Dagan languages

The Dagan or Meneao Range languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in the Meneao Range of the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea, the easternmost Papuan languages on the mainland. They are the most divergent of the several small families within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.

Dagan
Meneao Range
Geographic
distribution		Meneao Range, southeastern peninsula of Papua New Guinea:
Central Province and Milne Bay Province
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
  • Papuan Peninsula
    • Dagan
Glottologdaga1274[1]

Languages

The languages are:[2]

Although clearly related, they are not particularly close. Umanakaina and Ginuman, for example, are only 23% lexically similar.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[3]

sgpl
1 *n[e/a]*nu
2 *g[e/a]*j[e/a]
3 *me*mV

Evolution

Dagan reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:[4]

Daga language:

  • ama ‘breast’ < *amu
  • meri (nawa) ‘tongue’ < *me(l,n)e
  • ira ‘tree’ < *inda

Kanasi language:

  • asi ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]
  • etepa ‘bark’ < *(ŋg,k)a(nd,t)apu ‘skin’
  • obosa ‘wind’ < *kumbutu
  • oman ‘stone’ < *ka(m,mb)u[CV]
  • nene ‘bird’ < *n(e)i

References
Notes
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Dagan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. NewGuineaWorld – Meneao Range
  3. New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range
  4. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
Sources
  • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
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