Battle of Honey Springs

The East Geelvink Bay or East Cenderawasih languages are a language family of a dozen Papuan languages along the eastern coast of Geelvink Bay in Indonesian Papua, which is also known as Sarera Bay or Cenderawasih.

Languages

Of these, only Turunggare, Barapasi, and Bauzi are known well enough to demonstrate a relationship, though they are all lexically similar (> 60%). The unclassified Kehu language, spoken between Turunggare and Burate, may turn out to be East Geelvink Bay as well.[1]

Bauzi is the best documented East Geelvink Bay language, but may or may not be representative of the Geelvink Bay family as a whole.[1]

Classification

A relationship between Yawa, spoken on Yapen Island, and the East Geelvink Bay languages was tentatively proposed by C. L. Voorhoeve in 1975[citation needed] in a proposal he called Geelvink Bay. The hypothesis was taken up by Stephen Wurm, who developed it as part of an initial attempt to classify the Papuan languages; however, the relationship would be a distant one, and later linguists such as Mark Donohue considered Yawa to be a language isolate.

Clouse (1997)[2] removed the Lakes Plain languages of the upper Mamberamo River in the interior of Papua from Trans–New Guinea, where Würm had placed them, and by comparison with Bauzi and Demisa proposes them to be a sister family of the East Geelvink Bay languages. Basic vocabulary cognates that Clouse suggests to connect the two stocks include:

meaning Proto-Lakes Plain Bauzi Demisa
'eye' *kudatiCV (faxo) halukwa
'muscle' *tV nubu (betinukwa)
'water' *deida vaɔ wɔte
'fire' *kudaide vua gwa
'tree' *kuCV uto
'black' *kVCa gihot giho
'child' *tau-bri data dataβi
'we' *ai i
'go, walk' *kidia la
'blow' *pudV fɛu
'feces' *pade haɛ
'arrow' *poka
'bad' Proto-Tariku: *ɸVra fait

However, in his 2005 classification based on comparative evidence from pronouns, Malcolm Ross treats all three groups as separate families, with Yawa tentatively placed in an extended West Papuan family.

Typology

Verbal morphology in the East Geelvink Bay family is less complex than that of Tor-Kwerba languages, but is more complex than that of the Lakes Plain languages.[1]

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto–East Geelvink Bay are,

I *e we *i
thou *o you *u
s/he *a they ?

Basic vocabulary

Basic vocabulary of selected East Cenderawasih languages (Barapasi, Bauzi, Demisa, Tunggare) listed in Foley (2018):[1]

East Cenderawasih family basic vocabulary
gloss Barapasi Bauzi Demisa Tunggare
‘bird’ de bume bijana dinarate
‘blood’ nosi vasɛa nahabi nahavei
‘bone’ para fa heta ha
‘eat’ ai æ ɣayo
‘egg’ moʔa ɔɔ mwa ʔoʔo
‘eye’ aronua faxo halukwa hanua
‘fire’ awa vua gwa urehe
‘give’ wai nore
‘ground’ deta bake bæi baʔe
‘hair’ nawa ohuta ohutai ohitaʔi
‘head’ osi ohula ohuda ʔohaha
‘I’ emi e emdə ei
‘leg’ naro naɔ naro nal
‘louse’ woa vɔa yo ʔua
‘man’ doro dam damateha date
‘name’ here ɛ ʔe
‘one’ orari væmtɛa natudüe duaʔa
‘see’ ute aa maʔai
‘stone’ aea ɛdu hahia
‘sun’ wapao ala arɔ au
‘tooth’ moru mo molu mou
‘tree’ auma uto uto-me
‘two’ apimi bɛhæsu utahu amaite
‘water’ waro vaɔ wɔte mana
‘we’ i-me i i
‘you (pl)’ u-mi u wi

The following basic vocabulary words are from Clouse (1997)[2] and Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[4]

gloss Bauzi Demisa Barapasi Tunggare
head dauha; ohula ohuda osi ʔohaha
hair ohuta ohutai nəwa ohitaʔi
ear dogoi hema
eye fako; faxo halukwa aronua hanua
nose ɔmtɔ omata
tooth moru mou
tongue iso itsa
leg nabaː; nao naɾo naro nal
louse vɔa; vwa yo woa ʔua
dog vɛm; veme nimi weme
pig doho; dɔhɔ beiji doho
bird bume; bumɛ bijana de dinarate
egg ʔo; ɔɔ mwa moʔa ʔoʔo
blood vasɛa; veiso nahabi nosi nahavei
bone fa; oveha heta para ha
skin sogoba; sɔkɔba hiɔ terebaʔa isaʔa
breast ahudɛ ubɾa
tree uto auma uto-me
man data doro date
sky asum asunawa
sun ala; ala(meoho) aɾɔ wapao au
moon ala aɾo
water valo; vaɔ wɔte waro mana
fire üwa; vua gwa awa urehe
stone kɛ; khe ɛdu aea hahia
name ɛ; ele here ʔe
eat æ; udeʔa aire ghayo
one væmtɛa; vamtia natudüe orari duaʔa
two beasu; bɛhæsu utahu apimi amaite

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c 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.
  2. ^ a b Clouse, Duane A. (1997). "Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plain languages of Irian Jaya". In Karl Franklin (ed.). Papers in Papuan linguistics no. 2 (PDF). Vol. A-85. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 133–236. ISBN 0858834421.
  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. ^ 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.

External links