Markham languages

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Markham
Geographic
distribution		Madang and Morobe Provinces, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationAustronesian
Proto-languageProto-Markham
Glottologmark1257

The Markham languages form a family of the

Trans-New Guinea languages.[3]

Although the Markham languages are Austronesian, they have had much contact with neighboring Papuan languages.

A phonological reconstruction of Proto-Markham is presented in Holzknecht (1989) and is summarized below.[1]

Languages

Labu (= Hapa)

Lower Markham
Dangal
(South Watut)
Upper Markham
Adzera (dialect cluster: Sarasira, Sukurum), Mari, Wampur

Proto-Markham

Proto-Markham
Reconstruction ofMarkham languages
Reconstructed
ancestors

Proto-Markham was reconstructed by

morphosyntactic and lexicosemantic
innovations, such as the merger of Proto-Huon Gulf *t, *r, and *R as Proto-Markham *r, the accretion of *ka- into focal pronoun bases (Proto-Oceanic *kamu "you" > Proto-Markham *ka-gam "id."), and the replacement of Proto-Oceanic *qacan "name" by Proto-Markham *biŋa "id.", among many others.

Vowels

The vowels of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:

Vowels
Front Central Back
Close *i *u
Close-mid *e *o
Open *a

Consonants

The consonants of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:

Consonants
Labiovelar Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Stop
voiced
 		*b *
d
 		*ɟ *g
voiceless *kʷ *p *
t
 		*c *k
Nasal *mʷ *m, *ᵐb *
n, *ⁿd
 		*ᶮɟ *ŋ, *ᵑɡ
Fricative
 *f *s
Approximant
 *w *
r

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-85883-394-8
    .
  2. OCLC 48929366
    .
  3. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
    .
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