<div>Could someone please help with:</div> <div> </div> <div>1) Who is writing the (apparently) authoritative articles on Papuan </div> <div>languages that have just begun to appear in Wikipedia?</div> <div> </div> <div>And how could I contact him/her?</div> <div> </div> <div>see: <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A9l%C3%AE_Dnye_language">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A9l%C3%AE_Dnye_language</A></div> <div>for a good example.</div> <div><BR>2) Could someone with access to the WALS database please help me make a </div> <div>couple of maps of language characteristics covering the CMP/Oceanic MP </div> <div>area?</div> <div><BR>and some supplementaries:</div> <div> </div> <div>The Yele Dnye language article cited above has two interesting nuggets:</div> <div> </div> <div>- Yele Dnye (Rossel Island, New Guinea - and many other Papuan languages) shares, with Austronesian, a distinction between pronouns for 'we two' and
'we'. Is this a common, or rare distinction, in world languages generally?</div> <div> </div> <div>- Yele Dnye 'paa' means 'side'.</div> <div> </div> <div>In Cebuano/Surigaonon - paa = thigh, palm (hand) is palad/payad, </div> <div>palm-width 4 inch measure is dapal.</div> <div>In many Micronesian languages, paa = hand, and paa-pa means count <BR>Anuta (Samoic outlier) - paa = 4<BR>Bunun (Formosan) - paat = 4 </div> <div>Tahiti - pae = 5</div> <div>Ainu - para = palm</div> <div> </div> <div>Is this apparent cognacy relevant, or is it just random coincidence?</div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div> </div> <div>regards</div> <div>Richard Parker<BR>Siargao Island, The Philippines. </div> <div>My website at <A href="http://www.coconutstudio.com">www.coconutstudio.com</A> is about the island and its people, </div> <div>coastal early humans, fishing, coconuts, bananas and whatever took my </div> <div>fancy at the time.</div>
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