Tirio languages explained

Tirio
Also Known As:	Lower Fly River
Region:	New Guinea
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:	Anim (Fly River)^[1]
Glotto:	tiri1259
Glottorefname:	Tirio
Map:	Tirio languages.svg
Mapcaption:	Map: The Tirio languages of New Guinea

The Tirio languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross. The Tirio languages have about 40% of their lexicon in common.

Languages

• Baramu
• Bitur (Mutum)
• Tirio (Makayam, Aturu)
• Were (Kiunum)

Evans (2018) lists the Tirio languages as:^[2]

• Tirio (Makayam)
• Bitur (Paswam, Mutum)
• Lewada-Dewara, spoken on Dewala village on Sumogi Island
• Adulu (Aturu), also spoken on Sumogi Island

Baramu is somewhat more divergent in vocabulary, but this may reflect language contact rather than divergence in its position within the family. Pronouns are only available for Tirio itself (Makayam).

The moribund language Abom was once classified as a divergent Tirio language, sharing only an eighth of its lexicon with the others, but it turns out to not belong to the family at all, nor to the Anim family that Tirio is a branch of.^[3]

A survey of the Tirio languages can be found in Jore and Alemán (2002).^[4]

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[5]

m	n
p	t		k
mb	nd		ŋg
	s
w	ɾ	j	ɣ

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.

Pronouns

The pronouns are:^[5]

	sg	pl
1	naoɣ	naoj
2	ɣaoɣ	jaoɣ
3m	igi	jiɣ
3f	–

Evolution

Lower Fly River (Makayam and Baramu) reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:^[6]

• Makayam makoːth, Baramu mangoːt ‘chin’ < *maŋgat[a] ‘mouth, teeth’
• Makayam (Giribam dialect) Bitur, Baramu moːm ‘seed’ < *maŋgV ‘fruit, seed, round’
• Makayam sakoa ‘lower arm’, Baramu saga ‘arm’ < *sa(ŋg,k)(a,i)l ‘hand, claw’

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Lower Fly River

Notes and References

1. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/fly-river New Guinea World, Fly River
2. Book: Evans, Nicholas . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The languages of Southern New Guinea . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 641–774 . 978-3-11-028642-7.
3. Web site: Lower Fly River - newguineaworld.
4. Jore, Tim and Laura Alemán. 2002. Sociolinguistic survey of the Tirio language family. Manuscript. Ukarumpa: SIL-PNG.
5. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/fly-river/lower-fly-river New Guinea World, Lower Fly River
6. Book: Pawley . Andrew . Hammarström . Harald . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The Trans New Guinea family . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 21–196 . 978-3-11-028642-7.