The Koiarian languages of Central Papua : an historical and descriptive linguistic study

Abstract

This study consists of two parts. Part I contains a review of previous linguistic and other studies made in the Central and Northern Districts of Papua (hereafter referred to as Central Papua) as background information to an integrated historical and linguistic description of the hitherto undescribed Koiarian Language Family. This family consists of six non-Austronesian languages and stretches across Papua from the coast around Port Moresby almost to the sea on the north coast at the eastern end of the Hydrographers' Ranges. The family is defined primarily on lexicostatistic evidence although grammatical and phonological characteristics of the family are also presented and discussed. Part I concludes with a discussion of a possible centre of distribution of the Koiarian languages. Part II contains a syntactic sketch of Koiari, one of the member languages of the Koiarian Family which was studied in more detail. This sketch uses Noam A. Chomsky's theory of Transformational Generative Grammar as a framework to present a set of Base and Transformational rules which generate many Koiari sentences. Other, more complex aspects of the grammar of Koiari, are presented and discussed informally within this framework. This sketch will provide the basis for a continuing and more detailed study of the language later. The two parts of the thesis are separate though interdependent units each with its own Introduction, Appendices, and Bibliography for convenient presentation. Both parts are interdependent: in Part I Koiari is defined as a language in terms of its dialects and is placed in its linguistic setting in relation to the other languages of the family, while the syntactic sketch of Koiari in Part II provides deeper insight into the grammatical structure of one of the family's constituent languages. This study aims at making a contribution to our linguistic and historical knowledge of an area of Papua, which, although the first to be contacted and pacified by European colonizers, has largely escaped scientific attention.