Eastern Trans-Fly languages
The Eastern Trans-Fly (or Oriomo Plateau) languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages spoken in the Oriomo Plateau to the west of the Fly River in New Guinea.
| Eastern Trans-Fly | |
|---|---|
| Oriomo Plateau | |
| Geographic distribution | Oriomo Plateau, Papua New Guinea, Torres Strait Islands (Australia) |
| Linguistic classification | Trans-Fly or independent language family
|
| Glottolog | east2503 |
 Map: The Eastern Trans-Fly languages of New Guinea
The Eastern Trans-Fly languages
Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Australian languages
Uninhabited | |
Classification
The languages constituted a branch of Stephen Wurm's 1970 Trans-Fly proposal, which he later incorporated into his 1975 expansion of the Trans–New Guinea family as part of a Trans-Fly – Bulaka River branch. They are retained as a family but removed from Trans–New Guinea in the classifications of Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher.
Wurm had concluded that some of his purported Trans-Fly languages were not in the Trans–New Guinea family but rather heavily influenced by Trans–New Guinea languages. Ross (2005) removed the bulk of the languages, including Eastern Trans-Fly, from Wurm's Trans–New Guinea.
Timothy Usher links the four languages, which he calls Oriomo Plateau, to the Pahoturi languages and the Tabo language in an expanded Eastern Trans-Fly family.
Languages
Oriomo (Eastern Trans-Fly) languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.[1] Geographical coordinates are also provided for each dialect (which are named after villages).[2]
Pronouns
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto–Eastern Trans-Fly are,
I *ka exclusive we *ki inclusive we *mi thou *ma you *we he/she/it *tabV; *e they *tepi
There is a possibility of a connection here to Trans–New Guinea. If the inclusive pronoun is historically a second-person form, then there would appear to be i-ablaut for the plural: *ka~ki, **ma~mi, **tapa~tapi. This is similar to the ablaut reconstructed for TNG (*na~ni, *ga~gi). Although the pronouns themselves are dissimilar, ablaut is not likely to be borrowed. On the other hand, there is some formal resemblance to Austronesian pronouns (*(a)ku I, *(ka)mu you, *kita we inc., *(ka)mi we exc., *ia he/she/it; some archeological, cultural and linguistic evidence of Austronesian contact and settlement in the area exists (David et al., 2011; McNiven et al., 2011; McNiven et al., 2006; McNiven et al., 2004: 67-68; Mitchell 1995).
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:[3]
gloss Bine (Täti dialect) Bine (Sogal dialect) Gizra (Kupere dialect) Wipi (Dorogori dialect) head mopo mopo siŋɨl mopʰ hair ede ŋæři mopo ŋæři eřŋen mop ŋɨs ear tablam tablamo gublam yəkəpya eye iřeʔu iřeku ilkʰəp yəř nose keke keke siəkʰ sok tooth giřiʔu ziřgup tongue wætæ wærtæ uːlitʰ vlat leg er̃ŋe er̃ŋe wapʰər̃ kwa louse ŋamwe ŋamo ŋəm bɨnɨm dog dřego dřeŋgo ume yɔŋg pig blomwe blomo bird eře eře pʰöyɑy yi egg ku ku uŕgup kʰɨp blood uːdi uːdi əi wɔːdž bone kaːke kaːko kʰus kʰakʰ skin tæːpwe tæːpo sopʰai gɨm breast nono ŋamo ŋiam ŋɔm tree uli uli nugup wʉl man řoːřie řoːřie pʰam r̃ɨga woman magebe magobe kʰoːl kʰɔŋga sun abwedži bimu abɨs lom moon mřeːpwe mabye mɛlpal mobi water niːye niːye nai ni fire ulobo ulikobo uːř par̃a stone kula kula iŋlkʰup gli name ŋi ŋi ŋi niː eat waː aloda nina wavwin one neːteřa yepæ dər̃pʰan yəpa two neneni neneni niːs nɨmɔg
References
- Evans, Nicholas (2018). "The languages of Southern New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- United Nations in Papua New Guinea (2018). "Papua New Guinea Village Coordinates Lookup". Humanitarian Data Exchange. 1.31.9.
- Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 5 November 2020.
- 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.
- David, B., McNiven, I.J., Mitchell, R., Orr, M., Haberle, S., Brady, L. & Crouch, J. 2004. Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait. Archeology in Oceania 39(2): 65-78.
- Fleischmann, L. and Turpeinen, S. "A Dialect Survey of Eastern Trans-Fly Languages". In Reesink, G.P., Fleischmann, L., Turpeinen, S. and Lincoln, P.C. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 19. A-45:39-76. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1976. doi:10.15144/PL-A45.39
- McNiven, I.J., Dickinson, W.R., David, B., Weisler, M., Von Gnielinski, F., Carter, M., & Zoppi, U. 2006. Mask Cave: red-slipped pottery and the Australian-Papuan settlement of Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait). Archaeology in Oceania 41(2): 49-81.
- McNiven, I.J., David, B., Richards, T., Aplin, K., Asmussen, B., Mialanes, J., Leavesley, M., Faulkner, P., UlmM, S. 2011 New directions in human colonisation of the Pacific: Lapita settlement of south coast New Guinea. Australian Archaeology 72:1-6.
- Mitchell, R. 1995. Linguistic Archeology in Torres Strait. Unpublished MA thesis (James Cook University: Townsville).