LINGUISTIC CIRCLE OF CANBERRA PUBLICATIONS EDITORS: S.A. WURH, J. B. HARRIS, N. G. MA LMQVIST, D. C. LA YCOCK SERIES C BOOKS NO . 1 THE NOU LANGUAGE FAM ILY (S epik District, New Guinea) by D. C. LAYCO C K CA N BER RA 1965 TH E AUSTRAL IAN NAT IONA L UNIVERS ITY Laycock, D. The Ndu language family (Sepik District, New Guinea). C-1, xi + 224 illus. map. 26 cm. pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1965. DOI:10.15144/PL-C1.cover ©1965 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. The pub11cat1ons of the L1ngu1st1c C1rcle of Canb erra are 1ssued 1n three ser1es: SERIES A - OCCASIONAL PAPERS SERIES B - MONOGRAPHS SERIES C - BOOKS . All correspondence concern1n g the L1ngu1st1c C1rcle of Canb erra and 1ts pub11cat1ons, 1n clu d1n g orders an d subscr1p t1ons, should be addressed to: TH E SECRETARY, LINGUISTIC CIRCLE OF CANBERRA, FACULTY OF ORI ENTAL STUDIES, TH E AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, BO X 4, G. P. O. , CANBERRA, A. C. T. AUSTRALIA. Th e copyr1ght 1n the mater1al of th1s pub11cat1on 1s vested 1n the author or co-authors. Th e C1rcle 1s 1n debted to the Au stra11an Nat10nal Un 1vers1ty for help 1n the product1on of th is ser1es. Th1s pub11cation was made possible by a grant from the Hunter Douglas fund. PREFACE This book is based on linguistic material collected during fieldwork in the Sepik District, Territory of New Guinea, during the period May 1959 to March 1960. Before my departure for the field no one , least of all myself, had more than an outline knowledge of what I might expect to find in the way of languages and their internal relat i on­ ships throughout the Sepik District. Accordingly, fieldwork was planned as a survey of the languages of a large, geo­ graphically cont inuous segment of the Sepik River basin, the area to be enlarged or reduced as time and circumstances permitted. When it became apparent that the most profitable line of research was to concentrate on the large interrelated group of languages clustered around the Middle Sepik area, the survey plan was not abandoned, but �as modified to include, as far as possible, only languages of the related group and those languages which surrounded this group on the northern, western and eastern sides - the southern side proving im­ possible to visit . A few exceptions were made because of prevailing circumstances. From the documentation of the related group - the Ndu family - the present study has emerged. Languages outside the Ndu family are mentioned only in pass ing or in contrast to members of the family, although consi derable material was collected in them. Analysis and publication of this material is planned for a later date. Those who in the meantime are interested in the distribution of the languages concerned should consult A. Capell, A Linfuistic Su rvey of the South­ We stern Pacific ( revised edition, South Pacific Commission Technical Paper NO .136 , Noumea, 1962) and my own brief article ' The Sepik and its Languages ' ( Australian Te r­ ritories 4, No . 4. 35-41, 1961). The plan of this work should be apparent from the table of content s. In the first section, an outline of the geo­ graphy of the Sepik District is given, as well as an account of the distribution of the maj or languages encountered and the numbers and types of natives who speak them. Then fol­ lows a summary and a justi ficat ion of the method of 'direct eliciting ' which was followed in obtaining material. The remaining sections, which form the bulk of the book, show iii iv the grammatical and lexical interrelationships of members of the Ndu family, and the conc lusions to be drawn therefrom. The appendices add supplementary material. Although this work is divided into parts, the numbering of sections is cont inuous throughout . The number to the left of the first decimal point is a whole number, and is not subdivided; the remaining subsections are subdivided decimally in pairs. Zero (0) is not used in the numeration. The spelling of place-names in the Sepik District con­ forms to that of the official Vi llate Directory ( Department of Native Affairs, Port Moresby, 1960), and to that of the princ ipal map used: Sepik District 1 inch = 4 miles, Port Moresby 1960. These sources have been supplemented where necessary by the Fourmil series compiled by the Department of Lands, Surveys and Mines, Port Moresby. In a few cases phonemici sation of native name s has been attempted. This is only possible, however, when the words were pronounced by a nat ive of the correct linguistic group in a context wh ich ruled out the possibility of an approxi­ mation to the prevailing European or Pidgin pronunciation. Latitude and longitude are given for all important places mentioned on the ir first occurrence in the text. A roving fieldworker gathers no moss, but many indebted­ nesses. In a brief compass it is not possible to do justice to all who helped me in my research, and I apologise in ad­ vance to anyone whose name I have inadvertently omitted from the following acknowledgements. Firstly, I must thank the Australian Nat ional University, whose scholarship grant and ample field allowances gave me the initial opportunity for research. Secondly, I have to thank my supervisor, Dr . S.W. Wurm, who taught me what to look for and how to look for it, and who se tireless persist­ ence in reading draft s of this work gave me the encourage­ ment to keep writing it. For permission to reproduc e, from Dr . Capell 's Survey, the map on page 18 , I am very grateful to Dr. Capell, to the South Pacific Commission, and to the cartographer, Mr . Edgar Ford. Hatching of Ndu-fami1y languages has been added. My thanks also go to my many friends in New Guinea, particularly to the many Administrative officers who simpli­ fied my progress and who frequently provided assistance and hospital ity at short no tice; also to the missionaries of all denominat ions , who , like Good Samaritans, on occasion fed me and took me in. I must especially thank Miss Pat Davidson and Mrs. Hazel Easton, of the Assemblies of God Mission, for v additional informat ion on the Abelam and Boikin languages; also Miss Shirley Matthews, of the South Seas Evangelical Mission, whose premature death in 1959 brought to an end her valuable studies in the Arapesh language. Mr . Kay Liddle, of the Christian Missions in Many Lands, Green River, provided me with hospitality, an excellent informant , and my first insight into the class-system of the Abau language: to him too many thanks. Finally, I owe a debt to my informants for their patience with me. If they ever learn to read Engl ish, they will realise that this is not quite, unfortunately, the book that I promised I would write about their languages. Canberra, A.C.T.• Karc h 1962. For publication, a number of small changes and reV1Slons have been incorporated into this work. I am grateful for suggestions from Dr. Fred Householder, Indiana University, and Dr. Kenneth Hale, University of Southern Illinois. Berlin, Germany, January 1964 . TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE iii PART I: ORIENTATION 1. Th e Sep ik District 3 1. 1. Area and Administrat ion 3 1. 2. Terrain 3 1. 3. Population 5 1. 4. Anthropology and Ethnography 7 1. 5. History of the Sepik District 9 2. Field Methods 10 2. 1. Direct Eliciting 10 2. 2. El iciting Material 10 2. 3. Safeguards 11 2.4. Texts 12 2. 5. Language of Interrogation 12 2. 6. Informants 13 2.7. Conclusion 13 3. Te rminology and Abbrevi ations 20 3. 1. Terminology 20 3. 2. Abbreviat ions and Symbols 20 PAR1' II: PHONOLOGY AND GRAMM AR OF ABELAM 4. In troduction 25 4. 1. The Abelam Language 25 4. 2. Material in Ab elam Dialects 26 4. 3. Introduction to the Grammar 27 5. Phonology 29 5. 1. Phonological Units 29 vii viii Pa�e 5.2. Stress 29 5. 3. Juncture, Transition and Pauses 30 5.4. Intonation 31 5. 5. Phonemics and Orthography 32 5. 6. Allophonic Variat ions affecting Classes of Phonemes 33 5. 7. Allophonic Variations in Detail 34 5. 8. Syllable and Phrase Structure 42 5. 9. Morphophonemics 44 6. Grammar 46 6. 1. Minimal Utterance 46 6. 2. Sentences containing only one Verb 46 6. 3. Predicate Expansions 52 6. 4. Subject Expansions 55 6. 5. Further Expansions of Basic Sentences 58 6.6. Sentences with more than one Verb 67 6. 7. 'Sentence-Medial ' Verb Forms 69 6. 8. Residue 75 6. 9. Morpheme Inventory 81 7. Wosera Abelam Texts 88 7. 1. Texts from Situational Testing 88 7. 2. Free Texts 93 PART III: OUTL INE GRAMM ARS OF OTH ER LANGUAGES OF TH E NOU FAMILY 8. Introduction to Ou t line Grammars 101 8. 1. Presentation 101 9. Ou tl ine Grammar of Bo ikin 103 9. 1. Introduction 103 9. 2. Materials in Boikin 103 9. 3. Phonology of Boikin 104 9. 4. Outline of Bo ikin Grammar 106 ix 10. Ou tline Grammar of Ia tmul 112 10 . 1. Introduction 112 10.2. Materials in Iatmul 113 10. 3. Phonology of Iatmul 113 10.4 . Outline of Iatmul Grammar 114 11. Outline Grammar of Man ambu 120 11. 1. Introduction 120 11. 2. Materials in Manambu 120 11.