| Kamula | |
|---|---|
| Wawoi | |
| Region | Western Province, Papua New Guinea |
Native speakers | (1,100 cited 2000)[1] |
Trans–New Guinea or unclassified
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xla |
| Glottolog | kamu1260 |
| ELP | Kamula |
 Map: The Kamula language of New Guinea The Kamula language Other Trans–New Guinea languages Other Papuan languages Austronesian languages Uninhabited | |
| Coordinates:6°57′07″S142°39′17″E / 6.951833°S 142.654804°E /-6.951833; 142.654804 (Kasigi) | |
Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is aTrans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification ofMalcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence,Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.[2]
Kamula is spoken in two widely separated areas,[2]: 80 including in Kamiyami village of the Wawoi Falls area inBamu Rural LLG,Western Province, Papua New Guinea.[3]
Routamaa (1994: 7) estimates that there are about 800 speakers of Kamula located in 3 villages in Western Province, with no dialectal differences reported.[4] This is because the Kamula had originally lived in camps near Samokopa in the northern area, but a group had split off and moved to Wasapea in the south only around 50 years ago.[5]: 14
In the northern villages of Kesiki and Samokopa, Kamula children were reported as preferring to speakDoso over Kamula. A minority of Kamula people in the northern area also live inDibiyaso-speaking villages, where they are multilingual in Kamula, Doso, and Dibiyaso. Kamula people in the southern village of Wasapea are also fluent inGogodala.[6]
The little data that exists for Kamula pronouns does not fit in with the neighboring East Strickland or Bosavi languages (though1sgnê likely reflects proto-TNG *na), so Kamula is best left as an unclassified language an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea pending further study.
Attested pronouns are1sgnɛ̃,2sgwɛ̃, and ̩pldiɛ.
Kamula phonology:[8]
Kamula has 12 consonants.
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | p | t̪ | d | k ɡ | ||
| nasal | m | n | ||||
| fricative | s | h | ||||
| approximant | w | j | ||||
| lateral approximant | l |
Kamula has 7 vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | i | u | |
| close-mid | e | o | |
| open-mid | ɛ⟨a꞉⟩ | ɔ⟨o꞉⟩ | |
| open | a |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Dutton (2010),[9] Reesink (1976),[10] and Shaw (1986),[11] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[12]
| gloss | Kamula |
|---|---|
| head | dokupala; tɔkɔnʌlʌ |
| hair | kokosasi; kɔkɔsʌse |
| ear | molo; mɔlɔ |
| eye | inʌma; inoma |
| nose | mu; mũ |
| tooth | ɛpe |
| tongue | te; tɛ |
| leg | ɛtɛ; hetei |
| louse | iyʌ; iya |
| dog | ɛsemala; esemʌlʌ |
| pig | ʌľiʌ |
| bird | tea |
| egg | temoko; temɔkɔ |
| blood | umali; umʌ:li |
| bone | ɛľu; ɛro |
| skin | kapala; kʌpʌlʌ |
| breast | mɛmɛ |
| tree | dali; tʌli |
| man | ɔpɔlʌimi; opřami |
| woman | eya; ɛ̃yã |
| sun | sali; sʌľi |
| moon | mama; mʌmʌ |
| water | yu |
| fire | deľʌpʌ; dřaƀa |
| stone | ewʌľʌ; yawařa |
| road, path | api |
| name | hi |
| eat | dampřoma; tʌɛdɔma |
| one | hatropɛ; hʌtɔlɔp |
| two | dapiamɛtɛ; depiʌmɛtɛ |
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". InAndrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.).Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66.doi:10.15144/PL-572.ISBN 0858835622.OCLC 67292782.