Asmat–Kamrau languages
The Asmat – Kamrau Bay languages are a family of a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Asmat and related peoples in southern Western New Guinea. They are believed to be a recent expansion along the south coast, as they are all closely related, and there is little differentiation in their pronouns.
Languages
The languages are:- Kamrau Bay :
- *Buruwai
- *Kamrau
- **North Kamberau
- **South Kamberau
- Asmat–Kamoro
- *Kamoro
- *Sempan
- *Asmat languages
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:There is near complementary distribution between *p and *ɸ. *t and *d are marginal, appearing in only a few words. *r does not occur initially. There are no consonant clusters.
Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.
Pronouns
Ross reconstructs the proto-Asmat–Kamoro pronouns as:Usher reconstructs the free proto–Asmat–Kamrau Bay pronouns as:
Basic vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher are:Evolution
Proto-Asmat-Kamoro reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea etyma, as listed in Pawley & Hammarström :- *fiti 'fingernail' < pTNG *mbtC
- *isi 'mosquito' < *kasin
- *ese 'blood' < *kenja
- *masap or *masip 'saliva' < *siatV
- *yi 'urine' < *si
- *asa 'excrement' < *asa
- *manaka 'eye' < *munka
- *sisi 'tooth' < *ii
- *yirama 'night' < *ktama
- *tama 'morning' < *ktama
- *na- 'eat' < *na-