Morori language

Not to be confused with Moriori language.

Morori (Marori, Moaraeri, Moraori, Morari) is a moribund Papuan language of the Kolopom branch of the Trans–New Guinea family. It is separated from the other Kolopom languages by the intrusive Marind family.^[3] All speakers use Papuan Malay or Indonesian as L2, and many know Marind.^[2]

Morori
Marori
Moraori
Region	Kampung Wasur, Merauke Regency, South Papua, Indonesia[1]
Ethnicity	Marori; 250 (1998)[2]
Native speakers	(50 cited 1998)[2]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Southwest Coast Kolopom Morori
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mok
Glottolog	moro1289
ELP	Marori
Map: The Morori language of New Guinea   The Morori language (near the southern cape)   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

A dialect extinct in 1997, Menge, is remembered from ceremonial use.

Marori is spoken in Kampung Wasur, which in 2010 had 413 people (98 families) total and 119 Marori people (52 Marori families).^[1]

Phonology

Marori has 22 consonants and 6 vowels, which are:^[1]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿʤ	ᵑɡ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	voiceless	p	t		k
Fricative		ɸ	s			h
Approximant		w	l	j
Rhotic			r

Vowels

i, e, æ, a, o, u

On the other hand, the majority of Trans-New Guinea languages usually have around 10–15 consonants.^[1]

Pronouns

Pronouns, but little else, connect it to TNG:

	sg	pl
1	na	ni-ɛ
2	ka	ki-ɛ
3	ŋɡafi	ŋɡamdɛ

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),^[4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[5]

gloss	Morori
head	merao
hair	pu
eye	ayix
tooth	terox
leg	tegu
louse	nemeŋk
dog	koro
pig	bosik
bird	ujif
egg	vi
blood	ŋgorom
bone	ŋgwar
skin	par
tree	kwi
man	yexri
sun	kum
water	deke
fire	sir
stone	mere
name	nex
eat	kef
one	sekodu
two	yenadu

Evolution

Marori reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[6]

• mam ‘breast’ < *amu
• mam ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• nemeŋk ‘louse’ < *niman
• sa ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ
• ŋwar ‘bone’ < *kondaC

Further reading

• Gebze, Wilhelmus and Mark Donohue. 1998. Kamus Kecil Bahasa Moraori. [Marori picture dictionary]: Distributed in Wasur, Papua.

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. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 641–774. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
2. Morori at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
3. New Guinea World, Kolopom
4. 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
5. Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
6. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

• 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.
• Arka, I Wayan. 2012. Projecting morphology and agreement in Marori, an isolate of southern New Guinea. In Nicholas Evans and Marian Klamer (eds.), Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century, 150-173. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

External links

• ELAR Collection: The Endangered Papuan Languages of Merauke-Indonesia: ethnobiological and linguistic documentation deposited by I Wayan Arka