CLASSIFICATORY AND TYP OLOGICA L STUDIES IN LANGUAGES OF THE WESTERN MADANG DIST RICT, NEW GUINEA BY Jo A. Z 'GRAGGEN The Australian NationaL University The Research School of Pacific Studies Department of Linguistics Canberra 1969 III PREFACE This thesis is the outcome of a period of research which began in August 1964 when I was transferred as a Missionary of the Society of the Divine Word (S.V.D.) to the Catholic Mission Station at Mugil. My linguistic aim at that time was to gain a basic idea of the nature of the Mugil language and to get an overall pic­ ture of the linguistic situation in the area for which I had to care as a missionary. An orienta­ tion trip to various parts the Bogia Sub­ of district and the Mlddle Ramu area was made in the second half of 1965. It was then that it became apparent to me how insufficient our linguistic knowledge of the Madang District was. Published material could be adequately understood only in the light of new field studies. Fieldwork was resumed again in January 1967 under the auspices of the Australian National University. Initially had planned to make a I descriptive and comparative study of the Mugil IV language. I did, however, not succeed in establishing a family or stock with Mugil as a member, but the survey work along the coast progressed well and was equally successful in the Ramu River area. was surprised to encounter in I the Ramu River area, typological features found along the coast. The original plan of the field­ trip was then given up and the rest of the time spent on establishing the boundaries of typolo�i­ cal features such as the indication of the subject with the verb, the prefixing or suffixing of possessive markers or object markers and oth�rs, and on collecting the necessary materials for a lexical classification the languages. This of in return enabled me to establish the language boundaries in large previously unsurveyed areas. This could, however, unfortunately be done only in some regions; other areas had to be left unsurveyed for the time being. In this thesis I have attempted to undertake three things: a) to give a historical summary of the linguistic work undertaken so far; v b to a preliminary lexical ) p:r�esent classification languages; of the c ) to discuss in some detail the nature and distribution of some typological features encountered in the languages Western Madang District. of the This thesis3 therefore, consists of three parts: PART lj_nguistic contributions I The: mair: are referred linguistic situation des- to, the cribed and this study discussed with a view to its aims and methods. PART a preliminary classifi- II provides cation of the languages of the Western Madang District into families, stocks and phyla. The distributlon and the number of speakers of each individual language are given and publications for each language listed - it is hoped that the list of publications is reasonably complete. Typological characteristics are mentioned when discussing the families and phylas and summaries of typol ogical are given for each stock. features VI PART III features such as Some typological Number Marking with nouns, concordance class systems, counting systems and the simple verb structure are discussed in some detail. would to express my thanks to Professor I like S.A. Wurm and Dr D.C. La cock of the Department of y Linguistics for supervising this thesis and adding helpful comments to earlier drafts; their jnterest and encouragement made this study become a reality. am indebted to the Australian National University I for the opportunity and funds made available to me to make this study and give thanks to the Department of Human Geography for the preparation of two maps that are being used in a forthcoming publication. Thanks are also due to Professor A. Bfihler, Basel, and Professor Ge�ring, Bern, on behalf of the Swiss Academy of Science, for granting me financial assistance. should also like to express my I sincere thanks to the Administration officials at the District Offices of Madang, Bogia and Angorum, to the various Mission Bodies such as the Church of Christ Mission, the Lutheran Mission and the VI I Catholic Mission for al the help which th y l e have given me so generously. Special thanks are due to Father Dr 2ch tte, S.V.D., former J. il Superior General of the Society of t e Divine h Word (S .V.D.), granting me the permission for to undertake this study , and to Father Dr W. Saake S.V.D., Director of the Anthropos-Institute, for encouraging m in ways. but no e many Lastly, less should like those sincerely, I to thank all in rmants who co�operated so indJginous fo well with me providing the linguistic mat ria s in e l this t es s is based. upon which h i TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I 1. Introduction 1 1.1. Historical Summary 2 1. 2. The Present Linguistic Picture 7 1. 3. Aims and Methods of the Present Study 8 1. 4. List of Abbreviat ions and Symbols 14 1. 5. Phonetic/Phonemic Symbols 20 PART II 2 . Lexical Comparisons 22 2.L List and Classification of Languages 22 2" 2. Notes on the Languages and their Classification 39 2. 21. The Madang Phylum 40 2.21.1. The Mabuso Stock 40 2.21.2. The Usur Group 61 2.21. 3. Lexical Int erre lat ionships within the Madang Phylum 64 VIII IX Illust rative List of Cognates of the Madang Phylum 64 2.2 1.50 Typological Characteristics of the Madang Phylum 68 2.22. The Adelbert Range Phylum 70 2.22. 1. The Isumrud Stock 70 2.22.2. The Pihom Stock 78 2. 22.3. The Jo sephstaal Stock 98 2.22.4 . The Wanang Stock 108 2.22 .5. The Mugi l Stock-Type Isolate 115 2.22.6. Lexical Int errelationships within the Adelbert Range Phylum 118 2.22.7 . Illustrat ive List of Cognates of the Adelbert Range Phylum 125 2.22.8. Typological Character istics of the Ade lbert Range Phylum 135 2.23. The Ramu Phylum 137 2. 2 3.1. The Ruboni Stock 137 2.23.2. The Goam Stock 149 2.23.3. The Annab erg Group 158 2.23.4 . The Agoan Fami ly 166 2.23.5. The Aion Language 168 2.23.60 The Kamb ot Langu age 168 2.23.L Lexical Interrelationships within the Ramu Phylum 169 Illustrative List of Cognates of the Ramu Phylum 171 x Typological Characteristics of the Ramu Phylum 178 2. 24. The Torricelli Phylum in the Western Madang District 180 The East New Guinea Highlands Phylum in the Western Madang District 184 2.26. The Me lanesian Language s in the Western Madang District 187 2. 3. Interphylic Relationships 197 PART I II 3. Typological Comparisons 205 3 . 1 . Indication of Numb er 205 3. 2. Concordance Class Systems 224 3. 3. Possessive Class Systems 229 3.4. Counting Systems 268 3. 5. Simp le Verb Structure 273 BIBLIOGRAPHY 306 1 PART ONE 1 • Introduction The Western Madang District of New Guinea covers roughly the area of the triangle formed by the Gogol River east of Madang town , the Ramu River , and the Central North-Eastern Coast of New Guinea. Adjacent areas such as those of Simbai and the Keram River have been included so as to give a more complete linguistic picture of the area of primary concern. The area comprises 8160 square miles, with a popula­ tion of 122,900. The area is dominated topographically by the Adelbert Range stretching along the coast westwards from Madang town , and by the extensive Ramu River system with its two main tributaries, the Goam and Sogeram Rivers . The landscape is hilly and mountainous, and swampy only on the Lower Ramu . 2 1.1. Historical Summary The linguistic history of the Madang District and of the Territory of New Guinea begins with the Russ ian scholar NaN . Miklucho-Maclay in 1871. He collected wordlists and sentence materials in languages of Astrolabe Bay and of some in the area in which the town of Madang is located today . Since then a numb er of authors have contributed some linguistic information to the ·area concerned . Their work has been discussed �n some deta�l in Part Two , under the names of the languages to· which they contribut ed some mat erials or �or whi ch they at least established their names. few additional notes on A the linguistic history will be given below in this part. Numbers added in brackets to a language name refers to the language map in Part II. 1.1.1. Comprehensive linguistic studies were made of Monumbo (72) by Vormann and Scharfenberger in 1914 and Holtker in 1964, of Gedaged (77) by Mager in by 1952 and by Dempwolff ( undated), of Bilbil (78) by Dempwolff in 1909 and of Karam (84) by Pawley . Pawley ' s study of the structure of the Karam Language is the only modern study in the area concerned. 3 1.1.2. The contributions made by Schmidt and Capell (bibliography, various dates) are outstanding. Both authors have gone beyond the mere collecting of wordlist s or the study of a single language , and have systematically compared wordlists, the phonolo­ gies and the grammars of all the languages of the North East Coast of New Guine a known to them at the time . W. Schmidt (1900) gave the first lingui stic picture of the north east coast of German New Guinea.