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Philosophische FakultätDocumenting child language: The Qaqet of Papua New Guinea

The vowel system of the Baining family: u/o

Marc Hausdorf; visualisation by Melanie Schippling

You have already read about the sound change concerning i/e in the vowel system of the Baining family. The story of u/o is a little more complicated: Sometimes all languages have u, and sometimes Qaqet has u or a or au where the other languages have o. The table below gives examples. Can you guess which sound changes have taken place?

Mali Ura Kairak Qaqet Proto-Baining (see solution)
valo ‘eggs’ lao ‘eggs’ elo ‘eggs’ lu ‘eggs’ 1
lu ‘see’ lu ‘see’   lu ‘see’ 2
rhu ‘put’   ru ‘do, make, put’ rhu ‘put’ 3
nok ‘cry’ nok ‘sing out’ nak ‘cry’ nak ‘cry’ 4
rhon nə ‘throw’   ron ‘throw’ ran ‘throw’ 5
  toqorjia ‘like this’ roqori ‘like this’ taquar ‘like this’ 6
von, bon ‘give’ bon ‘give’ von, bon ‘give’ van, tban ‘buy’ 7
vono ‘up’ vono ‘on top’   vanu ‘on top’ 8
vangon ‘flying foxes’   engon ‘flying foxes’ nguan ‘flying foxes’ 9
  ngotki ‘crow’ ngotki ‘crow’ nguatka ‘crow’ 10
qop sə ‘tie up’   qop ‘tie’ quap ‘tie’ 11
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