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Finisterre languages

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(Redirected from Yupna languages)
Finisterre
Geographic
distribution
Finisterre Range, New Guinea
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
  • Erap
  • Gusap–Mot
  • Uruwa
  • Wantoat
  • Warup
  • Yupna
Language codes
Glottologfini1245

The Finisterre languages are a language family, spoken in the Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea, classified within the original Trans–New Guinea (TNG) proposal, and William A. Foley considers their TNG identity to be established. They share with the Huon languages a small closed class of verbs taking pronominal object prefixes some of which are cognate across both families (Suter 2012), strong morphological evidence that they are related.

The most populous Finisterre languages are Wantoat, Rawa, and Yopno, with about 10,000 speakers apiece, and Iyo, with about half that number.

Internal structure

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Huon and Finisterre, and then the connection between them, were identified by Kenneth McElhanon (1967, 1970). They are clearly valid language families. Finisterre contains six clear branches. Beyond that, classification is based on lexicostatistics, which does not provide precise classification results. The outline below follows McElhanon and Carter et al. (2012).

Vocabulary comparison

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The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970)[1] and Retsema et al. (2009),[2] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[3]

Erap branch Gusap-Mot branch Uruwa branch Wantoat branch Warup branch Yupna branch
gloss Mungkip Uri
(Sintogoro dialect)
Iyo Yau
(Mup dialect)
Tuma-Irumu
(Irumu dialect)
Degenan Yopno
(Nokopo dialect)
head kʰige dimin kemba kuwit kʌyi tʌnam busuŋʌ
hair sɨsa; sɪsa sɨsɑ hu dzioŋ pundzi gɔt daŋwai
ear maget; magitnɛ mɑgi ɔsumbi ɔndɔm sukun nʌm kɔsim
eye dae; da·ge de tɔŋi dan dapur dabəl daƀʌl
nose miminɛ; mimiŋge kininiʔ umi tanma inami tomoni
tooth ma miti man men mɛn gɛn
tongue mabɛm; mabim mɨmbɛm mipi motbin mɛmber mɛlɛ mel
leg kada kʌjoŋ
louse mi; mīŋ tumuŋ imi imon imʌn iməŋ iat
dog sap kuɣɔŋ isa sap umʌt noŋkwak
pig kare
bird jāŋ jɑŋ
egg qiliq
blood we·q ʌmɑ
bone kwadi; kwadzi kʌti: wimbi kurat konzar doruk; ʌtʌt kataar
skin girim fugu kowi gib gup; kʌndʌp meᵲ- gʌp; kandap
breast nom nʌm susu mum nonoŋ mum naŋ
tree bɛm fɨɾi
man ʌmi amna ama amen
woman tam tɑmin pare ɔƀi
sun maim; male mɑjɛm okisa sep kɔmi ɔm doran
moon jaʁip mɑjɛp
water ime; imɛ ɑmɑ sono yamo ome ɩm kʌlap
fire kuduk; kugup kudip te ibdi kʌndʌp ɛřap kandap
stone qawade gʷunʌgʌm
road, path tɛlɛ; tɛrɛpmēŋ kʌdʌpʌŋ ore amsap kandet mar̃ʌn kosit
name buŋām; wow wɔp owe man wop maŋgi mai
eat nʌna ne na na na na
one kubugaŋ kubinik
two lifɛt fʌmɑʔ

References

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  1. ^ McElhanon, K.A. and Voorhoeve, C.L. The Trans-New Guinea Phylum: Explorations in deep-level genetic relationships. B-16, vi + 112 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1970. doi:10.15144/PL-B16
  2. ^ Retsema, T., Potter, M., & Gray, R. 2009. Mungkip: An Endangered Language. SIL Electronic Survey Report 2009-015, November 2009.
  3. ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
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Bibliography

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  • 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.
  • Suter, Edgar (2012). Verbs with pronominal object prefixes in Finisterre-Huon languages. In: Harald Hammarström and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.). History, contact and classification of Papuan languages. [Special Issue 2012 of Language and Linguistics in Melanesia]. 23-58. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
  • Claassen, Oren R. and Kenneth A. McElhanon. 1970. Languages of the Finisterre Range. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 11, 45–78. Caberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Carter, John, Katie Carter, John Grummitt, Bonnie MacKenzie and Janell Masters. 2012. A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Mur Village Vernaculars. Dallas: SIL International. [Survey of Warup languages]
  • Smith, Geoffrey P. 1988. Morobe counting systems. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 26, 1–132.