Skou languages
Skou | |
---|---|
Sko Vanimo Coast | |
Geographic distribution | northern New Guinea coast near Vanimo |
Linguistic classification | Northwest Papuan?
|
Subdivisions | |
Glottolog | skoo1245 |
The Sko or Skou languages are a small
Typology
Tone
Skou languages are unusual among Papuan languages for being tonal; all Skou languages possess contrastive tone.[1] Vanimo, for example, has three tones, high, mid, low.
Example minimal sets illustrating tonal contrasts in various Skou languages:[1]
- I’saka: ẽyH ‘louse’, weyL ‘butterfly’, weyLH ‘house’, weyHL ‘language’
- Barupu: eH ‘tooth’, eL ‘garden’, eHL ‘mosquito’, eHLH ‘write’
- Wutung: hoH ‘roof thatch made from sago palm fronds’, hoL ‘star’, hoHL ‘grease’
- Skou: taH ‘grass’, taL ‘hair’, taHL ‘arrow’
Lakes Plain languages, spoken in a discontiguous area to the southwest, are also tonal. Because of the apparent phonological similarities and sharing of stable basic words such as ‘louse’, Foley speculates the potential likelihood of a distant relationship shared between the Skou and Lakes Plain families, but no formal proposals linking the two families have been made due to insufficient evidence.[2] Additionally according to Foley, based on some lexical and phonological similarities, the Keuw language (currently classified as a language isolate) may also possibly share a deep relationship with the Lakes Plain languages. Like the Lakes Plain languages, Keuw also possesses constrative tone.
Lepki, Kaure, and Kembra, spoken in mountainous inland regions of the Indonesia-PNG border to the southwest of the Skou-speaking area, are also tonal.[2]
Morphology
Skou languages can be isolating or polysynthetic.[1]
- Isolating structure: Dumo, an Inner Skou language
- Polysynthetic structure: Barupu, a Piore River language
Classification
Skou languages were first linked by G. Frederici in 1912. In 1941, K.H. Thomas expanded the family to its current extent.
The Sko family is not accepted by Søren Wichmann (2013), who splits it into two separate groups.[3]
Donohue (2007) and Donohue and Crowther (2005) list
Sko (Laycock 1975)
Laycock posited two branches, Vanimo and Krisa:
- Sko
Skou (Ross 2005)
However, Krisa is poorly supported and Malcolm Ross abandoned it.
Macro-Skou (Donohue 2002)
Mark Donohue proposed a subclassification based on areal diffusion he called Macro-Skou.
Donohue (2004) notes that is unclear if extinct
Sko (Foley 2018)
Foley (2018) provides the following classification.[1]
- Sko
- I'saka
- Piore River
- Serra Hills
- Inner Sko
Foley's Inner Sko corresponds to Donohue's Western Skou.
Miller (2017)
The Piore River branch was renamed Lagoon in Miller (2017).[6] The older names of the Piore River languages were from village names; Miller has since renamed them as Bauni, Uni, Bouni, and Bobe, though it is debatable whether they are all distinct languages.
- Lagoon (also Piore River)
Usher (2020)
Usher groups the languages as follows, with each node being a reconstructable clade, and giving the family a geographic label rather than naming it after a single language. The Eastern languages are typologically quite distinct from the Western languages and I'saka.[7]
- Vanimo Coast
- I'saka
- West
- East
- Piore River
- Barupu(Bauni–Uri–Bouni)
- Nouri
- Serra Hills
- Piore River
Pronouns
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Skou are,
I *na we *ne thou *me you ? he *ka they (M) *ke she *bo they (F) *de
The Skou languages also have a
Pronouns in individual Skou languages:[1]
pronoun I'saka BarupuWutung Skou 1.SG nana něná niɛ nì 2.SG mama měmá mɛ mè 3M.SG kia yá ʔe ke 3F.SG umu bó ce pe 1.PL numu měmí nɛtu ne 2.PL yumu mŏpú ɛtu e 3.PL i.e. yéi tɛtu te
Cognates
Sko family cognates (
Sko family cognates gloss I'saka BarupuWutung Skou ‘hand’ dou eno noʔɛ̃ no ‘tooth’ kũ e ʔũ kə̃ ‘breast’ ni to no no ‘woman’ bu bom wũawũa pɛɨma ‘bird’ yũ ru tĩ tã ‘dog’ naki naʔi nake ‘water’ wi pi pa ‘old’ tuni tɔra rõtoto ‘eat’ a ou (u)a a
A cognate set for 'louse' in Sko languages (reconstructing roughly to *nipi in Proto-Sko) as compiled by Dryer (2022):[8]
Language (group) louse Serra Hills ni, nip, nipi Warapumi Western Skopi, fi, pĩ Isakaẽĩ
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),
gloss Wutung
(Marmion 2010)[12]Wutung
(Voorhoeve 1975)[10]head hlúqbùr kəsu. rebi röbe; rö́e hair tàng ta ta ta ear qúrlùr le lö eye lúrtô rəto lu; luto lutɔ̀ nose ha ha tooth qúng kə ke* kö leg knaŋku tãe louse hehe fi fi dog náqî naki nakE nakɛ́ pig cà tyamu pálɛ bird tîng ta* tåå; tãŋã egg kuekue ku tã kò blood hnjie hi hi hi bone qêy e e ee skin mà; nua na ro nö re; nö rɔ̀ breast no no* nɔ tree ri ri; rite ri man panyua teba kE ba ba; keba; kébanè; teba woman wungawunga 3mE pemɛ̀ sun hlàng hrã ra* rãã́ moon kE ke water câ tya pa pa fire hie hae ra ra stone wólòng koŋũ wu* hũ; wũ eat sàqèngpùà (1.SG) a* kã; pã; tã one ófà ofa ali* alì two hnyûmò hime hi*tu* hĩ́to
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313–386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- OCLC 67292782.
- ^ Donohue, Mark P. 2007. A Grammar of the Skou Language of New Guinea. Unpublished manuscript.
- ^ Miller, Steve A. 2017. Skou Languages Near Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 1–24.
- ^ New Guinea World, Vanimo Coast
- ^ Dryer, Matthew S. (2022). Trans-New Guinea IV.2: Evaluating Membership in Trans-New Guinea.
- ^
- ^ doi:10.15144/PL-B31
- ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
- ^ a b Marmion, Doug (2010). Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of Wutung (PDF). Canberra: Australian National University.
- ^ a b Donohue, Mark. Skou Dictionary Draft. Ms.
- ^ Wichmann, Søren (2020). "The ASJP Database". Retrieved 2021-01-20.