Molof language

Molof (Ampas, Poule, Powle-Ma) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.^[1]

Molof
Poule
Region	Papua: 9 villages located 100 km to the south of Jayapura; in Keerom Regency, Senggi District, Molof village
Native speakers	230 (2005)[1]
Language family	Unclassified, possibly Pauwasi or language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-3	msl
Glottolog	molo1262
ELP	Powle-Ma

Classification

Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. Søren Wichmann (2018)^[2] tentatively considers it to be a language isolate, as does Foley (2018).^[3] Usher (2020) tentatively suggests it may be a Pauwasi language.^[4]

Phonology

Molof has a small consonant inventory, but a large one for vowels.

Molof consonants, quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):^[3]

	Labial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
	plain	labial			plain	labial
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Plosive	p		t		k	kʷ
Fricative	f	fʷ	s
Liquid			r
Semivowel				j		w

Molof vowels (8 total), quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):^[3]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Close-mid	e	ə	o
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a

Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary of Molof from Rumaropen (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):^[5][3]

Molof basic vocabulary

gloss	Molof
‘bird’	au
‘blood’	mɪt
‘bone’	antai
‘breast’	mu
‘ear’	ou
‘eat’	nɪ
‘egg’	li
‘eye’	lum
‘fire’	tombe
‘give’	tui
‘go’	tuɨ
‘ground’	aigiman
‘hair’	era
‘hear’	ar/arai
‘I’	məik
‘leg’	vu
‘louse’	əlim
‘man’	lomoa
‘moon’	ar
‘name’	ti
‘one’	kwasekak
‘road, path’	mɪtnine
‘see’	lokea
‘sky’	mejor
‘stone’	rɨ
‘sun’	neman
‘tongue’	aifoma
‘tooth’	tɨ
‘tree’	war
‘two’	atati
‘water’	yat
‘we’	ti
‘woman’	anar
‘you (sg)’	in

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),^[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[8]

gloss	Molof
head	emi
hair	ela
ear	ou
eye	lom
nose	toŋga
tooth	te
tongue	ai
leg	fu
louse	lem
bird	au
egg	le
blood	mat
bone	antai
skin	kant
breast	mu
tree	woar
man	lomo
woman	anale
sun	nei
moon	ar
water	jat; yat
fire	tombe
stone	le
road, path	mef
name	ti
eat	ne
one	kwasekak
two	ateti

References

1. Molof at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages Archived 2020-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
3. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". 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. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
4. New Guinea World
5. Rumaropen, Benny. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report of the Poulle Language of Molof and Waley Villages, Keeron District, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished manuscript. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
6. Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
7. Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
8. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.

External links

• Molof word list at TransNewGuinea.org