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West Bomberai languages

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(Greater) West Bomberai
Bomberai–Timor
Geographic
distribution
West New Guinea, East Timor
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
Language codes
Glottologwest2604  (mainland West Bomberai)
timo1261  (Timor–Alor–Pantar)
Map: The West Bomberai languages of New Guinea
  The West Bomberai languages
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

The (Greater) West Bomberai languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea and in East Timor and neighboring islands of Indonesia.

Languages

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Of the three languages on the mainland, Baham and Iha are closely related to each other while the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages:[1][2]

This split, with two of the three branches on the mainland, suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may be the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did, as Austronesian influence post-dates Proto–West Bomberai and even Proto-Timor–Alor–Pantar.[2]

History of classification

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Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon included Timor–Alor–Pantar and mainland West Bomberai as separate stocks within Trans–New Guinea.[3] Ross grouped them together to form a branch of his proposed West Trans–New Guinea stock, though with mainland West Bomberai as an additional branch within Timor–Alor–Pantar.[4] Holton & Robinson (2014) found little evidence to support a connection of Timor–Alor–Pantar with Trans–New Guinea,[5] but Holton & Robinson (2017) conceded that a relationship with Trans-New Guinea, and in particular with West Bomberai, was the most likely hypothesis.[6] Usher & Schapper (2022) established that the two mainland branches of the family are no closer to each other than they are to the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages – indeed that Kalamang might be the most divergent, and Usher has begun to reconstruct the West Bomberai protolanguage.[1][2]

Phonemes

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Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the following inventory of consonants:[2]

*p *t *k *kʷ
*mb *nd (*ndz) *ŋɡ (*ŋɡʷ)
*m *n
*s
*w *l, *r (*j)

Word-initial *k and *kʷ become *ʔ and *w in TAP. *kʷ becomes /k/ and intervocalic *p *t *k become /w, r, zero/ in Kalamang.

Prenasalized plosives did not occur initially in Proto-West Bomberai, having merged with the voiceless plosives. Medially, *mb *nd *ŋɡ become voiced stops in TAP; this is an areal feature, with proto-Austronesian *mb *nd *ŋɡ having done the same in neighboring Austronesian languages.

The vowels are still uncertain, but are likely to have been a simple *a *e *i *o *u system and appear to have included a diphthong *ai.

Pronouns

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Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the free pronouns as:[2]

sg pl
1excl *an ~ *na- *in ~ *ni-
1incl *pi
2 *ka *ki

The correspondences are mostly straightforward; initial *k has been lost from Timor-Alor-Pantar.

Cognates

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Protoforms of the 40 most-stable items[7] in the Swadesh list include the following.[1]

Proto–West Bomberai gloss
*am[i/u]n louse
*kira water
*kʷali ear
*kVmV die
*kina eye
*tana hand/arm
*nai name
*war stone
*ami breast
*jaŋgal path
? tongue (*maŋg voice/speech)
*aŋgin body/skin
*kaja rain
*waik blood
*ukʷan[i] one
*ma come
*tumbər mountain
*nawa eat/drink
*kəna see
*kʷel[e] skin/bark
*jambar dog

References

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  1. ^ a b c Timothy Usher (2020). "West Bomberai". New Guinea World. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  2. ^ a b c d e Usher, Timothy; Schapper, Antoinette (2022), "The Greater West Bomberai Language Family", Oceanic Linguistics, 61 (1): 469–527, doi:10.1353/ol.2022.0004, hdl:1871.1/41e570b0-0d28-458d-90d2-3024e1a1376e, OCLC 9554546337
  3. ^ S.A.Wurm, C.L.Voorhoeve & K. McElhanon, The Trans-New Guinea Phylum in General.[1] Section 2.5 of S.A. Wurm (ed.) 1977 [1975] New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study, Volume 1: Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene. Australian National University, Canberra
  4. ^
    • 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.
  5. ^ Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2014), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 155–198, doi:10.17169/langsci.b22.48
  6. ^ Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2017), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology Second Edition, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 147–190, doi:10.5281/zenodo.437098
  7. ^ 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
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