  • (toy) menk ‘day after tomorrow’
  • toytk ‘yesterday’
  • menk atk ‘day before yesterday’
  • goson ‘3 days from today’
  • goson atk ‘3 days ago’
  • ason ‘4 days from today’
  • ason atk ‘4 days ago’
  • goson ason ‘5 days from today’
  • goson ason atk ‘5 days ago’

Morphology

Rhyming compounds

Kalam, like English, has different types of rhyming compounds.[7]

alternating consonants
  • gadal-badal [ŋgándálmbándál] ‘placed in a disorderly manner, criss-cross, higgledy-piggledy’
  • gley-wley [ŋgɨléywuléy] ‘rattling, clattering’
addition of consonants
  • adk-madk [ándɨkmándɨk] ‘turned over, reversed’
  • ask-mask [ásɨkmásɨk] ‘ritually restricted’
alternating vowels
  • ñugl-ñagl [ɲúŋgɨlɲáŋgɨl] ‘sound of evening chorus of insects and frogs’
  • gtiŋ-gtoŋ [ŋgɨríŋgɨróŋ] ‘loud noise, din, racket’

References
  1. Kalam at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2019). "Papua New Guinea languages". Ethnologue: Languages of the World (22nd ed.). Dallas: SIL International.
  3. Pawley, Andrew (2012). Hammarström, Harald; van den Heuvel, Wilco (eds.). "How reconstructable is proto Trans New Guinea? Problems, progress, prospects". History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea (Language & Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue 2012: Part I): 88–164. hdl:1885/38602. ISSN 0023-1959.
  4. Majnep, Ian Saem; Bulmer, Ralph (1977). Birds of my Kalam Country [Mn̄mon Yad Kalam Yakt]. illustrations by Christopher Healey. New Zealand: Aukland University Press. pp. 150, 152. ISBN 9780196479538. OCLC 251862814.
  5. Blevins, Juliette; Pawley, Andrew. "Typological Implications of Kalam Predictable Vowels" (PDF). julietteblevins.ws.gc.cuny.edu.
  6. Pawley, Andrew and Ralph Bulmer. 2011. A Dictionary of Kalam with Ethnographic Notes. Canberra. Pacific Linguistics.
  7. 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.
  8. Note: Data in Pawley (2012) is drawn from Pawley and Bulmer (2011).
  9. Bulmer, Ralph N.H. and Michael Tyler. 1968. Karam classification of frogs. Journal of the Polynesian Society 77(4): 621–639.
  10. Bulmer, RNH (1975). Kalam Classification Of Reptiles And Fishes. Journal of the Polynesian Society 84(3): 267–308.

Further reading
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H. 1967. Why is the cassowary not a bird? A problem of zoological taxonomy among the Karam of the New Guinea highlands. Man 2(1): 5–25.
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H. 1968. Kalam colour categories. Kivung 1(3): 120–133.
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H. 1974. Folk biology in the New Guinea highlands. Social Science Information 13(4/5): 9–28.
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H. and J.I. Menzies. 1972–1973. Kalam classification of marsupials and rodents. Journal of the Polynesian Society 81(4): 472–499, 82(1):86–107.
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H. and Michael Tyler. 1968. Karam classification of frogs. Journal of the Polynesian Society 77(4): 621–639.
  • Bulmer, Ralph N.H., J.I. Menzies and F. Parker. 1975. Kalam classification of reptiles and fish. Journal of the Polynesian Society 84(3): 267–308.
  • Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer. 1977. Birds of my Kalam Country. Auckland: Auckland and Oxford University Presses.
  • Majnep, Ian Saem and Ralph Bulmer. 2007. Animals the Ancestors Hunted: An Account of the Wild Mammals of the Kalam Area, Papua New Guinea. Adelaide: Crawford House Australia.
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