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The Kwalean or Humene–Uare languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.
The languages are Humene, Uare (Kwale) and recently extinct Mulaha. It is not clear if Mulaha was an outlier, or as close to the others as they are to each other.
Classification
Humene and Uare are quite close (70% basic vocabulary), Mulaha more distant (22% with Uare).
The Kwalean family is not accepted by Søren Wichmann (2013), who splits it into two separate groups, namely Humene–Uare and Mulaha.[3]
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory of Humene and Uare as follows:[4]
*m
*n
*t
*k
*ʔ
*b
*d
*g
*ɸ
*h
*w
*ɾ
*j
*ɣ
The *k is rare.
Vowels are *i *e *ɛ *a *ɔ *o *u.
Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of Humene–Uare as:[4]
sg
pl
1
*ɛ
*ɛmɛ
2
*ɣa
*ja
3
*ani
*jɛ
Basic vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[4]
gloss
Proto-Humene-Uare
Humene
Uare
hair/feather
*igu
ˈiʔu
ˈiku
eye
*ubuma
uˈbuma
uˈbuma
nose
*jajɔɾɛ
ʒaˈʒoɾe
ʒaˈʒoɾe
tooth
*ɣɔnɔnɛ
βoˈnone
ɣoˈnone
tongue
*majanɛ
maˈnane
maˈʒane
foot/leg
*ɔda
ˈoda
ˈida
blood
*ɾɔo̝
ɾoˈo
ˈɾoˈu
bone
*e̝tinɛ
eˈhine
iˈsine
skin
*ahe̝ɾe̝
aˈheɾe
aˈhiɾi
breast
*nuunɛ
nuˈune
nuˈne
louse
*nɔmɔnɛ
noˈmone
noˈmone
dog
*ɣo̝ni
βoni
ˈɣuni
pig
*aba
ˈaba
ˈaba
bird
*ne̝ni; *t[e̝]b[o̝]ɾ[e̝]
neni; teˈboɾe
ˈnini
egg
*maɣa
ˈmaβa
ˈmaɣa
man
*wajɛ
ˈβaʒe
ˈβaʒe
woman
*nɔgɔnɛ
noˈʔone
noˈɣone
sun/day
*maˈda
maˈda
maˈda
moon
*batɔ
ˈbato
ˈbato
water
*wɔu
ˈβou
ˈβou
fire/firewood
*iɾɛ
ˈiɾe
iɾe
stone
*hadi
ˈhadi
ˈhadi
path
*e̝bi
ˈebi
ˈibi
name
*ni
ni
ni
eat
*an-
an-
an-
one
*te̝bɔ
ˈtebo
ˈtiba
two
*ahɛu
aˈheu
aˈheu
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Dutton (1970)[5] (with additional data for Uare from 1988 SIL field notes), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[6] Proto-Kwalean reconstructions are from Ross (2014).
Note that the words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. nuune, nune for “breast”) or not (e.g. hadi, aroba for “stone”).
^Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languagesArchived 2020-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
^Dutton, T.E. "Notes on the Languages of the Rigo Area of the Central District of Papua". In Wurm, S.A. and Laycock, D.C. editors, Pacific linguistic studies in honour of Arthur Capell. C-13:879-984. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1970. doi:10.15144/PL-C13.879
^Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
