Introduction, The Languages of the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland Stock

XVII. Introduction

HOWARD McKAUGHAN

Gadsup is spoken near Kainantu by over seven thousand people. The
three major branches of this subfamily include the Agarabi, the Oyana, and
the Gadsup. The location of the Gadsup relative to the other members of
the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland Stock is depicted in
Map 2.

The following five chapters cover Gadsup phonology, noun morphology,
verb morphology, and syntax, and Agarabi phonology and general notes
from textual analysis. The original publishers are noted in the first footnote
of each chapter. The Agarabi textual analysis gives an overview of that
language. The chapter on phonology by Bee et aL presents an important
interpretation of nasal vowels not found in the other languages. The inter-
pretation of a five vowel system is the same as for Usarufa, and could be
made for the other languages (except Awa). The Gadsup texts which follow
the Agarabi textual analysis by Goddard extend the linguistics information
on this segment of the study languages.

The phonologies of Gadsup and Agarabi are very close. Where the
Frantzes have postulated h but not w for the former, Goddard has w, which
has allophones of both stop and fricative varieties for the latter. She does
not cite a h phoneme. Both speech communities have y. In Agarabi the
phoneme has alveolar stop and fricative palatal varieties. Both have another
alveolar obstruent given as d in Gadsup with a flap vibrant [r] as an allo-
phone and r in Agarabi without notable variation from the norm. Thus the
total consonant inventory is the same in number: /?, /, k, q, b, d, y, m, n for
Gadsup; and p, t, k, q, w, r, y, m, n for Agarabi.

The vowel inventories for the two are also the same: /, a, m, e, aa, o.
The tone systems, however, seem to differ. Goddard indicates two degrees
of tone: high marked by the acute accent, and low left unmarked. The
Frantzes indicate four for Gadsup: high, low, up-glide, and down-glide.

403

404 Part Three: Gadsup-Agarabi

of tone: high marked by the acute accent, and low left unmarked. The
Frantzes indicate four for Gadsup: high, low, up-glide, and down-glide.
The last two are analyzed only with nouns, since they occur infrequently
with the verbs. The two word classes of nouns and verbs are contrasted by
opposing tonal characteristics, and unusual phonological feature for a tone
language. The Gadsup people use their tone system for a special communi-
cative device in whistle talk. Much can be conveyed since they use the tone
and also articulations of the segmental phones in the whistling.

When first published, the articles by the Frantzes on nouns and verbs
utilized an orthography with schwa and a to indicate the central mid to low
vowel and the low front vowel. Here we use a for the first, and aa for the
second to parallel Auyana and Tairora.

Nouns and verbs are characterized by complicated morphologies, Gadsup
nouns have five classes instead of the three or two of the other groups.
Frantz describes some fifty suffixes occurring with nouns. Not all of these are
exclusively used with nouns. The usual number with a base has been found
to be two or three at a time, never more than six. The Agarabi texts illus-
trate only eight suffixes used with nouns (some also with verbs). I suspect
that this is not because Agarabi has far fewer than Gadsup, but that the
affixes are used to be explicit, specifying what can be indicated by other
means. The noun affixes are not at all obligatory, nouns often occurring in
texts without affixation.

The verb morphology indicates person (four subject and three benefactor
suffixes, and three object prefixes); aspect (five suffixes), and mode (four
suffixes). Up to nine suffixes may follow a Gadsup verb, but the only affix
that is obligatory to the complex is the subject marker suffix.

Agarabi verbs also permit various affixes. However, there is not enough
information to work out correspondences or to identify morpheme for mor-
pheme. Subject markers for Agarabi are similar to those of Gadsup, as are
some of the mode markers. However, the aspect system of Gadsup seems
to differ markedly from that of Agarabi, which has more of a tense system
than aspect or kind of action.

The morphophonemics of the systems are complicated. Individual mor-
phemes are identifiable, but often change almost beyond the point of recog-
nition. The individual morpheme of Gadsup versus the fusions of Tairora
are of interest. Perhaps the changes in the morphophonemics will someday
move Gadsup toward fusions.

Sentences may contain dependent or independent clauses. As in the other
languages, the difference is indicated by a final set of affixes with verbs of
independent sentences or clauses, and a nonfinal set of affixes with verbs in
the dependent clauses or sentences. Multiclause sentences are more frequent
than single clause sentences. Usually independent clauses are preceded by

XyiL Introduction 405

the dependent, there being the possibility of a number of dependent clauses
in the sentence.

Gadsup texts follow the Agarabi descriptive materials in the text analysis
by Goddard. The texts cited for Gadsup have more 'native reaction' in
them than the texts for other languages, since many of them are the work
of a Gadsup school teacher. These Gadsup texts will afford the opportunity
to compare some items with the Agarabi texts, and also to further the
sentence and paragraph analysis of the Gadsup-Agarabi.

The Languages of the Eastern
Family of the East New Guinea
Highland Stock

Edited by HOWARD McKAUGHAN

This book is published with the assistance of a grant from the National Science
Foundation.

Copyright © 1973 by the University of Washington Press
Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording,
or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher.

Anthropological Studies

in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea

James B. Watson, Editor

VOLUMES PUBLISHED:

I. The Languages of the Eastern Family of the East New Guinea Highland
Stock, edited by Howard McKaughan

II. Physical Anthropology of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea,
by R. A. Littlewood

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:

The Languages of the eastern family of the east
New Guinea highland stock.

(Anthropological studies in the eastern highlands
of New Guinea, V, 1)

Reports of research by the New Guinea Micro-
evolution Project.

Bibliography: p.

L Papuan languages. 2, Kainantu region —
Languages. I. McKaughan, Howard, 1922-
IL Title. in. Series.

PL660LA35 499M2 72-13131

ISBN 0-295-95 132-X

ed.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS
SEATTLE AND LONDON