Engan languages

The Engan languages, or more precisely Enga–Kewa–Huli or Enga – Southern Highland, are a small family of Papuan languages of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The two branches of the family are rather distantly related, but were connected by Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973).

The name "Engan" is often restricted to the northern branch of the family, to those languages transparently related to Enga, but also sometimes to the family as a whole.

The languages fall into three quite distinct branches: Engan proper, Huli, and Southern Highlands:

• North Engan (Engan proper): Enga–Kyaka–Lembena, Ipili, Bisorio (Nete, Iniai)
• South Engan (Kewa–Huli)
  • Huli
  • Southern Highlands: Angal (Mendi), Kewa; Samberigi (Sau)

The Engan family constitutes a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Wurm and of Malcolm Ross, but the evidence for this is weak.

Usher links the Engan and Chimbu languages in a Central New Guinea Highlands family.

There are a considerable number of resemblances with Wiru. Borrowing has not been ruled out as the reason for this, though the pronouns are similar as well.

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:

Vowels are *i *e *a *o *u.

Pronouns are easy to reconstruct for the northern and southern branches, but much more difficult for Engan as a whole. Ross (2005) has the following for the singular, Wiru has been added for comparison:

Usher (2020) has not yet published reconstruction of Engan as a whole, but has done Engan proper:

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Trans Enga (Proto-Engan) by Usher (2020) are:

The Enga-Kewa-Huli reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, if Engan languages are indeed members of the Trans-New Guinea family, are:

Enga:

• mona ‘heart’ < *mundun
• yaka ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
• lyaŋa ‘ashes’ < *la(ŋ,k)a
• ŋaŋa ‘baby < *ŋaŋ(a)
• (m)ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• kuri ‘bone’ < *kondaC
• kare ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]
• ne- ‘eat’ < *na
• apa(ne) ‘father’ < *apa
• iti ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
• endo ‘fire’ < *kend(o,u)p
• lema ‘louse’ < *niman
• kana ‘moon’ < *takVn[V]
• mana ‘instructions’ < *mana
• kitama ‘morning’ < *k(i,u)tuma
• kumi- ‘die’ < *kumV-
• re- ‘speak’ < *nde-
• maa ‘taro’ < *mV
• ita ‘tree’ < *inda

Huli:

• ega ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)
• na- ‘eat’ < *na-
• aba ‘father’ < *apa
• iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
• ira ‘tree’ < *inda
• ma ‘taro’ < *mV

Kewa:

• ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• ibi ‘name’ < *imbi
• iri ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
• uni ‘bone’ < *kwanjaC
• apu ‘tail’ < *a(mb,m)u
• lema ‘louse’ < *niman
• oma ‘die’ < *kumV-
• reka- ‘stand’ < *t(a,e)kV-
• la- ‘talk’ < *nde-
• maa ‘taro’ < *mV
• yaa ‘bird’ < *yaka(i)

Mendi:

• am ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• ap ‘father’ < *apa
• mbi ‘name’ < *imbi
• ome- ‘die’ < *kumV-

Basic vocabulary of Enga and Kewa from William A. Foley (1986). The pairs of words are not necessarily cognate.

• 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. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

• Ross, Malcolm. 2014. Proto-Engan. TransNewGuinea.org.

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Enga – Southern Highlands Archived 2016-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
  • (ibid.) Trans-Enga