Finisterre languages explained

Finisterre
Region:Finisterre Range, New Guinea
Familycolor:Papuan
Fam1:Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:Finisterre–Huon
Child1:Erap
Child2:Gusap–Mot
Child3:Uruwa
Child4:Wantoat
Child5:Warup
Child6:Yupna
Glotto:fini1245
Glottorefname:Finisterre–Saruwaged

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).

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 branchGusap-Mot branchUruwa branchWantoat branchWarup branchYupna branch
gloss Yopno
(Nokopo dialect)
headkʰige dimin kemba kuwit kʌyi tʌnam busuŋʌ
hairsɨsa; sɪsa sɨsɑ hu dzioŋ pundzi gɔt daŋwai
earmaget; magitnɛ mɑgi ɔsumbi ɔndɔm sukun nʌm kɔsim
eyedae; da·ge de tɔŋi dan dapur dabəl daƀʌl
nosemiminɛ; mimiŋge kininiʔ umi tanma inami tomoni
toothma miti man men mɛn gɛn
tonguemabɛm; mabim mɨmbɛm mipi motbin mɛmber mɛlɛ mel
legkada kʌjoŋ
lousemi; mīŋ tumuŋ imi imon imʌn iməŋ iat
dogsap kuɣɔŋ isa sap umʌt noŋkwak
pigkare
birdjāŋ jɑŋ
eggqiliq
bloodwe·q ʌmɑ
bonekwadi; kwadzi kʌti: wimbi kurat konzar doruk; ʌtʌt kataar
skingirim fugu kowi gib gup; kʌndʌp meᵲ- gʌp; kandap
breastnom nʌm susu mum nonoŋ mum naŋ
treebɛm fɨɾi
manʌmi amna ama amen
womantam tɑmin pare ɔƀi
sunmaim; male mɑjɛm okisa sep kɔmi ɔm doran
moonjaʁip mɑjɛp
waterime; imɛ ɑmɑ sono yamo ome ɩm kʌlap
firekuduk; kugup kudip te ibdi kʌndʌp ɛřap kandap
stoneqawade gʷunʌgʌm
road, pathtɛlɛ; tɛrɛpmēŋ kʌdʌpʌŋ ore amsap kandet mar̃ʌn kosit
namebuŋām; wow wɔp owe man wop maŋgi mai
eatnʌna ne na na na na
onekubugaŋ kubinik
twolifɛt fʌmɑʔ

External links

Bibliography

Notes and References

  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.
  2. Retsema, T., Potter, M., & Gray, R. 2009. Mungkip: An Endangered Language. SIL Electronic Survey Report 2009-015, November 2009.
  3. Web site: TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea . Greenhill . Simon . 2016. 2020-11-05.