Kamula language
# Kamula language

Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified.

## Demographics

Kamula is spoken in two widely separated $areas,^{:80}$ including in Kamiyami village of the Wawoi Falls area in Bamu Rural LLG, Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Routamaa (1994: 7) estimates that there are about 800 speakers of Kamula located in 3 villages in Western Province, with no dialectal differences reported. This is because the Kamula had originally lived in camps near Samokopa in the northern area, but a group had split off and moved to Wasapea in the south only around 50 years $ago.^{:14}$

* Kesiki, at Wawoi Falls in Bamu Rural LLG (main village) (6°57′07″S 142°39′17″E﻿ / ﻿6.951833°S 142.654804°E﻿ / -6.951833; 142.654804﻿ (Kasigi))
* Samokopa in Bamu Rural LLG (one day's walk from Kesiki) (6°55′52″S 142°44′48″E﻿ / ﻿6.931064°S 142.746689°E﻿ / -6.931064; 142.746689﻿ (Samakopa))
* Wasapea (Kamiyami) in Gogodala Rural LLG (seven days' walk, or 90 km to the south of Kesiki) (7°53′20″S 142°38′56″E﻿ / ﻿7.889003°S 142.648998°E﻿ / -7.889003; 142.648998﻿ (Wasapeya))

In the northern villages of Kesiki and Samokopa, Kamula children were reported as preferring to speak Doso over Kamula. A minority of Kamula people in the northern area also live in Dibiyaso-speaking villages, where they are multilingual in Kamula, Doso, and Dibiyaso. Kamula people in the southern village of Wasapea are also fluent in Gogodala.

## Classification

The little data that exists for Kamula pronouns does not fit in with the neighboring East Strickland or Bosavi languages (though 1sg nê likely reflects proto-TNG *na), so Kamula is best left as an unclassified language an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea pending further study.

Attested pronouns are 1sg nɛ̃, 2sg wɛ̃, and ̩pl diɛ.

## Phonology

Kamula phonology:

### Consonants

Kamula has 12 consonants.

| | Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| plosive | p | t̪ | d | | k ɡ | |
| nasal | m | | n | | | |
| fricative | | | s | | | h |
| approximant | w | | | j | | |
| lateral approximant | | | l | | | |

### Vowels

Kamula has 7 vowels.

| | Front | Central | Back |
| - | - | - | - |
| close | i | | u |
| close-mid | e | | o |
| open-mid | ɛ ⟨a꞉⟩ | | ɔ ⟨o꞉⟩ |
| open | | a | |

## Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Dutton (2010), Reesink (1976), and Shaw (1986), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

    glossKamula headdokupala; tɔkɔnʌlʌ hairkokosasi; kɔkɔsʌse earmolo; mɔlɔ eyeinʌma; inoma nosemu; mũ toothɛpe tonguete; tɛ legɛtɛ; hetei louseiyʌ; iya dogɛsemala; esemʌlʌ pigʌľiʌ birdtea eggtemoko; temɔkɔ bloodumali; umʌ:li boneɛľu; ɛro skinkapala; kʌpʌlʌ breastmɛmɛ treedali; tʌli manɔpɔlʌimi; opřami womaneya; ɛ̃yã sunsali; sʌľi moonmama; mʌmʌ wateryu firedeľʌpʌ; dřaƀa stoneewʌľʌ; yawařa road, pathapi namehi eatdampřoma; tʌɛdɔma onehatropɛ; hʌtɔlɔp twodapiamɛtɛ; depiʌmɛtɛ
