| Kala | |
|---|---|
| Kela | |
| Native to | Papua New Guinea |
| Region | Huon District,Morobe Province:Salamaua Rural LLG andMorobe Rural LLG |
Native speakers | 2,200 (2011)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | kcl |
| Glottolog | kela1255 |
Kala, also known as Kela, is anAustronesian language spoken by about 2200 people (in 2002) in several villages along the south coast of theHuon Gulf between Salamaua Peninsula and the Paiawa River,Morobe Province,Papua New Guinea.
The principal villages from north to south are:
There are four dialects of Kala. The three southern villages share a dialect with very minor differences found in the village of Kui while each of the northern villages has its own dialect.
Linguistically, Kala belongs to theNorth Huon Gulf languages and Kala-speakers appear to have arrived on the southern coast of the Gulf relatively recently, beginning perhaps as late as the 17th century (Bradshaw 1997).
Kala has five basic vowels (listed below), as well as contrastive nasal vowels.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | iĩ | uũ | |
| High-mid | eẽ | oõ | |
| Low | aã |
The consonants of Kala are listed below.
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pb | td | kg | |
| Fricative | s (z) | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Approximant | w | j | ||
| Tap/flap | ɾ |
The voiced alveolar fricative[z] only exists in the dialects spoken in Apoze and Lambu villages.
In 2010, anthropologists from the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus, worked in a collaborative project with the Kala Language Committee, a group of individuals concerned with strengthening Kala language amongst their communities, to decide on a Kala orthographic system. The practical writing system for Kala includes the following letters:⟨a, ã, b, d, e, ẽ, g, i, ĩ, k, l, m, n, ŋ, o, õ, p, s, t, u, ũ, w, y, z⟩. The committee chose the tilde symbol to represent nasal vowels in their practical writing system as it reminded them of ocean waves (calledtiti in Kala) since they are coastal people.[2]
Source:[3]
Like most of the languages around the Huon Gulf, Kala has a system ofbirth order names (Holzknecht 1989: 43-45, Devolder et al 2012). Each dialect has their own terms for birth-order names. CompareNumbami.
| Birth order Southern Dialect | Sons | Daughters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alisa | Kale |
| 2 | Aniya (Kamiali, Alẽso) Aniã (Kui) | Aiga |
| 3 | Gwe | Aya (Kamiali, Kui) Aiya (Alẽso) |
| 4 | Aluŋ (Kamiali, Alẽso) Alũ (Kui) | Dã |
| 5 | Sele | Auya (Kamiali) Owiya (Alẽso, Kui) |
| 6 | Dai (Kamiali, Alẽso) Dei (Kui) | Samba Uya (Kamiali, Kui) Dei (Alẽso) |
| 7 | Samba | Daliya (Kamiali, Kui) Samba Uya (Alẽso) |
| 8 | Deliya (Alẽso) |
| Birth order Northern Villages | Sons | Daughters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alisa (Apoze) Asa (Lambu) Asap (Manindala) | Kale (Apoze) Kali (Lambu, Manindala) |
| 2 | Aniya (Lambu, Manindala) Aniã (Apoze) | Aiga (Apoze, Manindala) Aiza (Lambu) |
| 3 | Gwe (Apoze, Manindala) Gwae (Lambu) | Aya (Apoze, Lambu) Aiya (Manindala) |
| 4 | Aluŋ | Dã (Apoze, Lambu) Dam (Manindala) |
| 5 | Sele | Wouya (Apoze) Obiye (Lambu) Aobiye (Manindala) |
| 6 | Dai (Lambu, Manindala) Dei (Apoze) | Dei (Apoze) Dambiye (Lambu) Damiye (Manindala) |
| 7 | Asemba (Apoze) Ŋsemba (Lambu) | Asemba (Apoze) Ŋazizi (Lambu) Daiye (Manindala) |
| 8 | Ŋa zalia (Apoze) |
Kala is spoken in six villages along the Huon Gulf, and as such is split into different dialects. The most significant differences, which are phonological and lexical, exist between the northernmost three villages and the southernmost, however, differences also exist between the individual villages, especially for Manindala (Kela) in the north. This dialect contains syllable codas, which no other dialect shows.[4]
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