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Kamula language
from Wikipedia
Kamula
Wawoi
RegionWestern Province, Papua New Guinea
Native speakers
(1,100 cited 2000)[1]
Trans–New Guinea or unclassified
Language codes
ISO 639-3xla
Glottologkamu1260
ELPKamula
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″S 142°39′17″E / 6.951833°S 142.654804°E / -6.951833; 142.654804 (Kasigi)

Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.[2]

Demographics

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Kamula is spoken in two widely separated areas,[2]: 80  including in Kamiyami village of the Wawoi Falls area in Bamu 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 speak Doso over Kamula. A minority of Kamula people in the northern area also live in Dibiyaso-speaking villages, where they are multilingual in Kamula, Doso, and Dibiyaso. Kamula people in the southern village of Wasapea are also fluent in Gogodala.[6]

Classification

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The little data that exists for Kamula pronouns does not fit in with the neighboring East Strickland or Bosavi languages (though 1sg 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 are 1sg nɛ̃, 2sg wɛ̃, and ̩pl diɛ.

Phonology

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Kamula phonology:[8]

Consonants

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Kamula has 12 consonants.

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plosive p d k ɡ
nasal m n
fricative s h
approximant w j
lateral approximant l

Vowels

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Kamula has 7 vowels.

Front Central Back
close i u
close-mid e o
open-mid ɛ ⟨a꞉⟩ ɔ ⟨o꞉⟩
open a

Vocabulary

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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

References

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