Yareban languages
| Yareban | |
|---|---|
| Musa River | |
| Geographic distribution | Southeastern peninsula of Papua New Guinea: Oro Province |
| Linguistic classification | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | yare1250 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
The Yareban or Musa River languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken near the Musa River in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.
Languages
[edit | edit source]The languages are,
- Moikodi (Doriri)
- Aneme Wake (Abia)
- Barijian: Bariji, Nawaru (Sirio)
- Yareba
Barijian is suggested by lexicostatistics in Dutton (1971).
The only pronouns which are known in enough languages to reconstruct are na 1sg and a 2sg, which are common to all Yareban languages.
Proto-language
[edit | edit source]Phonemes
[edit | edit source]Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[2]
*m *n *pʰ *tʰ [*s] *kʰ *ʔ *b *d [*dz] [*g] *w *ɾ *j
*s and *dz were acquired through loans, but may have already been present in the protolanguage. *ʔ and *g may have been allophones.
Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.
Pronouns
[edit | edit source]Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[2]
sg du pl 1excl *na *ewa 1incl *uwa *i[j]a 2 *a *ja 3 *dawa *ema(wa)
Basic vocabulary
[edit | edit source]Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[2]
gloss Proto-Musa River head *bo-tai hair/feather *idi ear *ome eye *nai-tai nose *iboʔo tooth *ni[ʔ]o tongue *meana foot/leg *buɾi blood/salt *iwa bone *tai skin/bark *ope breast *ama louse *uʔa dog *kua pig *boɾo bird *gasiɾa; *ada egg *baka; *uɾimi tree *ana man/person *e[ʔe]me woman/wife *aweta sun *eweaka moon *maɾabe; *sakaɾa water *adua fire *inaʔa stone *oma; *gebiɾo path *daʔaba name *ibi eat/drink *it- one *demu
Evolution
[edit | edit source]Yareban reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[3]
- ama ‘breast’ < *amu
- uyau ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a
- rarara ‘dry’ < *(ŋg,k)atata
- baba ‘father’ < *mbapa
- iji ‘hair’ < *iti[C]
- ifu ‘name’ < *imbi
- kofiti ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu
- ogo ‘water’ < *ok[V]
- eme ‘man’ < *ambi
- amai ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
- sagai ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c New Guinea World, Musa River
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range[permanent dead link]
- (ibid.) Proto–Musa River