Arafundi languages

The Arafundi languages are a small family of clearly related languages in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are conjectured to be related to the Piawi and Madang languages. They are named after the Arafundi River.

Alfendio is an old synonym for Arafundi, from when it was still considered a single language.

The Arafundi languages form a dialect continuum where language boundaries are blurred.^[2]

The Arafundi languages are,^[1]

• Nanubae
• Tapei
• Andai (Meakambut)
• Awiakay (Karamba)

Kassell, et al. (2018) recognize Andai, Nanubae, and Tapei.^[3]

Foley (2018) cites Hoenigman (2015) for 'Upper Arafundi' and 'Lower Arafundi', as well as listing Awiakay and 'Imboin'.^[2] However, the scope of these names is somewhat confused. Usher notes,

Hoenigman (2015: 46 after Hoenigman and Evans 2013) designates Nanubae as Lower Arafundi and Andai–Meakambut as Upper Arafundi, with what we guess to be Tapei labelled simply Imboin after the name of a village where Tapei (Awim) as well as Andai (Namata) and Awiakay (Karamba) are spoken (Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter 2017: 13.) However, she assigns the Tapei-speaking Awim village to the Lower Arafundi language, which contradicts our data from Haberland (1966: 62-64) and Kassell, MacKenzie and Potter (2017: 48-54).^[1]

An Enga-based pidgin is also used by speakers of Arafundi languages.

Laycock (1973) grouped the Arafundi languages with the Ramu languages, although (according to his comments in the introduction) this grouping was apparently impressionistic and not based on either reconstructive work or lexicostatistics. Ross (2005) retains Laycock's grouping without comment. However, Foley (2005) does not include Arafundi within Ramu, and Ethnologue (2009) shows them as an independent family. Foley has suggested instead that the Arafundi and Piawi languages may be related (Comrie 1992), a position confirmed by Timothy Usher.^[4]

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Arafundi River by Usher (2020) are:^[1]

gloss	Proto-Arafundi River
head	*kopa
hair/feather(s)	*tum[a]
ear	*kund[a]
nose	*pok
tooth	*kandz[a]
tongue	*taTumat[a]
foot/leg	*panamb[a]
blood	*kombet-
bone	*jekimb[a]
skin	*kumb[a]-; *tut[a]
breast	*ji[t/s]
louse	*emuŋg
dog	*tawa[m/mb]
pig	*jat
bird	*kenet
egg	*mund[a]
tree	*jes
man	*nuŋgum
woman	*nam
sun	*kVjom
moon	*kepa
water	*jomb
fire	*jamb
stone	*naŋgum
name	*membi[a]
eat/drink	*nembV-
two	*kamin, *kondamin

• Yimas-Arafundi Pidgin

• Comrie, Bernard. "The recognition of the Piawi language family." In Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon, eds. The language game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock. 111-113. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1992.
• Foley, William A. (2005). "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik–Ramu basin". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
• Laycock, Donald. Sepik languages - checklist and preliminary classification. Pacific Linguistics B-25. Canberra, 1973.
• 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. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

• Arafundi languages database at TransNewGuinea.org
• Arafundi River. New Guinea World.