Kaure language

Kaure is a Papuan language of West Papua. It is spoken in the villages of Lereh, Harna, Wes, Masta, and Aurina.

Narau is either a dialect or a closely related language. It is known from a short word list in Giël (1959). Texts include Auri et al. (1991).

Consonants
The Kaure consonants are:

Vowels
The Kaure vowels are:

Tone
Like the Lakes Plain languages, Kaure is a tonal language. There are two tones, namely high and low.

Monosyllabic minimal pairs showing phonemic tone contrast include:
 * tái ‘footprint’, tài ‘sago’
 * pí ‘boil’, pì ‘pig’
 * hín ‘limbum wood’, hìn ‘blood’
 * héik ‘flower’, hèik ‘snake’

In multisyllabic words, only one stressed syllable carries full tone contrasts, while the other syllables are "neutral" or toneless.

Multisyllabic minimal sets include:
 * káteil ‘toss it’, katéil ‘dry’, katèil ‘dry’
 * nálain ‘female animal’, naláin ‘kind of root’, nalàin ‘to run off’

Pronouns
Attested pronouns are 1sg wẽ, 2sg hane, 1pl nene. The 2sg form resembles Mek *ka-n, and 1pl resembles Pauwasi numu~nin, but apart from that little can be said.

Kaure pronouns listed by Foley (2018) are:



! !! Independent !! Possessive prefixes ! 1excl ! 1incl ! 2 ! 3
 * wen || na-
 * nene || nene-
 * hane || ha-
 * nene || ne-
 * }

Kaure pronouns are not specified for number, just like in Nimboran.

Kaure–Kapori hypothesis
Voorhoeve (1975) suggested that Kaure was related to Kapori and Kosare, two otherwise unclassified languages. However, subsequent evaluations have not found any significant connections (Rumaropen 2006, Wambaliau 2006).