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Wogamus languages

The Wogamus languages are a pair of closely related languages,

Wogamusin and Chenapian.[1]

They are classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea; Malcolm Ross and William A. Foley (2018)[2] place them in the Upper Sepik branch of that family.

The Wogamus languages are spoken along the banks of the Wogamush River and Sepik River in western East Sepik Province, just to the east of the Iwam languages.

Noun classes

Wogamus languages have noun classes reminiscent of those found in Bantu languages. Noun classes in Wogamusin and Chenapian are listed below, with Wogamusin -um ‘three’ and Chenapian -mu ‘three’ used as examples.[2]

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database.[3] The Wogamusin data is from Foley (2005)[4] and Laycock (1968),[5] and the Chenapian data is from SIL field notes (1983).

Footnotes

  1. ^ Chenapian–Wogamusin, New Guinea World
  2. ^ a b Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  4. ^ Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
  5. ^ Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66.

References