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Foja Range language family of New Guinea From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nimboran languages are a small family of Papuan languages, spoken in the Grime River and Nawa River watershed in Jayapura Regency, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. However, when proto-Nimboran pronouns are reconstructed (*genam "I" and kom or komot "thou"), they have little resemblance to the proto-TNG pronouns *na and *ga. Usher places them in a North Papuan stock that resembles Cowan's proposal.[1]
Nimboran | |
---|---|
Grime River | |
Geographic distribution | Grime-Nawa Valley, Jayapura Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia |
Linguistic classification | Northwest Papuan?
|
Glottolog | nimb1257 |
Foley (2018) classifies the Nimboran languages separately as an independent language family.[2]
The languages are:[1]
The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for proto-Nimboran are,
I | *genam |
thou | *kom, komot |
s/he | ? |
Below are pronouns in the Nimboran languages as given by Foley (2018):[2]
As in Kaure, pronouns are not specified for number in the Nimboran language.[2]
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[1]
gloss | Proto-Grime River |
---|---|
head | *jaŋkaMBʉ |
leaf/head hair | *ndɜp |
ear | *kam[a/ɔ]; *kəni[n/ŋ] |
eye | *namuɔ |
tooth | *səɺiŋ; *wasəɺa[ŋ] |
tongue | *anəmbəɺ[i/ɛ]ŋ; *mambəɺ[ɜ/ɔ]p |
foot/leg | *masi |
blood/red | *kin |
seed/bone | *ndɜn |
skin/bark | *asu[p/k] |
breast/milk | *min |
louse | *səna[ŋ] |
dog | *unduɔ |
pig | *inəmbuɔ |
bird | *jʉ |
egg | *səwip[i] |
tree/wood | *ndi |
man/male | *səɺu |
woman | *kambuŋ; *ki |
sun | *wɔj |
moon | *mbanu |
water/river | *mbu |
fire | *kip; *kɜj |
stone | *ndəmuɔ |
path | *tap |
name | *sʉ |
eat | *ndam |
one | *kapəɺaj[a] |
two | *namuan |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[4]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. yaŋkabu, iŋkabu for “head”) or not (e.g. kapray, tendu for “one”).
gloss | Gresi | Kemtuik | Mekwei | Mlap | Nimboran |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
head | yaŋkabu | iŋkabu | yekembu | yaŋkambu | iŋgiambu |
hair | bətə-dop | dop | bəterep | məndü-pra | mendü-pro |
eye | nam | nmu-tugon | namo-den | nuŋgroŋ | nuŋgroŋ |
tooth | səriŋ | wasraŋ | siŋyaŋ | səriŋ-dowŋ | hriŋ-douŋ |
leg | masi | masi | masi | mesi | mesi |
louse | səna | səne | səne | səne | hnaŋ |
dog | udo | udo | ando | undo | unduo |
pig | nəmbu | nəmbo | mbo | ibo | ibwo |
bird | iü | iü | ü | iü | iü |
egg | si | si | səbi | süp | süp |
blood | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ |
bone | don | don | den | dowŋ | douŋ |
skin | suk | saisuk | asuk | sup | sub |
tree | di | di | di | di | di-tim |
man | sərə | səruə | si | sru | hru |
sun | woy | woy | woy | woy | uai |
water | bu | bu | bu | bu | bu |
fire | koy | koy | kei-sini | kip | kip |
stone | dom | dəmu | dəmo | dəmu | demue |
name | sü | siü | siu | sü | sü |
eat | dam | dam | anime | dam | dam |
one | kray | kraya | kapray | tendu | tendü |
two | namon | namon | naman | namoŋ | namuan |
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