Kapauri–Sause languages


The Kapauri–Sause languages form a small language family spoken along the middle Taritatu River in the Jayapura Regency of Papua, Indonesia. They are two languages, Kapauri and Sause, which are not particularly close.

Classification

There is a history of linking at least Kapauri to the Kaure languages. However, they show no particular affiliation, and Kapauri appears to be closer to Kwerba. Usher demonstrated a connection instead with another erstwhile isolate, Sause, together forming a branch of Kwerbic.
A partial reconstruction of proto-Kapauri–Sause can be found there.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows. Apparent gaps may be due to poverty of data :

Pronouns

Pronouns are reconstructed as follow.
proto-KSKapauriSause
*kakaku
ue
*aɾ̃oCaːnuʔarok
*neaɽuʔne

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher are: