Madang

History

Sidney Herbert Ray identified the Rai Coast family in 1919. In 1951 these were linked with the Mabuso languages by Arthur Capell to create his Madang family. John Z'graggen (1971, 1975) expanded Madang to languages of the Adelbert Range and renamed the family Madang–Adelbert Range, and Stephen Wurm (1975) adopted this as a branch of his Trans–New Guinea phylum. For the most part, Malcolm Ross's (2005) Madang family includes the same languages as Z'graggen Madang–Adelbert Range, but the internal classification is different in several respects, such as the dissolution of the Brahman branch.

Internal classification

The languages are as follows:

The time depth of Madang is comparable to that of Austronesian or Indo-European.

Pronouns

Ross (2000) reconstructed the pronouns as follows:

These are not the common TNG pronouns. However, Ross postulates that the TNG dual suffixes *-le and *-t remain, and suggests that the TNG pronouns live on as Kalam verbal suffixes.

Evolution

Madang family reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:

Family-wide innovations

pTNG *mbena ‘arm’ > proto-Madang *kambena (accretion of *ka-)

pTNG *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C ‘fingernail’ > proto-Madang *timbi(n,t) (metathesis)

pTNG *(n)ok ‘water’ replaced by proto-Madang *yaŋgu

Croisilles

Garuh language:

muki ‘brain’ < *muku

bi ‘guts’ < *simbi

hap ‘cloud’ < *samb(V)

balamu ‘firelight’ < *mbalaŋ

wani ‘name’ < *[w]ani ‘who?’

wus ‘wind, breeze’ < *kumbutu

kalam ‘moon’ < *kala(a,i)m

neg- ‘to watch’ < *nVŋg- ‘see, know’

ma ‘taro’ < *mV

ahi ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ

Pay language:

in- ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)-

kawus ‘smoke’ < *kambu

tawu-na ‘ashes’ < *sambu

imun ‘hair’ < *sumu(n,t)

ano ‘who’ < *[w]ani

Proto-Northern Adelbert:

*waben ‘arm, hand’ < *mbena

*bab ‘older brother’ < *[mb]amba

*ked ‘blood’ < *ke(nj,s)a

*gemaŋ ‘heart’ < *kamu

*kumaŋ ‘neck, nape’ < *kuma(n, ŋ)

*kasin ‘mosquito’ < *kasin

*um- ‘die’ < *kumV-

Kalam

Kalam language (most closely related to the Rai Coast languages):

meg ‘teeth’ < *maŋgat[a]

md-magi ‘heart’ < *mundu-maŋgV

mkem ‘cheek’ < *mVkVm ‘cheek, chin’

sb ‘excrement, guts’ < *simbi

muk ‘milk, sap, brain’ < *muku

yman ‘louse’ < *iman

yb ‘name’ < *imbi

kdl ‘root’ < *kindil

malaŋ ‘flame’ < *mbalaŋ

melk ‘(fire or day)light’ < *(m,mb)elak

kn- ‘to sleep, lie down’ < *kini(i,u)[m]-

kum- ‘die’ < *kumV-

md- < *mVna- ‘be, stay’

nŋ-, ng- ‘perceive, know, see, hear, etc’ < *nVŋg-

kawnan ‘shadow, spirit’ < *k(a,o)

nan, takn ‘moon’ < *takVn[V]

magi ‘round thing, egg, fruit, etc.’ < *maŋgV

ami ‘mother’ < *am(a,i,u)

b ‘man’ < *ambi

bapi, -ap ‘father’ < *mbapa, *ap

saŋ ‘women’s dancing song’ < *saŋ

ma- ‘negator’ < *ma-

Rai Coast

Dumpu language:

man- ‘be, stay’ < *mVna-

mekh ‘teeth’ < *maŋgat[a]

im ‘louse’ < *iman

munu ‘heart’ < *mundun ‘inner organs’

kum- ‘die’ < *kumV-

kono ‘shadow’ < *k(a,o)nan

kini- ‘sleep’ < *kin(i,u)[m]-

ra- ‘take’ < *(nd,t)a-

urau ‘long’ < *k(o,u)ti(mb,p)V

gra ‘dry’ < *(ŋg,k)atata

Southern Adelbert

Sirva language:

mun(zera) ‘be, stay’ < *mVna-

kaja ‘blood’ < *kenja

miku ‘brain’ < *muku

simbil ‘guts’ < *simbi

tipi ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,)ut(i,u)C (metathesis)

iːma ‘louse’ < *iman

ibu ‘name’ < *imbi

kanumbu ‘wind’ < *kumbutu

mundu(ma) ‘nose’ < *mundu

kaːsi ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ

apapara ‘butterfly’ < *apa(pa)ta

kumu- ‘die’ < *kumV-

ŋg- ‘see’ < *nVŋg-

Proto-language

The following selected reconstructions of Proto-Madang by Ross (2014) are from the Trans-New Guinea database. Proto-Trans–New Guinea reconstructions are from Andrew Pawley and Harald Hammarström (2018).