Social:Mongol–Langam languages

From HandWiki
Mongol–Langam
West Keram River
Ulmapo
Kaima, Koam
Geographic
distribution
East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationRamu–Keram
Glottologmong1343[1]

The Mongol–Langam, Koam, or Ulmapo languages are a language group of Keram Rural LLG, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea belonging to the Ramu language family. Foley (2018) includes them within the Grass languages,[2] but they were not included in Foley (2005).[3]

The Koam languages are spoken next to the Yuat languages, but two groups are unrelated.[2]

Names

The name Koam is used by Foley (2018), while the name Ulmapo (coined from the first two letters of each of the three daughter languages) is used by Barlow (2018) and Glottolog 4.0.[4]

Languages

According to Summer Institute of Linguistics data from 2003, the member languages had the following number of speakers:

  • Mongol (Mwakai), 340 speakers[5]
  • Langam (Pondi), 410 speakers[6]
  • Yaul (Ulwa), 1,210 speakers[7]

Classification

Donald Laycock (1973) noted that the Mongol–Langam languages mark nouns for pluralisation, like the Lower Sepik languages (Nor–Pondo languages) and Yuat languages, and also that the lexicon also shows many resemblances to Yuat languages, while pronouns are similar to the Grass (Keram) languages (Ramu).[8] Malcolm Ross (2005) accepts them as Ramu languages based on their pronouns.[9] With additional data from recent research, Usher confirms their position in the Keram branch of the Ramu family.[10]

Notes

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Ulmapo". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mong1343. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". in Palmer, Bill. The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197-432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7. 
  3. Foley, William A. (2005). "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". in Andrew Pawley. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 109–144. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782. 
  4. Barlow, Russell. 2018. A grammar of Ulwa. Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/62506
  5. Lewis 2009, [1]
  6. Lewis 2009, [2]
  7. Lewis 2009, [3]
  8. Laycock 1973, p. 36
  9. Ross 2005
  10. West Keram River – NewGuineaWorld

References