Guinea Phylum Research Articles

Recent kuru-induced female gene flow disrupted the coevolution of genes and languages in the Papua New Guinea highlands.

The island of New Guinea was settled by modern human over 50,000 years ago, and is currently characterized by a complex landscape and contains one-seventh of the world's languages. The Eastern Highlands of New Guinea were also the home to the devastating prion disease called kuru that primarily affected Fore-speaking populations, with some 68% of cases involving adult females. We characterized the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of highlanders from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to: (a) gain insight into the coevolution of genes and languages in situ over mountainous landscapes; and (b) evaluate the recent influence of kuru mortality on the pattern of female gene flow. We sequenced the mtDNA hypervariable segment 1 of 870 individuals from the Eastern and Southern Highlands of PNG using serums collected in the 1950s to 1960s. These highlanders were selected from villages representing 15 linguistic groups within the Trans-New Guinea phylum. Genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances were calculated separately and correlations among those distance matrices were assessed using the Mantel test. Geographic, genetic, and linguistic patterns were independently correlated with each other (p < .05). Increased mtDNA diversity in kuru-affected populations and low Fst estimates between kuru-affected linguistic groups were observed. In general, the genetic structure among the Highland populations was shaped by both geography and language, and language is a good predictor of mtDNA affinity in the PNG Highlands. High kuru female mortality increased female gene flow locally, disrupting coevolutionary pattern among genes, languages, and geography.

KALA LAMPAU TERDEKAT DALAM BAHASA MEE

Mee (also known as Kapauku, Ekari or Ekagi) is a non-Austronesian language of Wissel Lakeslanguages family of Trans New Guinea Phylum spoken in the Central Highlands of Western New Guinea or West Papua. Mee is also used to refer to its speakers. Mee has an intricate system of Tense, Aspect, Modality and other related categories as will be seen in the paper. This paper aims to discuss one of four past tenses in Mee, namely Immediate Past Tense. Two morphemes that are used- one marking definite and the other indefinite- in this tense will be referred to as necessary. The paper specifically deals with four uses of the tense.

Austronesians in linguistic disguise: Fataluku cultural fusion in East Timor

AbstractThis paper explores the relationship between language and cultural practice in the Fataluku language community of East Timor. A Papuan language and member of what is referred to as the Trans New Guinea Phylum (TNGP) of languages, Fataluku society nevertheless exhibits many cultural ideas and practices suggesting a long period of engagement and accommodation to Austronesian cosmopolitanism. The idea that Fataluku speakers are ‘Austronesians in disguise’ points to the significance of cultural hybridity on the Austronesian boundary.

Some Observations on Proto-Austronesian *t to k

1. INTRODUCTION. (1) This note provides information on another language that exhibits the PMP *t > k change discussed Blust (2004), namely Makuva of East Timor, and suggests that this change (which also involves an apparent merger of original *k and *t) has not come about through substratum influence from the neighboring dominant non-An language Fataluku. The author also takes issue with some misunderstandings of Caddoan data the subsequent squib by Donohue (2006), and presents the correct facts. 2. PMP *T > K: ANOTHER INSTANCE. The recent squib by Mark Donohue (Donohue 2006) addresses some of the issues raised the account provided by Blust (2004) of the change from PMP *t to /k/ some 43 daughter languages. This change actually represents at least 20 historically independent instances of *t > k change, including three historically separate instances of this Polynesian. Striking sound-changes Austronesian are not infrequent, as the extensive treatment of ten such changes Blust (2005) makes clear, (2) but the change of *t > k is unusually widespread within Austronesian, and the nature of its geographical and genetic distribution makes it clear that this change is not an exclusively shared innovation that serves to mark off a single cluster of related languages. Donohue points out that the reverse change, that from *k to t the world's languages, is even rarer, though it does occur, for instance, some young children's speech output. (3) In this paper I wish to add an example of a further Austronesian language that exhibits the *t > k change, and also to correct some observations by Donohue on stop systems the Caddoan languages of North America, particular Pawnee. The language that is to be added to Blust's collection as showing further examples of PMP *t > k is Makuva, formerly also known as Maku'a, Lovaia, or Loikera. This is a Central Malayo-Polynesian language closely related to Meher and other languages of Kisar that is spoken far eastern East Timor near Tutuala and Lospalos and that is arguably the easternmost indigenous language of East Timor. Speakers of Makuva (who any case are dominant Fataluku, a non-Austronesian language that may be a member of the Trans New Guinea phylum) are few, data are scarce, and Makuva data to which I have had access are scarcer yet. My own knowledge of the language is confined to the report van Engelenhoven and Cailoru (2006), and to the set of cardinal numerals Hull (2004). (4) Indeed, van Engelenhoven and Cailoru (2006) suggest that Makuva, whatever its origins, is now functionally a language in coma, one that is simply known to a minority of mature speakers of Fataluku as a ritual language for use on certain social occasions. In Makuva, PMP k apparently remains as k at least some cases (n-kaku afraid t) is not rare Austronesian and is parallel with the same change Palauan (Josephs 1990), where, as has long been known, PMP *s became t (tut 'breast' from PMP *susu) and PMP *t became [??], written the modern orthography, except when it was preserved intact postconsonantally (so that both reflexes are presented Palauan dakt [[??]akt] 'afraid'

Y‐STR haplotype diversity in distinct linguistic groups from East Timor

East Timor is a country which harbors multiple ethnolinguistic groups generally assigned to an Austronesian or Papuan ancestry. The present study aimed to characterize Y-chromosome haplotype diversity in East Timor, and to test possible population structures based on linguistic and/or geographical information. Using a set of 12 Y-chromosome-specific STRs (DYS19, DYS389I and II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393, DYS385, DYS437, DYS438, and DYS439), haplotypes were established in 342 individuals from 12 linguistic groups (Tetum, Kwaimina, Galoli, Wetarese, Dawan, Mambai, Kemak, Tokodede, Bunak, Makasai, Makalero, and Fataluku) belonging to the three major ethnolinguistic groups in East Timor: two from the Timorese-Austronesian branch (Fabronic and Ramelaic), and a third including languages related to a Trans-New Guinea phylum (Papuan). High values of haplotype diversity, average gene diversity, and mean number of pairwise differences per locus were found in all 12 linguistic groups, except for the Wetarese from the island of Ataúro. Analysis of genetic variance (AMOVA) and pairwise genetic distance analysis showed that the East Timor population is genetically structured, and if the Bunak and Wetarese are excluded, samples group well with respect to their language affinities, and furthermore, the most genetically homogeneous groups are those following the broad ethnolinguistic classifications. Bunak and Wetarese behave as outsider groups, and are genetically more closely related to populations classified in a different linguistic group.

Systems of Nominal Classification in East Papuan Languages

The existence of nominal classification systems has long been thought of as one of the defining features of the Papuan languages of island New Guinea. However, while almost all of these languages do have nominal classification systems, are, in fact, extremely divergent from each other. This paper examines these systems in the East Papuan languages in order to examine the question of the relationship between these Papuan outliers. Nominal classification systems are often archaic, preserving older features lost elsewhere in a language. Also, evidence shows that are not easily borrowed into languages (although can be). For these reasons, it is useful to consider nominal classification systems as a tool for exploring ancient historical relationships between languages. This paper finds little evidence of relationship between the nominal classification systems of the East Papuan languages as a whole. It argues that the mere existence of nominal classification systems cannot be used as evidence that t he East Papuan languages form a genetic family. The simplest hypothesis is that either the systems were inherited so long ago as to obscure the genetic evidence, or else the appearance of nominal classification systems in these languages arose through borrowing of grammatical systems rather than of morphological forms. 1. BACKGROUND (1) The languages to be evaluated, the East Papuan languages, include all but one of the non-Austronesian languages spoken in the islands off the east of mainland New Guinea (one language, Kovai, spoken on Umbai Island, off the coast of mainland Papua New Guinea, is clearly of the Trans New Guinea Phylum [Ross 2001:301]). The East Papuan languages as a whole are currently considered as a in this paper solely on the basis of their geographical proximity. The best known classification of East Papuan languages is that of Wurm (1982: 231-244, basically repeated from Wurm 1975), while a more recent classification comes from Ross (2001). Ross (to appear, b) is a fuller treatment of the same data. Wurm's classification is based mainly on lexical and typological features including verb systems and forms, gender systems and the form of the gender markers, etc. (Wurm 1982:231). However, Wurm does not indicate the data on which his analysis was based, and at least one of the languages included (Kazukuru) became extinct before grammatical data were available on it. It appears that some languages were included in the genetic classification simply because of their geographical location, rather than because of specific shared features. Malcolm Ross has revived interest in this area recently, using the comparative method to undertake a comparison of the pronoun systems of these languages (Ross 2001; to appear, a; to appear, b), and on that basis argues for eight separate genetic groups. Ross leaves out of his analysis the languages of Reefs-Santa Cruz, on the grounds that have had complex contact histories with Austronesian and Papuan mixing (to appear, b). This notwithstanding, he still states that they have no genealogical relationship to any other east Papuan group (2001:310). Figure 1 in Dunn, Reesink, and Terrill (2002) (31) compares Wurm's and Ross's classifications. The two concur in many of the lower-level groupings, but differ significantly in that for Wurm all the East Papuan languages belong in one genetic grouping, while for Ross there are eight separate genetic groups involved. Dunn, Reesink, and Terrill (2002) examine various linguistic features, including clausal and NP constituent order, pronominal systems, and the structure of verbal morphology, and conclude that these grammatical subsystems show clear similarities between Anem and Ata (New Britain), and also between some of the languages of Bougainville, but not for the East Papuan languages as a whole. The present paper focuses on the smaller subsystem of nominal classification, with a view to elucidating the same questions. …

Engan pronouns and their old endings*

The Engan Family of languages includes a number of languages and dialects that are part of the Trans New Guinea Phylum (TNGP) languages, a subgroup of the large and tentative group referred to as ‘Papuan’ languages. Such languages generally have a system of free pronominal forms which occur in cross‐reference with fused verb suffixes. I examine the free forms in particular and draw attention to the reflexes and retentions of old endings in present day pronouns. I then attempt to reconstruct the basic forms and their endings for Proto‐Engan. Because the evidence for sets of old endings goes beyond their use in Engan, I examine a number of languages which are located adjacent to the family as well. Finally, I briefly give evidence that there are other endings reflected in Papuan languages that are found on word classes other than pronouns.

Altitude, language, and class I HLA allele frequencies in Papua New Guinea.

Class I HLA gene frequencies show considerable variation over short geographical distances in Papua New Guinea. Hypothesis to account for this invoke natural selection, population structure, the pattern of population movement, or past demographic changes. To determine the role of the various factors in shaping this distribution, we have studied correlations between HLA-based genetic distances, geographical distances, altitude, and linguistic differences in Papua New Guinea. Linguistic differences at the family or stock level within the Trans-New Guinea Phylum generally correspond to genetic differences. However, on the basis of their HLA gene frequencies, speakers of Austronesian (AN) languages do not form a distinct group of populations. Linguistic variation and spatial autocorrelation do not fully account for the altitudinal cline differences noted in gene frequencies, particularly at the HLA-A locus. We propose that the distribution of HLA gene frequencies in Papua New Guinea is partially under the control of selection operating differentially along the altitude gradient.

HLA studies of highland and coastal New Guineans

The HLA profile of three New Guinean populations, two Highland (Asaro, Watut), and one Coastal is presented. The Highland populations are characterized by a low average number of alleles segregating at the HLA loci and also by a low mean value of heterozygosity at these loci. The genetic affinities of the two Highland groups with other Melanesian populations in the Pacific are remote. The Coastal group, on the other hand, shows strong similarities in its antigenic diversity and haplotypic combinations with other Melanesian populations. Nonetheless, the two Highland groups show significant divergence from each other in terms of allelic and haplotypic frequencies. Two different waves of migration settled in the Highlands of New Guinea between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago, and it is possible that the Watut, an Angan speaking group, represents the remnants of the first migration into the interior, whereas the Asaro, members of the Eastern Central family of the Trans-New Guinea phylum, arrived at a later date.

The peopling of the Pacific:A Linguistic Appraisal∗

and classifying the 1,800 odd languages in the Pacific area.1 Although progress has been rapid, there are still big gaps in our knowledge of these languages which will prevent the formulation of definitive statements, especially detailed appraisals, for some years. It is a sobering thought that of the 200 odd Australian languages2 we have detailed information on only about half; of the 741 Papuan languages3 we are reasonably certain of one large genetic grouping (linguistically speaking), the Trans-New Guinea Phylum, but not really certain as to the genetic affinities of the not inconsiderable remainder (33%). Indeed fewer than one-third of all Pa puan languages have been studied in any depth at all. On the Austronesian scene we appear to be moving towards a consensus on highest order subgroup ings. However, one of the largest subgroups of Austronesian, the Oceanic subgroup, with more than 400 member languages, is still very problematic in that at present we are still not sure what its component first-order subgroups are. Currently we have only an unstratified collection of languages broken up into roughly 20 subgroups.4 Of the 400 or more Oceanic languages we lack any but the most fragmentary data on more than half. Even in Polynesia, where subgrouping has appeared secure for some time, there are still a number of unresolved issues.5 Nevertheless while many problems remain to be solved and unqualified generalizations are to be avoided, the work of linguists, particularly in the last few decades, allows some confident statements and appraisals to be made con cerning language relationships in the Pacific area. There are three unrelated language categories or 'families' in the Pacific area.6 These are: 1. The Australian Aboriginal languages.

A multivariate approach to fingerprint variation in Papua New Guinea: Implications for prehistory

AbstractFingerprint data from three Markham Valley populations of Papua New Guinea are presented. Initial comparisons with data from elsewhere in New Guinea by conventional bivariate methods suggest hypotheses regarding prehistory, but these methods are inconclusive. Because of this shortcoming, the application of discriminant analysis to dermatoglyphic data is justified and cautiously demonstrated. Discriminant analysis is a valid approach to the parsimonious study of fingerprint relationships among human populations. Significant discriminating variables are then used with the limited published data to display historical relationships. These marker traits include the separate frequencies of thumb, middle fingers, and little finger patterning, and the complexity of the thenar eminence.With regard to prehistory, it is concluded that fingerprint data support the hypothesis of separate origins and migrations for Papuan‐ and Melanesian‐speaking peoples. Furthermore, it is suggested that these data support the linguistic hypothesis of a second Papuan migration of Trans New Guinea Phylum speakers, up the Markham Valley into the New Guinea Highlands. Finally, gene flow is indicated from Melanesian speakers of the north coast into the interior through the Sepik and Ramu River valleys, affecting both the Trans New Guinea Phylum and other unrelated Papuan groups. Moreover, there are numerous suggestions of recent reciprocal genetic exchange between neighboring Melanesians and Papuans, without obliterating the older, separate origins of these peoples. These results suggest that fingerprints have greater phylogenetic stability than other biological parameters used in the past.

: A Comparative Study of Kuman and Pawaian . D. Trefry. ; The Dialects of Kewa . K. J. Franklin. ; A Grammar of Kewa, New Guinea . K. J. Franklin. ; Kapau Pedagogical Grammar . W. Oates, L. Oates. ; Levels and Chaining in Telefol Sentences . P. L. Healey. ; The Peopling of Central Papua: Some Preliminary Observations

American AnthropologistVolume 76, Issue 3 p. 638-641 Free Access BOOK REVIEWS First published: September 1974 https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1974.76.3.02a00660AboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Abstract Book reviewed in this article: A Comparative Study of Human and Pawaian. D. TREFRY The Dialects of Kewa. K. J. FRANKLIN A Grammar of Kewa, New Guinea. K. J. FRANKLIN Kapau Pedagogical Grammar. W. OATES and L. OATES Levels and Chaining in Telefol Sentences. P. L. HEALEY The Peopling of Central Papua: Some Preliminary Observations. T. E. DUTTON Selepet Phonology. K. A. McELHANON Selepet-English Dictionary. K. A. McELHANON and N. A. McELHANON The Trans-New Guinea Phylum: Explorations in Deep-Level Genetic Relationships. K. A. McELHANON and C. L. VOORHOEVE Volume76, Issue3September 1974Pages 638-641 RelatedInformation