A Comparative Linguistic Study on Ambai, Ansus, Menawi and Biak Languages in Papua

Abstract

This study is historical-comparative linguistic research of the languages of indigenous peoples in Saireri Bay, Papua province, namely the Ambai, Ansus, Menawi, and Biak languages. These languages are classified as non-Austronesian languages (SIL, 2000) and are hypothesized to be closely related. This study aims to find accurate evidence to reveal the genetic relationship level between these four languages. The study's data consisted of the Swadesh list's 200 basic words. The method applied in this study is a comparative method, supported by observation, interview, and documentation techniques. Based on the lexicostatistics technique, it was found that the quantitative evidence indicated that the highest related cognates reach 47% and the lower-level reach 38%, based on the lexicostatistics from the Swedish’s 200 basic vocabularies. The percentage of the related vocabulary is higher than in the other languages in the regency. The qualitative evidence found is the exclusive shared phonological and lexical innovation, strengthening the quantitative evidence. The innovation that phoneme PAAMB *j turns into/z/and/d/, *h turns into/O/on Biak. Besides that, metathesis, omission, and phoneme addition. In addition, after the reconstruction, the phoneme system of Proto-language Ansus-Ambai-Menawi and Biak (PAAMB) with segmental phonemes is five vowels and 15 consonant phonemes. The vowels of PAAMB are *i, *e, *a, *o, and *u, which have complete distribution, and the consonants that are (1) consonants that have complete distribution *p, *m, *h, (2) consonants that have distribution in the initial and middle of words *b, *w, *f, *t, *d, *n, *s *r, *j, *k, *g, *y, dan *h.