UC Berkeley Dissertations, Department of Linguistics Title Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and Change in South-Halmahera-West New Guinea Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nj8g0b3 Author Kamholz, David Publication Date 2014 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea by David Christopher Kamholz A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Andrew Garrett, Chair Professor Larry Hyman Professor Johanna Nichols Fall 2014 Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea Copyright 2014 by David Christopher Kamholz 1 Abstract Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea by David Christopher Kamholz Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Professor Andrew Garrett, Chair This dissertation presents a new subgrouping of South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) languages. The 38 SHWNG languages form a small, poorly known branch of Austronesian. The Austronesian family originated in Taiwan and later spread into In- donesia, across New Guinea, and to the remote Pacific. In New Guinea, approximately 3500 years ago, Austronesian speakers first came into contact with so-called Papuan languages—the non-Austronesian languages indigenous to New Guinea, comprising more than 20 families. The Austronesian languages still extant from this initial spread into New Guinea fall into two branches: SHWNG and Oceanic. In great contrast to Oceanic, only a few SHWNG languages are well-described, and almost nothing has been reconstructed at the level of Proto-SHWNG. Contact with Papuan languages has given the SHWNG lan- guages a typological profile quite different from their linguistic forebears. Chapter 1 puts the SHWNG languages in context, describing their significance for Aus- tronesian and their broader relevance to historical linguistics. It outlines the theoretical framework of the work, covering models of language diversification, diagnostic features for subgrouping, and language contact. A scale is proposed for ranking innovation types from most to least diagnostic for subgrouping. Morphological innovations are ranked above phonological innovations in this scale. Chapter 2 gives an overview of the Austronesian family, focusing on the aspects most crucial to understanding the rest of the work: an outline of Proto-Austronesian phonology and the history of the branches ancestral to Proto-SHWNG. Chapter 3 summarizes previous work on SHWNG languages, covering language mem- bership, environmental and social characteristics, descriptive sources, shared innovations, subgrouping, reconstruction, and contact-induced change. Chapters 4–6 are the main empirical contribution. Chapter 4 covers segmental sound change in 25 SHWNG languages and dialects. Chapter 5 covers tonogenesis in the Raja Ampat languages Maˈya and Magey Matbat and the Cenderawasih Bay languages Moor, Yaur, and Yerisiam. Chapter 6 covers subject agreement and inalienable possessive mor- 2 phology in 37 SHWNG languages and dialects. In these chapters, the goal is to identify shared innovations and determine their usefulness for establishing subgrouping relation- ships among SHWNG languages. Morphological innovations are found to be more diag- nostic than phonological innovations, confirming the scale proposed in chapter 1. Chapter 7 proposes a new subgrouping for SHWNG languages, synthesizing the results of chapters 4–6. The homelands of Proto-SHWNG and its branches are also discussed. The homeland of Proto-SHWNG is located in southern Cenderawasih Bay. Chapter 8 concludes by considering the contributions of SHWNG languages to models of language diversification and change, and laying out questions for future research. The Appendix contains the complete database of SHWNG cognate sets from which the analysis in chapters 4 and 5 is drawn. i To my parents, Barbara and John ii Contents List of Figures vi List of Tables vii Abbreviations xi Transcriptional conventions xii Acknowledgments xiii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 South Halmahera–West New Guinea in context ................ 1 1.2 Models of language diversification ....................... 3 1.3 Diagnostic features for subgrouping ...................... 5 1.4 Language contact ................................. 8 1.5 Outline ....................................... 9 2 The Austronesian family 10 2.1 Introduction .................................... 10 2.2 Proto-Austronesian phonology ......................... 12 2.3 Proto-Malayo-Polynesian ............................. 13 2.4 Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian ................... 14 2.5 Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian ........................ 15 3 The South Halmahera–West New Guinea subgroup 17 3.1 Introduction .................................... 17 3.2 Environmental and social characteristics .................... 18 3.3 Descriptive sources ................................ 23 3.4 Early classifications ................................ 24 3.5 SHWNG according to Blust ........................... 25 3.6 SHWNG according to Ross ............................ 30 3.7 Boundaries .................................... 31 3.8 Previous internal subgrouping proposals .................... 32 iii 3.9 Van den Berg’s reconstruction of possessive marking . 35 3.10 Contact-induced change ............................. 35 4 SHWNG historical phonology I: Segmental phonology 38 4.1 Introduction .................................... 38 4.2 Comparative phonology ............................. 40 4.2.1 *q ..................................... 40 4.2.2 *h ..................................... 41 4.2.3 *p ..................................... 43 4.2.4 *b ..................................... 44 4.2.5 *t ...................................... 46 4.2.6 Palatalization of *t before *i ....................... 48 4.2.7 *c ...................................... 50 4.2.8 *k ..................................... 50 4.2.9 *g ..................................... 52 4.2.10 *s and *j .................................. 52 4.2.11 *d ..................................... 54 4.2.12 *D ..................................... 56 4.2.13 *l ...................................... 56 4.2.14 *z ..................................... 57 4.2.15 *r ...................................... 58 4.2.16 *R ..................................... 59 4.2.17 *m ..................................... 61 4.2.18 *n and *ñ ................................. 63 4.2.19 *ŋ ..................................... 65 4.2.20 Final nasals in Yaur ............................ 67 4.2.21 Nasal–stop clusters ............................ 68 4.2.22 *y ..................................... 69 4.2.23 *w ..................................... 70 4.2.24 *i ...................................... 71 4.2.25 *u ..................................... 73 4.2.26 *a ..................................... 75 4.2.27 Insertion of y before initial *a ...................... 78 4.2.28 *ə ...................................... 79 4.2.29 *e ...................................... 82 4.2.30 *o ..................................... 82 4.2.31 Syncope .................................. 83 4.2.32 Final vowel loss .............................. 85 4.3 Summary of reflexes and sound changes .................... 87 4.4 Reassessment of Proto-SHWNG sound changes . 92 4.5 Implications for subgrouping .......................... 93 iv 5 SHWNG historical phonology II: Tonal phonology 95 5.1 Introduction .................................... 95 5.2 Raja Ampat languages .............................. 96 5.2.1 Maˈya ................................... 96 5.2.2 Magey Matbat ............................... 99 5.3 Cenderawasih Bay languages . 101 5.3.1 Moor ....................................101 5.3.2 Yerisiam ..................................106 5.3.3 Yaur ....................................114 5.4 Implications for subgrouping . 116 6 SHWNG historical morphology 118 6.1 Introduction ....................................118 6.2 Pronouns .....................................118 6.3 Subject marking .................................123 6.3.1 Introduction ................................123 6.3.2 Comparative morphology . 123 6.4 Inalienable possessive marking . 128 6.4.1 Introduction ................................128 6.4.2 Comparative morphology . 129 6.5 Implications for subgrouping . 133 7 SHWNG subgrouping: A new proposal 136 7.1 Introduction ....................................136 7.2 Proto-RASH ....................................136 7.2.1 Proto-South Halmahera . 136 7.2.2 Proto-Central-Eastern South Halmahera . 137 7.2.3 Proto-Southern South Halmahera . 137 7.2.4 Proto-Ambel-Biga .............................137 7.2.5 Proto-Maˈya-Matbat . 137 7.3 Proto-Cenderawasih Bay .............................138 7.3.1 Proto-Biakic ................................138 7.3.2 Proto-Yapen ................................138 7.3.3 Proto-Western Yapen . 138 7.3.4 Proto-Central Yapen . 139 7.3.5 Proto-Eastern Yapen . 139 7.3.6 Proto-Southwest Cenderawasih Bay . 139 7.3.7 Proto-Yaur-Yerisiam . 139 7.4 Other primary branches of Proto-SHWNG . 140 7.5 Rejected subgroups ................................140 7.5.1 Proto-Raja Ampat .............................140 7.5.2 Proto-Maˈyaic ...............................140 v 7.5.3 Proto-Nuclear