Social:South Bird's Head languages

From HandWiki
South Bird's Head
South Doberai
North Berau Gulf
(disputed)
Geographic
distribution
West Irian Jaya
Linguistic classification? Trans–New Guinea
  • ? Berau Gulf
    • South Bird's Head
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
sout1516  (South Bird's Head proper)[1]
kond1302  (Konda–Yahadian)[2]
inan1242  (Inanwatan)[3]
South Bird's Head languages.svg
Map: The South Bird's Head languages of New Guinea
  The South Bird's Head languages
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005), although Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider them to be part of Trans–New Guinea.[4]

Languages

The languages are as follows,[5][4]

  • Konda-Yahadian (Yabin): Konda, Yahadian
  • Inanwatan (Western): Duriankere, Inanwatan (Suabo)
  • South Bird's Head proper (Nuclear South Bird's Head):
    • East South Bird's Head:
      • Kemberano (Weriagar, Barau)
      • Arandai (Dombano) [dialect cluster]
      • Kokoda (Tarof, Kasuweri)
    • Kaburi
    • Kais (Kampong Baru)
    • Puragi (Iwaro)

Noting low cognacy rates, Holton and Klamer (2018) tentatively consider the following three language groups to each be independent language families, pending further evidence.[6]

Usher classifies the South Bird's Head languages as part of a wider Berau Gulf family.[7]

Pronouns

The pronouns are:

sg pl
1ex *na *ni-ri, *i-ri
1in *na-ri, *ya-ri
2 *a *a-ri, *i-ri

3sg *ni is reconstructable for SBH proper. There appears to be both a plural vowel change from *a to *i, as in proto-TNG, and a plural suffix *-ri.

Cognates

Below are cognates in Nuclear South Bird's Head languages (Arandai, Kokoda, Kemberano, Kaburi, Kais, Puragi) demonstrating their relatedness, as listed by Holton & Klamer (2018):[6]

Nuclear South Bird's Head family cognates
gloss Arandai Kokoda Kemberano Kaburi Kais Puragi
‘eye’ emago mago magu amiagu magu imagu
‘head’ kabe kaba kabe wa’ava kabo koibi
‘egg’ kuo ukwo oku uko uku vuko
‘one’ onate onasia anate ma’aja onate mo’onata
‘two’ ogi ogia oge uge uge oge
‘I’ nendi nedi nedi neri neri nedi

South Bird's Head basic vocabulary quoted by Holton & Klamer (2018)[6] from de Vries (2004), showing diverse non-cognate vocabulary across different language groups:[8]

South Bird's Head basic vocabulary comparison
gloss Yahadian Inanwatan Kokoda Puragi
arm/hand re ewó obora nebɔru
leg/foot dɛbɛ ɔtɔra neʔɔru
house ɔ meʔáro kɛnia einɔ
good hɔbɔre sówato nigeja nai/najɔ
dog ɟia méwoʔo dawɔra rɔga
pig mɔmɔ bidó tabai βuʔi
chicken kokoro ádiro koko korau
louse ʔóto kɔnɔ kɔnɔ
water/river hɛdɛ/mu tó/múro tai/tɔiria adɔna/ɔwedi
banana huŋgunɔn ɸúgi(do) udi amimi

Morphology

Except for the outlier languages Konda and Yahadian, all South Bird's Head languages have nouns classified according to masculine and feminine genders, which are determined with final vowel quality.[6] West Bird's Head languages also mark nouns for gender.

Syntax

Unlike many other languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula which display SVO word order (such as Abun, Mpur, Maibrat, West Bird's Head, and others), the South Bird's Head languages have SOV word order.[6]:588-590

References

  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "South Bird's Head Family". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/sout1516. 
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Konda–Yahadian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/kond1302. 
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "Inanwatan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/inan1242. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". in Palmer, Bill. The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21-196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7. 
  5. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2019). "Glottolog". Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. https://glottolog.org. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird’s Head". in Palmer, Bill. The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569-640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7. 
  7. Usher, Timothy. New Guinea World, North Berau Gulf
  8. de Vries, Lourens. 2004. A Short Grammar of Inanwatan: An endangered language of the Bird’s Head of Papua, Indonesia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". in Andrew Pawley. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.