Template:Short description Template:Infobox language family
The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the Vanimo coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indonesian province of Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya).
TypologyEdit
ToneEdit
Skou languages are unusual among Papuan languages for being tonal; all Skou languages possess contrastive tone.<ref name="Foley-Sepik"/> Vanimo, for example, has three tones, high, mid, low.
Example minimal sets illustrating tonal contrasts in various Skou languages:<ref name="Foley-Sepik"/>
- I’saka: ẽyH ‘louse’, weyL ‘butterfly’, weyLH ‘house’, weyHL ‘language’
- Barupu: eH ‘tooth’, eL ‘garden’, eHL ‘mosquito’, eHLH ‘write’
- Wutung: hoH ‘roof thatch made from sago palm fronds’, hoL ‘star’, hoHL ‘grease’
- Skou: taH ‘grass’, taL ‘hair’, taHL ‘arrow’
Lakes Plain languages, spoken in a discontiguous area to the southwest, are also tonal. Because of the apparent phonological similarities and sharing of stable basic words such as ‘louse’, Foley speculates the potential likelihood of a distant relationship shared between the Skou and Lakes Plain families, but no formal proposals linking the two families have been made due to insufficient evidence.<ref name="Foley-NWNG">Template:Cite book</ref> Additionally according to Foley, based on some lexical and phonological similarities, the Keuw language (currently classified as a language isolate) may also possibly share a deep relationship with the Lakes Plain languages. Like the Lakes Plain languages, Keuw also possesses constrative tone.
Lepki, Kaure, and Kembra, spoken in mountainous inland regions of the Indonesia-PNG border to the southwest of the Skou-speaking area, are also tonal.<ref name="Foley-NWNG"/>
MorphologyEdit
Skou languages can be isolating or polysynthetic.<ref name="Foley-Sepik"/>
- Isolating structure: Dumo, an Inner Skou language
- Polysynthetic structure: Barupu, a Piore River language
ClassificationEdit
Skou languages were first linked by G. Frederici in 1912. In 1941, K.H. Thomas expanded the family to its current extent.
The Sko family is not accepted by Søren Wichmann (2013), who splits it into two separate groups.<ref name="Wichmann2013">Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313–386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.</ref>
Donohue (2007) and Donohue and Crowther (2005) list Nouri as a mixed language having features of both the Piore River and Serra Hills subgroups.<ref name="NCNG-Donohue">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Donohue, Mark P. 2007. A Grammar of the Skou Language of New Guinea. Unpublished manuscript.</ref>
Sko (Laycock 1975)Edit
Laycock posited two branches, Vanimo and Krisa:
- Sko
Skou (Ross 2005)Edit
However, Krisa is poorly supported and Malcolm Ross abandoned it.
- Skou
Macro-Skou (Donohue 2002)Edit
Mark Donohue proposed a subclassification based on areal diffusion he called Macro-Skou.
- Macro-Skou
Donohue (2004) notes that is unclear if extinct Nouri is in the Piore River or Serra Hills branch.
Sko (Foley 2018)Edit
Foley (2018) provides the following classification.<ref name="Foley-Sepik">Template:Cite book</ref>
Foley's Inner Sko corresponds to Donohue's Western Skou.
Miller (2017)Edit
The Piore River branch was renamed Lagoon in Miller (2017).<ref>Miller, Steve A. 2017. Skou Languages Near Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 1–24.</ref> The older names of the Piore River languages were from village names; Miller has since renamed them as Bauni, Uni, Bouni, and Bobe, though it is debatable whether they are all distinct languages.
- Lagoon (also Piore River)
Usher (2020)Edit
Usher groups the languages as follows, with each node being a reconstructable clade, and giving the family a geographic label rather than naming it after a single language. The Eastern languages are typologically quite distinct from the Western languages and I'saka.<ref>New Guinea World, Vanimo Coast</ref>
- Vanimo Coast
- I'saka
- West
- Skou
- Leitre
- Dumo-Dusur (Vanimo)
- Sangke–Wutung
- East
PronounsEdit
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Skou are,
I *na we *ne thou *me you ? he *ka they (Template:Gcl) *ke she *bo they (Template:Gcl) *de
The Skou languages also have a dual, with a distinction between inclusive and exclusive we, but the forms are not reconstructable for the proto-language.
Pronouns in individual Skou languages:<ref name="Foley-Sepik"/>
pronoun I'saka Barupu Wutung Skou Template:Gcl nana něná niɛ nì Template:Gcl mama měmá mɛ mè Template:Gcl kia yá ʔe ke Template:Gcl umu bó ce pe Template:Gcl numu měmí nɛtu ne Template:Gcl yumu mŏpú ɛtu e Template:Gcl i.e. yéi tɛtu te
CognatesEdit
Sko family cognates (I'saka, Barupu, Wutung, Skou) listed by Foley (2018):<ref name="Foley-Sepik"/>
Sko family cognates gloss I'saka Barupu Wutung Skou ‘hand’ dou eno noʔɛ̃ no ‘tooth’ kũ e ʔũ kə̃ ‘breast’ ni to no no ‘woman’ bu bom wũawũa pɛɨma ‘bird’ yũ ru tĩ tã ‘dog’ naki naʔi nake ‘water’ wi pi pa ‘old’ tuni tɔra rõtoto ‘eat’ a ou (u)a a
A cognate set for 'louse' in Sko languages (reconstructing roughly to *nipi in Proto-Sko) as compiled by Dryer (2022):<ref name="Dryer 2022">Template:Cite book</ref>
Language (group) louse Serra Hills ni, nip, nipi Warapu mi Western Sko pi, fi, pĩ Isaka ẽĩ
Vocabulary comparisonEdit
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),<ref name="Voorhoeve-1971">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. {{#invoke:doi|main}}</ref><ref name="Voorhoeve-1975">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. {{#invoke:doi|main}}</ref> as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More recent data from Marmion (2010)<ref name="Marmion-2010"/> has been added for Wutung and from Donohue (2002)<ref name="Donohue-2002"/> (as cited in the ASJP Database) for Skou.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. lúrtô, rəto for “eye”) or not (e.g. hlúqbùr, kəsu for “head”).
gloss Wutung
(Marmion 2010)<ref name="Marmion-2010">Template:Cite book</ref>Wutung
(Voorhoeve 1975)<ref name="Voorhoeve-1975"/>Skou
(Donohue 2002)<ref name="Donohue-2002">Donohue, Mark. Skou Dictionary Draft. Ms.</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citationCitationClass=web }}</ref> !! Skou
(Voorhoeve 1971, 1975)<ref name="Voorhoeve-1971"/><ref name="Voorhoeve-1975"/>head hlúqbùr kəsu. rebi röbe; rö́e hair tàng ta ta ta ear qúrlùr le lö eye lúrtô rəto lu; luto lutɔ̀ nose ha ha tooth qúng kə ke* kö leg knaŋku tãe louse hehe fi fi dog náqî naki nakE nakɛ́ pig cà tyamu pálɛ bird tîng ta* tåå; tãŋã egg kuekue ku tã kò blood hnjie hi hi hi bone qêy e e ee skin mà; nua na ro nö re; nö rɔ̀ breast no no* nɔ tree ri ri; rite ri man panyua teba kE ba ba; keba; kébanè; teba woman wungawunga 3mE pemɛ̀ sun hlàng hrã ra* rãã́ moon kE ke water câ tya pa pa fire hie hae ra ra stone wólòng koŋũ wu* hũ; wũ eat sàqèngpùà (Template:Gcl) a* kã; pã; tã one ófà ofa ali* alì two hnyûmò hime hi*tu* hĩ́to
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Template:Reflist Template:Refbegin
External linksEdit
Template:Skou languages Template:Papuan languages Template:Language families