Somahai languages

Last updated
Momuna
Somahai
Geographic
distribution		 New Guinea
Linguistic classification Trans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
Glottolog soma1242 [2]

The Momuna languages, Momina and Momuna, also known as Somahai, are a family of two closely related Papuan languages.

Momina is a Papuan language of Indonesia.

Momuna, also known as Somahai, is a Papuan language of Indonesia.

Language family group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor

A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a biological family tree, or in a subsequent modification, to species in a phylogenetic tree of evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists therefore describe the daughter languages within a language family as being genetically related.

Contents

Classification

The Somahai pronouns, singular *na, *ka, *mo, are typical of Trans–New Guinea languages. They were placed in the Central and South New Guinea branch of that family by Wurm. Ross could not locate enough evidence to classify them. Usher found them to be closest to the Mek languages, in the Central West New Guinea, which partially overlaps with Wurm's C&SNG.

Central and South New Guinea languages

The Central and South New Guinea languages (CSNG) are a proposed family of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG). They were part of Voorhoeve & McElhanon's original TNG proposal, but have been reduced in scope by half in the classification of Malcolm Ross. According to Ross, it is not clear if the pronoun similarities between the four remaining branches of Central and South New Guinea are retentions for proto-TNG forms or shared innovations defining a single branch of TNG. Voorhoeve argues independently for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley echoes that Asmat may be closest to Awyu and Ok of the TNG languages. Regardless, the four individual branches of reduced Central and South New Guinea are themselves clearly valid families.

Malcolm David Ross is an Australian linguist. He is the emeritus professor of linguistics at the Australian National University.

Mek languages

The Mek languages are a well established family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek peoples. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005).

Related Research Articles

Trans–New Guinea languages Southeast Papuan languages

Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken in New Guinea and neighboring islands, perhaps the third-largest language family in the world by number of languages. The core of the family is considered to be established, but its boundaries and overall membership are uncertain. The languages are spoken by around 3 million people. There have been three main proposals as to its internal classification.

Papuan languages non-Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands

The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Austronesian-speaking Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.

East Geelvink Bay languages

The East Geelvink Bay or East Cenderawasih languages are a language family of a dozen Papuan languages along the eastern coast of Geelvink Bay in Indonesian Papua, which is also known as Sarera Bay or Cenderawasih.

Trans-Fly–Bulaka River languages

The Trans-Fly – Bulaka RiverakaSouth-Central Papuan languages form a hypothetical family of Papuan languages. They include many of the languages west of the Fly River in southern Papua New Guinea into southern Indonesian West Papua, plus a pair of languages on the Bulaka River a hundred km further west.

Mairasi languages

The Mairasi languages, also known as Etna Bay are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal.

The Nimboran languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. However, when proto-Nimboran pronouns are reconstructed (*genam "I" and kom or komot "thou"), they have little resemblance to the proto-TNG pronouns *na and *ga. Usher places them in a North Papuan stock that resembles Cowan's proposal.

The Piawi languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, which had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal.

The Senagi languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They consist of the two languages Angor and Dera.

Bayono, Awbono, and Densar constitute a recently discovered dialect cluster spoken in Indonesian Papua Province south of the Somahai languages. All that is known of them are a few hundred words recorded in first-contact situations. Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.

Eleman languages Language family of Papua New Guinea

The Eleman languages are a family of Papua New Guinea.

Teberan languages

The Teberan languages are a well established family of Papuan languages that Stephen Wurm (1975) grouped with the Pawaia language as a branch of the Trans–New Guinea phylum.

Angan languages

The Angan languages are a family of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross. The Angan languages are clearly valid as a family. They were first identified as such by J. Lloyd and A. Healey in 1968; Wurm (1975) classified them as Trans–New Guinea. Glottlog treats Angan as a separate or unclassified family, pending further evidence.

Awin–Pa–Kamula languages

The Awin–Pa or Awin–Pare languages – or, more precisely, Awin–Pa–Kamula – are a small family of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG)

Mombum languages

The Mombum or Komolom languages are a pair of Trans–New Guinea languages, Koneraw and Mombum, spoken just off the southern coast of New Guinea.

Kainantu–Goroka languages

The Kainantu–Goroka language are a family of Papuan languages established by Arthur Capell in 1948 under the name East Highlands. They formed the core of Stephen Wurm's 1960 East New Guinea Highlands family, and are one of the larger branches of Trans–New Guinea in the 2005 classification of Malcolm Ross.

West Trans–New Guinea languages

The West Trans–New Guinea languages are a suggested linguistic linkage of Papuan languages, not well established as a group, proposed by Malcolm Ross in his 2005 classification of the Trans–New Guinea languages. Ross suspects they are an old dialect continuum, because they share numerous features that have not been traced to a single ancestor using comparative historical linguistics. The internal divisions of the languages are also unclear. William A. Foley considers the TNG identity of the Irian Highlands languages at least to be established.

The Sentani languages form a language family of coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border. Sentani had been a branch of Stephen Wurm's proposal for Trans–New Guinea. The languages have lexical similarities with the Asmat–Kamoro languages, but Ross (2005) does not believe these demonstrate a genealogical relationship, and proposes instead that they are related to the East Bird's Head languages.

Central West New Guinea languages

The Central West New Guinea languages are a group of Trans–New Guinea families in central New Guinea established by Timothy Usher, though with precedents in earlier studies.

References

  1. ↑ Momuna–Mek, New Guinea World
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Somahai". Glottolog 3.0 . Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

Andrew Kenneth Pawley, FRSNZ, FAHA, is Emeritus Professor at the School of Culture, History & Language of the College of Asia & the Pacific at the Australian National University. Pawley was born in Sydney but moved to New Zealand at the age of 12.

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