| Markham | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Madang andMorobe Provinces,Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian |
| Proto-language | Proto-Markham |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | mark1257 |
TheMarkham languages form a family of theHuon Gulf languages. It consists of a dozen languages spoken in theRamu Valley,Markham Valley and associated valley systems in the lowlands of theMadang andMorobe Provinces ofPapua New Guinea.[1][2] Unlike almost otherWestern Oceanic languages of New Guinea, which are spoken exclusively in coastal areas, many Markham languages are spoken in the mountainous interior ofMorobe Province,Papua New Guinea, where they are in heavy contact withTrans-New Guinea languages.[3]
Although the Markham languages areAustronesian, they have had much contact with neighboringPapuan languages.
A phonological reconstruction of Proto-Markham is presented in Holzknecht (1989) and is summarized below.[1]
Labu (= Hapa)
| Proto-Markham | |
|---|---|
| Reconstruction of | Markham languages |
Reconstructed ancestors | |
Proto-Markham was reconstructed bySusanne Holzknecht in 1989 in her paperThe Markham Languages of Papua New Guinea.[1] It descends from Proto-Huon Gulf on the basis of sharedphonological,morphosyntactic andlexicosemantic innovations, such as the merger of Proto-Huon Gulf*t,*r, and*R as Proto-Markham*r, the accretion of*ka- into focal pronoun bases (Proto-Oceanic*kamu "you" > Proto-Markham*ka-gam "id."), and the replacement of Proto-Oceanic*qacan "name" by Proto-Markham*biŋa "id.", among many others.
The vowels of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | *i | *u | |
| Close-mid | *e | *o | |
| Open | *a |
The consonants of Proto-Markham, according to Holzknecht, are:
| Labiovelar | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiced | *b | *d | *ɟ | *g | |
| voiceless | *kʷ | *p | *t | *c | *k | |
| Nasal | *mʷ | *m, *ᵐb | *n, *ⁿd | *ᶮɟ | *ŋ, *ᵑɡ | |
| Fricative | *f | *s | ||||
| Approximant | *w | *l, *r | ||||