Nimboran_languages

Nimboran languages

Nimboran languages

Foja Range language family of New Guinea

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]

Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...

Foley (2018) classifies the Nimboran languages separately as an independent language family.[2]

Classification

The languages are:[1]

Proto-language

Pronouns

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]

More information Kemtuik, Gresi ...

As in Kaure, pronouns are not specified for number in the Nimboran language.[2]

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[1]

More information gloss, Proto-Grime River ...

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[4]

More information gloss, Gresi ...

References

  1. [1]
    Grime River. New Guinea World.
  2. [2]
    Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest 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. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. [3]
    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
  4. [4]
    Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  • 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.
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