Kapauri–Sause languages

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The Kapauri–Sause (Kapori–Sause) languages form a small language family spoken along the middle Taritatu River in the Jayapura Regency of Papua, Indonesia. They are two languages, Kapauri (Kapori) and Sause, which are not particularly close.

There is a history of linking at least Kapauri to the Kaure languages (see Kaure–Kapori languages). However, they show no particular affiliation, and Kapauri appears to be closer to Kwerba. Usher demonstrated a connection instead with another erstwhile isolate, Sause, together forming a branch of Kwerbic.^[1] A partial reconstruction of proto-Kapauri–Sause can be found there.

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows. Apparent gaps may be due to poverty of data (e.g., there are /p/, /ɸ/ and /ɡ/ in the languages, but as of 2020 they have not been reconstructed for the protolanguage):^[1]

*m	*n
	*t	*s	*k
*b
*w	*ɽ	*j		*h

*i		*u
*e	*ɵ	*o
*ɛ
	*a [*aː]

Pronouns are reconstructed as follow.^[1]

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:^[1]

gloss	Proto-Kapauri-Sause
head	*baːɽ
ear	*t[o̝/u]waro̝
tooth	*w₂ano̝
tongue	*mɛn₂o̝
blood	*ko̝mo̝
bone	*aːᵘC
breast	*mɵ̝N
louse	*hɛno̝
dog	*unu
bird	*ɽe̝Cne̝N
egg	*huwini
sun	*nisiki (?)
moon	*bɛ[N/nV]
water/river	*bo̝C
path	*nawaɽo̝
eat	*na[N/nV]
two	*nɛbɽe̝[na]

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto-Kapauri–Sause