Pahoturi languages

The Pahoturi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken around the Pahoturi (Paho River). This family includes six language varieties including Agöb (Dabu), Em, Ende, Kawam, Idi, and Taeme, which are spoken in the Pahoturi River area south of the Fly River, just west of the Eastern Trans-Fly languages. Ross (2005) tentatively includes them in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family.

Pahoturi
Paho River
Geographic
distribution
Pahoturi River, New Guinea
Linguistic classificationTrans-Fly or independent language family
  • Pahoturi
Subdivisions
Glottologpaho1240
Map: The Pahoturi languages of New Guinea

Some Pahoturi River speakers were originally hunter-gatherers, but had recently shifted to becoming gardeners.[1]:649

Classification

Wurm (1975) and Ross (2005) suggest that the Pahoturi languages may be related to the Tabo (Waia) language just north of the Fly delta. However, they present no evidence, and the pronouns do not match.[2]

Evans (2018) classifies the Pahoturi River languages as an independent language family.[1]

Languages

The six varieties have traditionally been grouped into the following two language groups:

  1. Agöb (Dabu), Em, Ende, and Kawam
  2. Idi and Taeme

Preliminary work on the language family suggests that these varieties form a dialect chain.

Pahoturi River languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.[1]

List of Pahoturi River languages
LanguageLocationPopulationAlternate names
Idicentral-east Morehead Rural LLG774
Taemenortheast Morehead Rural LLG834Tame
Agobsoutheast Morehead Rural LLG1,437Bugi, Dabu
Endeeast Morehead Rural LLG542
Kawameast Morehead Rural LLG and west Oriomo-Bituri Rural LLG457

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[3]

*m*mʷ*n[*ŋʷ]
*p*pʷ*t*ts*k*kʷ
*b*bʷ*d*dz*g*gʷ
*mb*mbʷ*nd*ɳɖ*ndz*ŋg*ŋgʷ
*l
*w*r*j

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for the family are:

Proto-Pahoturi

I*ŋa-nawe?
thou*ba or *beyou*-bi
s/he*bothey?

Lindsey lists the following pronouns for each of the language varieties in the family.[4]

Pahoturi River Pronouns
Case English Agob Em Ende Kawam Idi Taeme
Nominative I (1sg) ŋəna ŋəna ŋəna ŋəna ŋən ŋən
thou (2sg) boŋo boŋo boŋo buŋo
s/he (3sg) bo bogo bogo bo bo bo
we exclusive

(1.nsg.excl)

ŋumi ŋumi ŋəmi ŋəmi ŋəmi/bi bi
we inclusive

(1.nsg.incl)

ibi ibi ibi ibi jɪbi jəbi
you (2nsg) bibi bibi bibi bibi
they (3nsg) ubi ubi ubi ubi bo/wɪbi bo/ubi
Accusative I (1sg) ŋənam ŋənam ŋənəm ŋonom bom ŋənəm
thou (2sg) bæm bæm bam bæm babom babom
s/he (3sg) obom obom obom obom obom obom
we exclusive

(1.nsg.excl)

ŋənam ŋumim ŋəmim ŋəmim bim ŋəmim
we inclusive

(1.nsg.incl)

ibom ibam ibim ibim jəbim jɪbim
you (2nsg) bæm bæm bibim bibim bibim bibim
they (3nsg) obam obæm ubim ubim ubim/wəbim ubim
Dative I (1sg) ŋɵmɽe ŋəmɽe ŋəmɽe ŋəmre blæ ŋəmʎæ
thou (2sg) bæɽe babɽe babɽe bæbre bæblæ bæbʎe
s/he (3sg) obɽe obɽe obɽe obo oblæ obʎe
we exclusive

(1.nsg.excl)

ŋɵmra ŋumra ŋəmira ŋəmira bli ŋəmʎi
we inclusive

(1.nsg.incl)

ibra ibra ibra ibra jəbli jɪbʎi
you (2nsg) bæra babra bibra bibra bibli bibʎi
they (3nsg) obra obra ubira ubira ubli ubʎi
Possessive I (1sg) ŋɵmo ŋəmo ŋəmo ŋomo bo/bænæ ŋəmo
thou (2sg) bəne bəne bəne bəne bənæ bənæ
s/he (3sg) obo obo obo obo obo/obænæ obo
we exclusive

(1.nsg.excl)

ŋəma ŋəma ŋəma ŋəma ba ŋəma
we inclusive

(1.nsg.incl)

iba iba iba iba jəba jəba
you (2nsg) bina bina bina bina bəna bəna
they (3nsg) oba oba oba oba oba wəba

References

  1. 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.
  2. Hammarström, Harald. "Tabo". Glottolog. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
  3. New Guinea World, Paho River
  4. Lindsey, Kate L. (April 16, 2018). "Language Corpus of Ende and other Pahoturi River Languages". PARADISEC. doi:10.26278/5c1a5cfcaacde. LSNG08. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
  • 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.
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