Kalam language


Kalam is a Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It is closely related to Kobon, and shares many of the features of that language. Kalam is spoken in Middle Ramu District of Madang Province and in Mount Hagen District of Western Highlands Province.
Thanks to decades of studies by anthropologists such as Ralph Bulmer and others, Kalam is one of the best-studied Trans-New Guinea languages to date.

Dialects

There are two distinct dialects of Kalam that are highly distinguishable from each other.
Kobon is closely related.
Kalam has an elaborate pandanus avoidance register used during karuka harvest that has been extensively documented. The Kalam pandanus language, called alŋaw mnm or ask-mosk mnm, is also used when eating or cooking cassowary.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Evolution

Below are some Kalam reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea proposed by Pawley. Data is from the Etp dialect unless otherwise noted. Data from Ti, the other one of the two major dialects is also given when noted.
proto-Trans-New GuineaKalam
*su- ‘bite’su-
*elak ‘light, lightning, brightness’melk ‘light’
*ani ‘who?’an
*am ‘mother’ami
*ambi ‘man’b
*apus ‘grandparent’aps ‘grandmother’
*aya ‘sister’ay
*-i ‘2DL verbal suffix’-it
*iman ‘louse’iman
*imbi ‘name’yb
*-it ‘2/3 dual verbal suffix’-it
*knan ‘shadow/spirit’kawnan ‘spirit of the dead’
*kma ‘neck, nape’koŋam
*kakV- ‘carry on shoulder’kak-
*kambu ‘stone’kab
*kanim ‘cuscus’kmn ‘game mammal ’
*kin- ‘sleep’kn-
*kindil ‘root’kdl
*kinV- ‘sleep’kn-
*kumut, *tumuk ‘thunder’tumuk
*kumV- ‘die’kum-
*mk ‘milk, sap, breast’muk
*ma- ‘not’ma-
*ma ‘ground’man
*maŋgat ‘teeth’meg
*maŋgV ‘compact round object, egg’magi
*mapVn ‘liver’mapn
*mbalaŋ ‘flame’malaŋ, maŋlaŋ
*mbapa ‘father’bapi
*moVm ‘joint’mogm
*muk ‘brain’muk
*muk ‘milk’muk
*mund-maŋgV ‘heart’mudmagi
*mV ‘taro’m
*mVkVm ‘jaw, cheek’mkem ‘cheek’
*mVn-‘be, live, stay’md-
*nman ‘mind, soul’noman ‘soul’
*na ‘1SG’-n-, -in ‘1SG subj. agreement’
*niman ‘louse’iman
*nok ‘water’ñg
*nu ‘1PL independent’-nu-, -un ‘1PL subj. agreement’
*nV ‘child’ñi ‘son’
*nVŋg- ‘know, hear, see’ng-, nŋ- ‘see, perceive, etc.’
*ŋaŋ ‘baby’-ŋaŋ ‘baby’
*panV ‘female’pañ ‘daughter’
*sambV ‘cloud’seb
*saŋ ‘story, song’saŋ ‘women’s song’
*saŋgil ‘hand, finger’ saglaŋ ‘little finger’
*si ‘guts’sb
*sisiss ‘urine’
*sVkVm ‘smoke’skum, sukum
*takVn ‘moon’takn
*tu ‘axe’tu
*tuk- ‘cut’tk- ‘sever’
*tumuk, *kumut ‘thunder’tumuk
*tVk- ‘cut, cut off’tk- ‘sever, cut off’
*-un ‘1st plural subject’-un
*-Vn ‘1SG subj. agreement’-n, -in
*walaka ‘testicles’walak
*wani ‘who?’an
*wati ‘fence’wati
*yaka ‘bird’yakt

Verbs

Kalam has eight tense-aspect categories. There are four past tenses, two present tenses, and two future tenses, which are all marked using suffixes:
Intransitive verbs in Kalam can be classified as either active or stative. Some active intransitive verbs are:
Some stative verbs are:
is derived using resultative or cause-effect serial verb constructions.
Other serial verb constructions in Kalam include:

Compounds

Some examples of nominal compounds in Kalam:

Animal names

Fauna classification in the Kalam language has been extensively studied by Ralph Bulmer and others. Kalam speakers classify wild mammals into three major categories:
Other animal categories are:
Rodent names include:
Marsupial names include:
Reptile names and folk taxonomy in Kalam:
Frog names in Kalam are:
Note: Cophixalus shellyi, Choerophryne darlingtoni, and Oxydactyla brevicrus also tend to be identified by Kalam speakers as lk if calling from low vegetation, but as gwnm if found in daytime hiding spots.
Plant categories include:

Colors

Kalam speakers distinguish more than a dozen color categories.
Pawley and Bulmer, quoted in Pawley and Hammarström, lists the following temporal adverbs in Kalam.

Rhyming compounds

Kalam, like English, has different types of rhyming compounds.
;alternating consonants
;addition of consonants
;alternating vowels