Karas language

Karas is a divergent Trans–New Guinea language spoken on the biggest of the Karas Islands off the Bomberai Peninsula, that appears to be most closely related to the West Bomberai languages. It is spoken in Antalisa and Mas villages on Karas Island.^[2]

Karas
Kalamang
Region	West Papua
Native speakers	100 (2000)^[1]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Berau Gulf West Bomberai Karas
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kgv
Glottolog	kara1499
ELP	Karas
Karas is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
Karas Show map of Western New Guinea Karas Show map of Indonesia Karas Show map of Southeast Asia
Coordinates: 3°28′S 132°41′E / 3.47°S 132.68°E / -3.47; 132.68

Pronouns

Cowan (1953) records the following pronouns for Karas.

		singular	dual	plural
1st person	exclusive	aan	inir	piridok
	inclusive			aantemu (?)
2nd person		kame	?	kijumene
3rd person		mame	mjeir	mubameir

Visser (2020) records the following pronouns for Karas of Maas village:

Free nominative singular dual plural 1st person exclusive an in-ier in inclusive pi-er pi 2nd person ka ki-er ki 3rd person ma m-ier mu

Free possessive singular plural 1st person exclusive aŋ-gon pi-n inclusive iŋ-gon 2nd person ka-in ki-n 3rd person ma-in mu-in

Possessive suffix singular plural 1st person exclusive -an -pe, -p-in inclusive -un 2nd person -tʃa -tʃe 3rd person -un -un

The free possessives and possessive suffixes can occur together.^[3]

References

1. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-08-18.
2. Karas language at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)  
3. Visser, Eline (2020). A Grammar of Kalamang: The Papuan Language of the Karas Islands (PhD thesis). Lund University.

Sources

• Cowan, H. K. J. (1953). Voorlopige Resultaten van een Ambtelijk Taalonderzoek in Nieuw-Guinea (in Dutch). 's-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Visser, Eline (2016). A Grammar Sketch of Kalamang with a Focus on Phonetics and Phonology (Master thesis). University of Oslo. urn:nbn:no-54973.
• Visser, Eline (2020). A Grammar of Kalamang: The Papuan Language of the Karas Islands (PhD thesis). Lund University.
• Visser, Eline. 2021. Kalamang dictionary. In: Key, Mary Ritchie & Comrie, Bernard (eds.) The Intercontinental Dictionary Series. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. (CLDF dataset)

• Visser, Eline. 2022. A grammar of Kalamang. (Comprehensive Grammar Library 4). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6499927 https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/344 . Open Access.

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Kalamang