| Kembra | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Western New Guinea |
| Region | Kiambra village, Kaisenar District,Keerom Regency |
| Ethnicity | 50[1] |
Native speakers | (20 cited 2000)[1] |
Pauwasi
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xkw |
| Glottolog | kemb1250 |
| ELP | Kembra |
 Kembra is classified as Critically Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Kembra is aSouth Pauwasi language spoken inWestern New Guinea by some twenty persons in Kiambra village, Kaisenar District,Keerom Regency. It is used by between 20% and 60% of the ethnic population and is no longer passed down to children.
Initial documentation was carried out by Barnabas Konel and Roger Doriot. Kembra data remains unpublished in Konel's and Doriot's field notes.[2][3]
Foley (2018) notes that Kembra has some lexical forms resembling Lepki, but not Murkim, hinting at lexical borrowing between Kembra and Lepki, but not Murkim. He allows the possibility of Kembra being related toLepki–Murkim, pending further evidence.[4] With more data, Usher (2020) was able to verify the connection.
Kembra is atonal language, as shown by the followingminimal pair.[4]: 464
Basic vocabulary of Kembra listed inFoley (2018):[5]
| gloss | Kembra |
|---|---|
| ‘bird’ | tra |
| ‘blood’ | nili |
| ‘bone’ | ka |
| ‘eat’ | ɲəm |
| ‘egg’ | traləl |
| ‘eye’ | yi |
| ‘fire’ | ya |
| ‘give’ | lokwes |
| ‘ground’ | to |
| ‘hair’ | iyet |
| ‘I’ | mu |
| ‘leg’ | kla |
| ‘louse’ | nim |
| ‘man’ | ratera |
| ‘name’ | kia |
| ‘one’ | kutina |
| ‘see’ | iyam |
| ‘stone’ | isi |
| ‘sun’ | ota |
| ‘tooth’ | pa |
| ‘tree’ | ya |
| ‘two’ | kais |
| ‘water’ | er |
| ‘we’ | utuas |
| ‘you (sg)’ | amagrei |
| ‘you (pl)’ | robkei |
Kembra has SOV word order, and also appears to have bipartite negation as inAbun and French. Only several sentences have been elicited by Konel (n.d.), which are quoted below from Foley (2018).[4]
pei
dog
yá
pig
por
black
ɲəm
eat
pei yá por ɲəm
dog pig black eat
‘The dog ate the black pig.’
mu
ipei
betelnut
abi-ɲi
koto
mu ipei abi-ɲi koto
1SG betelnut NEG-eat NEG
‘I didn’t eat betelnut.’
mu
pei
dog
abi-(i)ya
koto
mu pei abi-(i)ya koto
1SG dog NEG-see NEG
‘I didn’t see the dog.’
