Engan languages

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Family of languages

title: "Engan languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["engan-languages", "languages-of-papua-new-guinea", "papuan-languages", "language-families", "northeast-new-guinea-languages"] description: "Family of languages" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engan_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Family of languages ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]

Field	Value
name	Engan
altname	Enga–Kewa–Huli
Enga – Southern Highlands
region	New Guinea
familycolor	Papuan
fam1	Trans–New Guinea or Papuan Gulf?
fam2	Central New Guinea Highlands
child1	North (Engan)
child2	South (Kewa–Huli)
glotto	enga1254
glottorefname	Enga–Kewa–Huli
map	Engan languages.svg
mapcaption	Map: The Engan languages of New Guinea
::

|name=Engan |altname=Enga–Kewa–Huli Enga – Southern Highlands |region=New Guinea |familycolor=Papuan |fam1 = Trans–New Guinea or Papuan Gulf? |fam2 = Central New Guinea Highlands |child1=North (Engan) |child2=South (Kewa–Huli) |glotto=enga1254 |glottorefname=Enga–Kewa–Huli |map=Engan languages.svg |mapcaption=Map: The Engan languages of New Guinea The Engan languages, or more precisely Enga–Kewa–Huli or Enga – Southern Highland, are a small family of Papuan languages of the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The two branches of the family are rather distantly related, but were connected by Franklin and Voorhoeve (1973).

Name

The name "Engan" is often restricted to the northern branch of the family, to those languages transparently related to Enga, but also sometimes to the family as a whole.

Languages

The languages fall into three quite distinct branches: Engan proper, Huli, and Southern Highlands:

North Engan (Engan proper): Enga–Kyaka–Lembena, Ipili, Bisorio (Nete, Iniai)
South Engan (Kewa–Huli)
- Huli
- Southern Highlands: Angal (Mendi), Kewa; Samberigi (Sau)

Classification

The Engan family constitutes a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Wurm and of Malcolm Ross, but the evidence for this is weak.

Usher links the Engan and Chimbu languages in a Central New Guinea Highlands family.

There are a considerable number of resemblances with Wiru. Borrowing has not been ruled out as the reason for this, though the pronouns are similar as well.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:

:{| | *m || *n || || |- | *p || *t || || *k |- | *mb || *nd || || *ŋg |- | *w || *l || *j || |}

Vowels are *i *e *a *o *u.

Pronouns

Pronouns are easy to reconstruct for the northern and southern branches, but much more difficult for Engan as a whole. Ross (2005) has the following for the singular, Wiru has been added for comparison:

:{| ! !!pEngan!!N Engan!!S Engan!!Wiru |- !1 |**nə||*na-ba||*ní||no (gen. anu) |- !2 |**ne-ke||*ne-ba||*ne-ke||ne (gen. ne-ke) |- !3 |?||ba||[n]i-bu||one |}

Usher (2020) has not yet published reconstruction of Engan as a whole, but has done Engan proper: :{| |+Engan proper ! !!sg!!du!!pl |- !1 |*na(-mba)||*nali(-mba)||*nani(-ma) |- !2 |ni(-mba) || || |- !3 |[e]-mba || || |}

Vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Trans Enga (Proto-Engan) by Usher (2020) are:

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Proto-Trans-Enga !! Proto-Southern Highlands !! Huli |- ! name | *ŋge || *[i]mbi || mi-ni |- ! fire/tree | *ita || *ti || iɾa |- ! moon | *kana || *eke, *jumba || ege |- ! four | *tumenda || *mala || ma- |- ! path | *kaita || *pota || haɾiga |- ! stand | *kata || *ka || ha |- ! cassowary | *laima || *jati || jaɾi |- ! skin | *jan[o/u] || *joŋgale || doŋgo-ne |}

Modern reflexes

The Enga-Kewa-Huli reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, if Engan languages are indeed members of the Trans-New Guinea family, are:

Enga:

mona ‘heart’
yaka ‘bird’
lyaŋa ‘ashes’
ŋaŋa ‘baby
mis ‘mother’
kuri ‘bone’
kare ‘ear’
ne- ‘eat’
mis ‘father’
iti ‘hair’
endo ‘fire’
lema ‘louse’
kana ‘moon’
mana ‘instructions’
kitama ‘morning’
kumi- ‘die’
re- ‘speak’
maa ‘taro’
ita ‘tree’

Huli:

ega ‘bird’
na- ‘eat’
aba ‘father’
iri ‘hair’
ira ‘tree’
ma ‘taro’

Kewa:

ama ‘mother’
ibi ‘name’
iri ‘hair’
uni ‘bone’
apu ‘tail’
lema ‘louse’
oma ‘die’
reka- ‘stand’
la- ‘talk’
maa ‘taro’
yaa ‘bird’

Mendi:

am ‘mother’
ap ‘father’
mbi ‘name’
ome- ‘die’

Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary of Enga and Kewa from William A. Foley (1986). The pairs of words are not necessarily cognate.

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Enga !! Kewa |- | ‘two’ || rama || laapo |- | ‘man’ || akari || ali |- | ‘water’ || ipa || ipa |- | ‘fire’ || ita || repona |- | ‘tree’ || ita || are |- | ‘leaf’ || yoko || yo |- | ‘root’ || pingi || pitaa |- | ‘house’ || ada || ada |- | ‘breast’ || adu || adu |- | ‘tooth’ || nege || agaa |- | ‘bone’ || kori || kuli |- | ‘ear’ || kare || kale |- | ‘hair’ || iti || iri |- | ‘leg’ || kape || aa |- | ‘blood’ || kupapu || kupaa |- | ‘hand’ || ruma || ki |- | ‘egg’ || kapa || yaa apaa |- | ‘sun’ || nita || nare |- | ‘axe’ || patama || rai |- | ‘netbag’ || nuu || nu |- | ‘eat’ || ne- || na- |- | ‘die’ || kumi- || koma- |- | ‘say’ || re- || la- |- | ‘give’ || mai-/gi- || gi- |- | ‘big’ || adake || adaa |}

References

Karl J. Franklin and C. L. Voorhoeve. 1973. Languages near the intersection of the Gulf, Southern Highlands and Western Districts. In Karl J. Franklin (ed.), ''The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea'', 149-186. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/central-new-guinea-highlands/start
"Enga – Southern Highlands". New Guinea World.
[https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/central-new-guinea-highlands/enga-southern-highlands/trans-enga/start New Guinea World, Trans-Enga]
(2018). "The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide". De Gruyter Mouton.
0-521-28621-2.

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