Ram languages
{{Short description|Language family spoken in Papua New Guinea}}
{{Infobox language family
|name=Ram
|region=central Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea
|familycolor=Papuan
|fam1=Sepik
|fam2=Upper Sepik
|child1=Karawa
|child2=Pouye
|child3=Awtuw
|map=Sepik_as_classified_by_William_A._Foley.svg
|mapcaption=The Sepik languages as classified by Foley (2018)
|glotto=ramm1241
|glottorefname=Ram
}}
The Ram languages are a small group of 3 languages spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. They are spoken directly to the northeast of the Yellow River languages and directly to the south of the Wapei languages, both of which are also Sepik groups. Ram is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group.
The languages are,[https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/sepik-river/upper-sepik-river/yellow-and-wanibe-rivers/ram Ram], New Guinea World
They are classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea.
Awtuw is the best documented Ram language.
Pronouns
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Ram are:{{Malcolm Ross Pronouns|}}.
:
| class=wikitable | |||||
| I | *wan | we two | (*na-n) | we | *na-m |
| thou | *yɨ-n | you two | (*yɨ-n/*a-n) | you | *yɨ-m/*a-m |
| he | *ra (*atə-) | rowspan=2|they two | rowspan=2|(*ra-p, *atə-) | rowspan=2|they | rowspan=2|(*ra-m, *atə-m) |
| she | (*ta-i) |
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Laycock (1968)Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36-66. and Foley (2005),Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.{{Cite web |url=http://transnewguinea.org/family/sepik |title=TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea |last=Greenhill |first=Simon |date=2016 |access-date=2020-11-05}}
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. nipia, nipikəm for “louse”) or not (e.g. nəpay, aukwə for “dog”).
:
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| head
| makəlak || moulaka || nouraka |
|---|
| ear
| maːna; nane || maklaka || maroalaka |
| eye
| new; nü || noulaka || nowar |
| nose
| witil; wutil || waklaka || wolokə |
| tooth
| pilak; piylake || pilaka || piyapa |
| tongue
| lale; laːlə || laləpi || laləmu |
| leg
| riiwe; riwe || lalə || lalə |
| louse
| nin || nipia || nipikəm |
| dog
| piːrən; piyren || nəpay || aukwə |
| pig
| yaw || || |
| bird
| yi || awra || yio |
| egg
| paŋkə; wate || waːtə || warə |
| blood
| aipi || eipi || aywi |
| bone
| lake; lakər || lakə || lakə |
| skin
| yai || mouwil || nəpyei |
| breast
| muy; mwi || məy || muy |
| tree
| tau; taw || tau || tau |
| man
| rame; ramiyan || yaŋkai || lamo |
| woman
| taləran || telou || tʔlum |
| sun
| mæy; may || may || taliyə |
| moon
| yelmek; yilmake || yalma || yalma |
| water
| yiw; yüw || you || you |
| fire
| tapo; tapwo || tapo || tapo |
| stone
| til || tidi || tɨl |
| name
| yenyiy || || |
| eat
| ra || || |
| one
| naydowo || || |
| two
| yikir || yikəramo || yikən |
Morphology
Awtuw (Feldman 1983{{Cite thesis |last=Feldman |first=Harry |title=A grammar of Awtuw |date=1983 |degree=PhD |publisher=Australian National University |hdl=1885/132945 |doi=10.25911/5D723CE831842 |hdl-access=free |doi-access=free }}) and Pouye present many morphological commonalities: they share cognate prefixes in six out of eight prefixal slots, but on the other hand they present very little cognate material in their suffixal chain.
{{cite journal
|last=Jacques
|first=Guillaume
|author-link=Guillaume Jacques
|year=2024|title=Essai de comparaison de la morphologie verbale des langues ram (awtuw et pouye), famille sepik.|journal=Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris|volume=118|issue=1|pages=275–288|doi=10.2143/BSL.118.1.3292785 |url=https://hal.science/hal-04590309v1}}
Ram languages have a rich verbal morphology, which can encode unusual categories such as celerative -imya 'quickly', grammaticalized from the verb imya 'run' as in (1),{{cite journal
|last=Jacques
|first=Guillaume
|author-link=Guillaume Jacques
|year=2024|title=Celerative: the encoding of speed in verbal morphology.|journal=STUF|volume=77|issue=2|pages=261–282|doi=10.1515/stuf-2024-2006 |url=https://hal.science/hal-04590309v1|url-access=subscription}} periodic tense and simulative.
{{interlinear|number=(1)|glossing=link|abbreviations=PST:Past:Past tense;CELER:Celerative;masc:masculine
|Rey aeye rokr’-imy’-e.
|{{gcl|3sg}}:{{gcl|MASC}} food cook-CELER-PST
|'He cooked the food quickly.' (Feldman 1983: 122–123)}}