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The Kaure–Kosare or Nawa River languages are a small family spoken along the Nawa River in West Papua, near the northern border with Papua New Guinea.[1] The languages are Kaure and Kosare.
Classification
Kaure and Kosare (Kosadle) are clearly related. There is a history of classifying them with the Kapori–Sause languages. However, Kapori and Sause show no particular connection to the Kaure languages, and may be closer to Kwerba.[1]
Foley (2018) considers a connection with Trans-New Guinea to be promising, but tentatively leaves Kaure-Kosare out as an independent language family pending further evidence.[2]
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[1]
*m
*n
*p
*t
*k
*b
*g
*s
*h
*w
*ɽ
[*j]
Coda consonants are stop *C (or more precisely *P) and nasal *N.
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[1]
gloss
Proto-Nawa River
hair
*haⁱ
ear
*hwɔkɽuC
eye
*hwe̝N
tusk/tooth
*pakaⁱ
skin/bark
*ki
breast
*muN
louse
*miN
dog
*se̝
pig
*pî
bird
*ho̝C
tree
*tɛⁱC
woman
*naⁱ
sun
*h[æ/a]niC
moon
*paka
water
*mi[jɛ]
fire
*sa(-[n/ɽ]ɛN)
eat
*naⁱ
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975)[3][4] and other sources, as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[5]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. poka, paka for “moon”) or not (e.g. goklu, huaglüt, kɔro for “ear”).
^Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". 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. 433–568. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
^Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
^Clouse, D.A. 1997. Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plain languages of Irian Jaya. In Franklin, K. (ed). Papers in Papuan Linguistics No. 2. Pacific Linguistics: Canberra.
^Heeschen, V. 1978. The Mek languages of Irian Jaya with special reference to the Eipo language. Irian, 2: 3-67.
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN0858835622. OCLC67292782.
