The Porapora languages (alternatively the core Grass or Porapora River languages) are a pair of closely related languages in the Ramu language family, Gorovu and Adjora (Abu), spoken along the border of East Sepik Province and Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. Foley classifies them as part of the Grass group of languages, but Usher break up the Grass languages. Foley (2018) included Aion (Ambakich) as well,[1] but it has since been shown to be one of the Keram languages.

Porapora River
core Grass
Porapora River
Geographic
distribution
East Sepik Province and Madang Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationRamu
  • Ramu proper
    • Tamolan–Ataitan
      • Porapora River
Subdivisions
Language codes
Glottologagoa1234

Phonemes

edit

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[2]

*m *n
*p *t *s *k
*mb *nd [*ndz] *ŋg
*w *j

Vowels are *i *ʉ *u *a.

Pronouns

edit

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[2]

singular dual plural
1st person *[ŋg]u *aŋgʉ *ani
2nd person *ŋu *uŋgʉ *uni
3rd person *mV ? *mV-nʉ

Adjora has 1SG na, but that derives from an oblique form.

References

edit
  1. ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  2. ^ a b New Guinea World, Porapora River
edit