Mailuan languages
The Mailuan or Cloudy Bay languages are a small family of Trans-New Guinea languages spoken around Cloudy Bay in the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans-New Guinea.Languages
The languages, which all share about half of their vocabulary, are,
Bauwaki–O'oku is closely related to the Mailuan languages.Pronouns
Usher reconstructs the proto-Mailuan–Yareban pronouns as:
Ross reconstructs the Mailuan pronouns as:Classification
Dutton said Bauwaki was a link to the Yareban languages. It has greater lexical similarity with Aneme Wake than the closest Mailuan language, Domu. Usher classifies Mailuan, Bauwaki and Yareban together.
Magi shows evidence of language shift from an Oceanic language in many Oceanic words.Evolution
Mailuan reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea etyma are:
Mailu language:
- ama ‘breast’ < *amu
- maa ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat
- kisa ‘bone’ < *kondaC
- tupa ‘short’ < *tua
- guia ‘cassowary’ < *kua
Bauwaki language:
- baba ‘father’ < *mbapa
- idi ‘hair’ < *iti
- ibi ‘name’ < *imbi
- iini- ‘sleep’ < *kin-
