OUTOFPAPUA database: Lexicons of the West Papuan language area

Entry record from Hughes (1995): Dobel

kʷul ʔala-m

•  head.

Literally: head's skin

Note: Originally kʷul was possessed by the person and ʔala-y was possessed by the kʷul 'head'. This is still the case in some dialects of Dobel, such as in Warjukur, where they say kʷul-gu ʔala-y: 'head-my skin-its'. In Koijabi the phrase is treated grammatically as a single possessed lexeme.