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.
| (Greater) West Bomberai | |
|---|---|
| Bomberai–Timor | |
| Geographic distribution | West New Guinea, East Timor |
| Linguistic classification | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | west2604 (mainland West Bomberai)timo1261 (Timor–Alor–Pantar) |
 Map: The West Bomberai languages of New Guinea
The West Bomberai languages
Other Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Uninhabited | |
Languages
editOf 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]
- Mbahaam–Iha: Baham (Mbaham), Iha
- Kalamang (a.k.a. Karas)
- Timor–Alor–Pantar
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 Proto–West Bomberai and even Proto-Timor–Alor–Pantar.[2]
History of classification
editWurm, 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
editUsher & 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
editUsher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the free pronouns as:[2]
sg pl 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
editProtoforms of the 40 most-stable items[7] in the Swadesh list include the following.[1]
Proto–West Bomberai gloss *am[i/u]n louse *kira water *kʷali ear *kVmV die *kina eye *tana hand/arm *nai name *war stone *ami breast *jaŋgal path ? tongue (*maŋg voice/speech) *aŋgin body/skin *kaja rain *waik blood *ukʷan[i] one *ma come *tumbər mountain *nawa eat/drink *kəna see *kʷel[e] skin/bark *jambar dog
References
edit- ^ a b c Timothy Usher (2020). "West Bomberai". New Guinea World. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
- ^ a b c d e 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
- ^ S.A.Wurm, C.L.Voorhoeve & K. McElhanon, The Trans-New Guinea Phylum in General.[1] 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.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
External links
edit- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–West Bomberai