Mbahaam–Iha languages
| Mbahaam–Iha | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | West New Guinea, Bomberai Peninsula |
| Linguistic classification | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | nucl1641 |
The Mbahaam–Iha languages are a pair of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea. The two languages, Baham (Mbaham) and Iha, are closely related to each other.
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as:[1]
*m *n *p *t *k *kʷ *mb *nd *ŋg *ŋgʷ *s *w *r *j
Prenasalized plosives do not occur initially, having merged with the voiceless plosives.
The vowels are *i *u *ɛ *ɔ *a and the diphthongs *iɛ *ɛi.
Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the free pronouns as:[1]
sg pl 1excl *[a/ɔ]n [*mbi] 1incl *in 2 *k[a/ɔ] *ki 3 *m[a/ɔ] *mi, *wat
Cognates
Protoforms of the 20 most-stable items[2] in the Swadesh list include the following.[1]
gloss Proto-Mbahaam–Iha *mɛin louse ? two *kiˈra water *kʷiɛr ear *kimi die *[a/ɔ]n I ? liver ? (k(i)jɛp / kɛndɛp) eye *tan hand *kɔmɛn hear *wiˈra, aˈtɔkʷ tree, tree/wood *ˈsɛjir fish *niɛ name *war stone ? tooth *sɔn breast *k[a/ɔ] you ? path *ˈtɔkar bone ? tongue (*mak voice/language)
References
Usher, Timothy and Antoinette Schapper, 2018. "The lexicons of the Papuan languages of the Onin Peninsula and their influences". In Antoinette Schapper, ed. Contact and substrate in the languages of Wallacea part 2. NUSA 64: 39–63.
- ^ a b c New Guinea World, Mbaham–Iha
- ^ Holman, Eric W., Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, Dik Bakker (2008). "Explorations in Automated Language Classification". Folia Linguistica, Vol. 42, no. 2, 331–354
External links
- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Mbahaam–Iha