The classification of Kowiai (West Papua)

STUB IN PROGRESS, PLEASE CITE BY URL AND DATE
First posted: 06 Aug 2014
Minor amendments: 22 Aug 2020

The Kowiai language is spoken by a small Muslim community which is located in the southern coastal part of the Bomberai peninsula in West Papua. The kerajaan of Kowiai held trading relationships with the eastern islands of the Ceram sea, and was one of the early outposts of Islam and Malay-influenced culture in West Papua.

The classification of Kowiai as an Austronesian language is obvious, but the only attempt for a narrower classification within Austronesian was made by Blust (1993), who groups Kowiai as an isolate within his Central Malayo-Polynesian subgroup. Here, I will take a first glimpse at qualitative evidence for the closer genetic affiliations of Kowiai.

The following data sources are used:

ABVD (Greenhill 2008)
Blust (1993)
Collins (1986)
Tismeer (1913)

Kowiai, Geser
Yamdena
Geser, Watubela, Masiwang
Kowiai

My prposal is that the closest relative of Kowiai is the Geser language of Eastern Seram, and at the next higher level Watubela, which has been shown by Collins (1986) to be closely related to Geser. Kowiai is thus part of the "Seran Laut" microgroup, as it is called by Collins.

Direct evidence for this relation comes from a number of (potentially) exclusively shared innovations, as well as locally restricted innovations:

"know"
"walk"
"roof"
"no"
"steal"
"wet"

Kowiai
ruʔ
tang
barém
tei
fareus
ʔabotan

Geser
ruk
tanggi
barém
tei
fakaleus
kiribotan

Watubela teiʔ
Masiwang kahleit
Watubela kabetan, Yamdena mbetan

The phonological history of Kowiai and Geser (and Watubela) shows also many points of agreement. PMP *d/*z/*R have merged to r in Kowiai and Geser (l in Watubela), while *j and *s merged into s (> Watubela h).

PMP (or lower)
*daRaq
*diRi
*duRi
*maRuqanay
*labəR
*wahiR/wayəR
*haRəzan
*zalan

*pija
*ngajan
*pajay

Kowiai
rara
-rir
rur
muruana
garafar
walar
rora
raran

fis
nesa
fasa

Geser
rara
-riri
ruri
urana
galawa
ar
roran
lalan-o

fis
ngasan

Watubela
lalak
-lili
luli
mangkana
galawal
al
lolan


fihi
ngahan

The merger of *d/*z/*R is also found in Banda, further in Alune and Hitu (Nunusaku branch of East Central Maluku). Within CMP, the merger of *s and *j is a highly distinct feature of the Seran Laut microgroup, although it is commonplace in the South Halmahera-West New Guinea languages.

Reflexes of PMP *ə differ in penultimate and ultimate position. The common reflex in the penultimate syllable is o, whereas in ultimate position, *ə is reflected as a. In the reflex of PMP *qənay, *ə is represented by e.

PMP (or lower)
*təlu
*qatəluR
*dəngəR
*maqitəm
*labəR

*qənay

Kowiai
tor
toron
fanonggar
maetan
garawar

ena

Geser
tolu
tolu
rongan
metan
galawa

ena

Watubela
tolu
katlu (with apocope in a trisyllabic root)
dongan
maketan
galawal

ena

Exactly the same reflexes of *ə are also found in Bobot and Masiwang, including the "exceptional" form yena < *qənay.

Kowiai has retained *w and *y, which were lost in Geser and Watubela. The Kowiai reflex of *y is l, and also appears as prosthetic consonant before original *a.

PMP (or lower)
**malawas
*wayəR
*hapuy
*aku

Kowiai
marawas
walar
laf
laʔ

Geser
malás
ar
afi
aku

Watubela
malaa
al
afi
ak

Yamdena malawas, Leti lawsa

Kowiai further diverges from Geser by the following three - innovative - sound changes:

1. *l has merged with *d/*z/*R to r. The same merger has occurred in Watubela, however resulting in l.

PMP (or lower)
*lima
*langit
*bulan
*təlu
*malip
*batəluR

Kowiai
rim
ranggit
furan
tor
marif
fatoron

Geser
lim
langit
ulan
tolu
malif
batolu

Watubela
lima
langit
ulan
tolu
mlifa
betolu

2. *b and *p have merged into *f. These are kept distinct as w/Ø and f in Geser and Watubela.

PMP (or lower)
*bulan
*bituka
*bunuq
*babinay
*labəR

*punti
*hapuy
*manipis
*malip

Kowiai
furan
fitua
fun
mafina
garafar

fun
laf
manifin
marif

Geser
ulan
utuk

wawina
galawa

fudi
afi
banifis
malif

Watubela
ulan
utka
bunuk (< *mbunuq)

galawal

fudi
afi
manifi
mlifa

3. *k has become a glottal stop or zero.

PMP (or lower)
*kahiw
*kutu
*kapuna
*matakut
*i-aku
*sakay
*manuk

Kowiai
ai
ut
afuna
matatuʔ
laʔ
saʔa
manuʔ

Geser
kai
kutu
kapuna
matakut
aku
saka
manuk

Watubela
kai
kutu
kopuna
matakut
ak
haka
manuk

Blust, Robert. 1993, Central and Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian. Oceanic Linguistics 32:241

Collins, James T. 1986. Eastern Seram: A subgrouping argument. In Pawley, Andrew K. and Carrington, Lois (eds.), FOCAL II: Papers from the fourth international conference on Austronesian linguistics, pp. 123-146. Canberra: Australian National University.

Greenhill, S.J., Blust. R, & Gray, R.D. (2008). The Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary Bioinformatics, 4:271-283.
URL: http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/austronesian/

Tismeer, C. M. J. 1913. Eenige gegevens van de Bahasa Kowiai. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië 67:111-122.