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
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).
- Finisterre family
- Erap branch
- Gusap–Mot branch
- Uruwa branch: Sakam (Kutong) – Som, Nukna (Komutu), Yau, ?Weliki
- Wantoat branch: Awara–Wantoat (Yagawak, Bam), Tuma-Irumu
- Warup branch: Asaro'o (Morafa) – Molet, Bulgebi, Degenan–Tanda, Forak, Guya (Guiarak), Gwahatike (Dahating), Muratayak (Asat, Yagomi)
- Yupna branch: Domung–Ma (Mebu), Nankina, Bonkiman–Yopno (Kewieng, Wandabong, Nokopo, Isan), ?Yout Wam
Vocabulary comparison
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 aŋ umʌt noŋkwak pig kare bird jāŋ jɑŋ nũ 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 mɛ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Retsema, T., Potter, M., & Gray, R. 2009. Mungkip: An Endangered Language. SIL Electronic Survey Report 2009-015, November 2009.
- ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
External links
Bibliography
- 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.