West Bomberai languages

Last updated
(Greater) West Bomberai
Bomberai–Timor
Geographic
distribution
West New Guinea, East Timor
Linguistic classification Trans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
Glottolog west2604  (mainland West Bomberai)
timo1261  (Timor–Alor–Pantar)
West Bomberai languages.svg
Map: The West Bomberai languages of New Guinea
  The West Bomberai languages
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

The (Greater) West Bomberai languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea and in East Timor and neighboring islands of Indonesia.

Contents

Languages

Of the three languages on the mainland, Baham and Iha are closely related to each other while the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages: [1] [2]

This split, with two of the three branches on the mainland, suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may be the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did, as Austronesian influence post-dates ProtoWest Bomberai and even Proto-Timor–Alor–Pantar. [2]

History of classification

Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon included Timor–Alor–Pantar and mainland West Bomberai as separate stocks within Trans–New Guinea. [3] Ross grouped them together to form a branch of his proposed West Trans–New Guinea stock, though with mainland West Bomberai as an additional branch within Timor–Alor–Pantar. [4] Holton & Robinson (2014) found little evidence to support a connection of Timor–Alor–Pantar with Trans–New Guinea, [5] but Holton & Robinson (2017) conceded that a relationship with Trans-New Guinea, and in particular with West Bomberai, was the most likely hypothesis. [6] Usher & Schapper (2022) established that the two mainland branches of the family are no closer to each other than they are to the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages indeed that Kalamang might be the most divergent, and Usher has begun to reconstruct the West Bomberai protolanguage. [1] [2]

Phonemes

Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the following inventory of consonants: [2]

*p*t*k*kʷ
*mb*nd(*ndz)*ŋɡ(*ŋɡʷ)
*m*n
*s
*w*l, *r(*j)

Word-initial *k and *kʷ become *ʔ and *w in TAP. *kʷ becomes /k/ and intervocalic *p *t *k become /w, r, zero/ in Kalamang.

Prenasalized plosives did not occur initially in Proto-West Bomberai, having merged with the voiceless plosives. Medially, *mb *nd *ŋɡ become voiced stops in TAP; this is an areal feature, with proto-Austronesian *mb *nd *ŋɡ having done the same in neighboring Austronesian languages.

The vowels are still uncertain, but are likely to have been a simple *a *e *i *o *u system and appear to have included a diphthong *ai.

Pronouns

Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the free pronouns as: [2]

sgpl
1excl*an ~ *na-*in ~ *ni-
1incl*pi
2*ka*ki

The correspondences are mostly straightforward; initial *k has been lost from Timor-Alor-Pantar.

Cognates

Protoforms of the 40 most-stable items [7] in the Swadesh list include the following. [1]

Proto–West Bomberaigloss
*am[i/u]nlouse
*kirawater
*kʷaliear
*kVmVdie
*kinaeye
*tanahand/arm
*nainame
*warstone
*amibreast
*jaŋgalpath
 ?tongue (*maŋg voice/speech)
*aŋginbody/skin
*kajarain
*waikblood
*ukʷan[i]one
*macome
*tumbərmountain
*nawaeat/drink
*kənasee
*kʷel[e]skin/bark
*jambardog

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Timothy Usher (2020). "West Bomberai". New Guinea World. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Usher, Timothy; Schapper, Antoinette (2022), "The Greater West Bomberai Language Family", Oceanic Linguistics, 61 (1): 469–527, doi:10.1353/ol.2022.0004, hdl: 1871.1/41e570b0-0d28-458d-90d2-3024e1a1376e , OCLC   9554546337
  3. S.A.Wurm, C.L.Voorhoeve & K. McElhanon, The Trans-New Guinea Phylum in General. Section 2.5 of S.A. Wurm (ed.) 1977 [1975] New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene. Australian National University, Canberra
    • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN   0858835622. OCLC   67292782.
  4. Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2014), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 155–198, doi:10.17169/langsci.b22.48
  5. Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2017), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology Second Edition, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 147–190, doi:10.5281/zenodo.437098
  6. Holman, Eric W., Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, Dik Bakker (2008). "Explorations in Automated Language Classification". Folia Linguistica, Vol. 42, no. 2, 331–354