Mairasi languages explained

Mairasi
Also Known As:Etna Bay
Region:Etna Bay, Kaimana Regency, West Papua
Familycolor:Papuan
Family:One of the world's primary language families
Glotto:mair1253
Glottorefname:Mairasic
Map:Mairasi map.svg
Mapcaption:Distribution of the Mairasi languages

The Mairasi languages, also known as Etna Bay[1] are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are named after Etna Bay, located in the southeastern corner of West Papua province, in Indonesia.

Languages

The Mairasi languages are clearly related to each other.

Classification

Mairasi cannot be linked to other families by its pronouns. However, Voorhoeve (1975) links it to the Sumeri (Tanah Merah) language, either a language isolate or an independent branch of the Trans–New Guinea family.

Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for the Mairasi languages to be classified as part of Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblance between Mairasi, Semimi, and proto-Trans-New Guinea.[2]

Mairasi ooro and Semimi okoranda ‘leg’ < proto-Trans-New Guinea *k(a,o)nd(a,o)C ‘leg’

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[3]

  • m
  • n
  • ɸ
  • t
  • s
  • k
  • mb
  • nd
  • ns
  • ŋg
  • w
  • ɾ
  • j

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u. *ns is uncommon.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the free and possessive pronouns as:[3]

sgpl
1excl
  • omo, *o-
  • eme, *e-
1incl
  • e-tumakia, *e-
2
  • neme, *ne-
  • keme, *ke-
3
  • nani, *na-
?

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[3]

gloss Proto-Etna Bay
hair/feather
  • -suɾu
ear
  • ɸiɾa
eye
  • mbiatu
nose
  • -mbi
tooth
  • -ɾasi
tongue
  • -saɸia
foot/leg
  • -koɾa
blood
  • iseɾe
bone
  • tuɾa
skin/bark
  • (na)-kia
breast
  • joku
louse
  • kumai
dog
  • ansi
pig
  • [ɸ]embe
bird
  • sai
egg
  • ete
man/male
  • koɸo
woman
  • eɸei
sun
  • tende
moon
  • aŋgane
water
  • ɸat[e]
fire
  • iɸoɾo
stone
  • jaɸutu
path
  • kae
name
  • u[w]ata
one
  • tana-(kau)
two
  • amoi

Lexical comparisons

Below is a basic vocabulary table of Mairasi languages (Mairasi, Mer, Semimi) with potential cognate matches, from Peckham (1991a,b), quoted in Foley (2018):[4] [5] [6]

Mairasi family basic vocabulary! gloss !! Mairasi !! Mer !! Semimi
‘bird’ sai sai sai
‘blood’ isere isere monad
‘bone’ natura singgu natura
‘breast’ jogu jogu jogu
‘ear’ navir anda nevira ot navira[7]
‘eat’ neneman namba neneme
‘egg’ eːte ede anggu ete
‘eye’ nambutu nembiatu ombiatu
‘fire’ ivore ivoro iforo
‘give’ tomnaijan nombonaiyomo tomonai
‘ground’ wasasai wasase makoro
‘hair’ nasuru nasuru nasuru
‘hear’ ivjeme iveme iveme
‘I’ ʔomo omo omo
‘leg’ naʔor nakora okor anda
‘louse’ ʔumai kumai kumai
‘man’ tatʔovo neum tato tatokovo
‘moon’ unsir anggane anggane
‘name’ nggwata wata newata
‘one’ tanggau nawaze tanakau
‘path, road’ ʔae kae kai
‘see’ natom daviomo nondome
‘stone’ javutu wavo javutu
‘sun’ tende ungguru tende
‘tongue’ nasavia nesavi osavi
‘tooth’ narasi nerasi orasi
‘tree’ ʔiu u ʔu
‘two’ amoi amoi amoi
‘water’ fata kai fate
‘we’ eːme edumaga ʔeme
‘woman’ evei waini efei
‘you (sg)’ ʔeme kene keme

Usher's protoforms of the 20 most stable items[8] in the Swadesh list include the following.[3]

Proto-Mairasi gloss
  • kumai
louse
  • amoi
two
  • ɸat[e]
water
  • -ɸiɾa
ear
? die
  • o-mo
I
? liver
  • -mbiatu
eye
  • -ɸaka
hand/arm
  • iɸi-
hear
? tree
  • uɾatu
fish
  • u[w]ata
name
  • jaɸutu
stone
  • -ɾasi
tooth
  • joku
breast
  • ne-me
you
  • kae
path
  • -tuɾa
bone
  • -saɸia
tongue

See also

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Usher, Timothy. 2020. Etna Bay. New Guinea World.
  2. 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.
  3. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/etna-bay New Guinea World, Etna Bay
  4. Peckham, Lloyd. 1991a. Etna Bay survey report: Irian Jaya Bird’s Neck languages. Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures 10: 147–185.
  5. Peckham, Lloyd. 1991b. Mairasi phonology. Workpapers in Indonesian Languages and Cultures 10: 111–145.
  6. Book: Foley, William A. . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The languages of Northwest New Guinea . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 433–568 . 978-3-11-028642-7.
  7. The exact phonetic values of <v> and <f> in Mer and Semimi are unknown.
  8. Holman, Eric W., Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, Dik Bakker (2008). "Explorations in Automated Language Classification". Folia Linguistica, Vol. 42, no. 2, 331–354