The Mantion–Meax, Mantion–Meyah, or (South) East Bird's Head languages are a language family of three languages in the "Bird's Head Peninsula" of western New Guinea, spoken by all together 20,000 people.
| Mantion–Meax Mantion–Meyah | |
|---|---|
| East Bird's Head | |
| Geographic distribution | Papua |
| Linguistic classification | West Papuan?
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | east1459 |
 East Bird's Head languages (in red) | |
Classification
editEast Bird's Head stock (3 languages)
Pronouns
editThe pronouns Ross reconstructs for the proto-language (Usher's Southeast Bird's Head) are:
Basic vocabulary
editBasic vocabulary among East Bird's Head languages (Meyah, Moskona, Sougb, Hatam, Mansim) listed in Holton & Klamer (2018). The sets are not necessarily cognate.[1]
East Bird's Head family basic vocabulary gloss Meyah Moskona Sougb Hatam Mansim ‘bird’ mem mem ba hab waw ‘louse’ mej mej mem mem ‘one’ egens erges hom gom wom ‘night’ motu mot loba mmun ‘I’ didif dif dan dani danu
Additional East Bird's Head basic vocabulary quoted by Holton & Klamer (2018)[1] from Miedema & Reesink (2004: 34) and (Reesink 2005: 202), showing diverse non-cognate vocabulary across different branches:[2][3]
Additional East Bird's Head basic vocabulary gloss Meyah Moskona Sougb Hatam arm/hand etma etma s(i)ra ndab leg/foot aki egak/oko ohora mig house mod mod tu ig good oufa ojfa eigouh kei dog mes mes mihi nsien pig mek mek hwej nab chicken mongkukar memkoar berougb guri louse mej mej mem mem water/river mei mij uhu nyei banana meni nej wida
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ Miedema, Jelle and Ger P. Reesink. 2004. One Head, Many Faces: New perspectives on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of New Guinea. Leiden: KITLV.
- ^ Reesink, Ger P. 2005. West Papuan languages: roots and development. In: Pawley et al. (eds.) 185–218.
Further reading
edit- Reesink, Ger P. (2002). "The Eastern Bird's Head Languages Compared". In Ger P. Reesink (ed.). Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head. Pacific Linguistics. Vol. 524. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 1–44. hdl:1885/146144.