Manubaran languages explained

Manubaran
Also Known As:	Mount Brown
Region:	Mount Brown, southeastern peninsula of Papua New Guinea: Central Province
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Trans–New Guinea
Fam2:	Papuan Peninsula
Fam3:	Owen Stanley Range^[1]
Glotto:	manu1261
Glottorefname:	Manubaran

The Manubaran languages are a small family of Trans - New Guinea languages spoken around Mount Brown in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans - New Guinea.

Languages

The languages are Doromu and Maria, and are 63% lexically similar.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[2]

m	n
p	t		k	ʔ
b	d		g
	s			[*h]
w	ɾ	j

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

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:^[2]

	sg	pl
1	na	[o/u]na
2	ja
3	ina

Basic vocabulary

Usher (2020)

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Mount Brown and Proto-Doromu-Koki, as well as Proto-Gebi and Proto-Maria, by Usher (2020) are:^[2]

gloss	Proto-Mount Brown	Proto-Doromu-Koki	Proto-Gebi	Proto-Maria
head	ada	ada	ada	ada
hair/feather(s)	u[w]e[t/k]a	u[w]eta	uweta	u[w]eʔa
ear	anema	anema	anema	anema
eye	ne	ne	ne-una	ne[ʔ]una
nose	uɾuma	uɾuma	uruma	uɾuma
tooth	gade	gade	gadi	gade
tongue	api[j]e	aɸi[j]e	api	aɸi[j]e
blood	daweʔa	dawaʔa	dawa	daweʔa
bone	nena	nena	nena	nena
skin/bark	ɾoʔo	ɾoʔo	lo-o	ɾoʔo
breast	sisu	sisu	sisu	hihu
louse	gu[w]e	gu[w]e	gu-e	gu[w]e
dog	auna	auna	auna	auna
pig	dona	dona	dona	dona
bird	eɾena	eɾena	eerma	eɾena
egg	unema	unema	unema	unema
tree	jabo	jabo	iabo	jabo
man/husband	ami[j]e	ami[j]e	amie	ami[j]e
woman/wife	ɾema	ɾema	lema
sun	me[i]daʔa	me[i]daʔa	meda	me[i]daʔa
moon	ejoʔa	ejoʔo	e-io	ejoʔa
water/river	koɾu	koɾu	oru ≈ koro-	ʔoɾu
fire	ita	ita	ita	iha
stone	waʔiga		waiga	waʔiga
path	ida	ida	ida
name	ɾoka	ɾoka		ɾoʔa
eat/drink	iɾi-	iɾi-		iɾi-
one	jokohi	jokoi	jokio	joʔohi
two	[ɾ/j]ema	[ɾ]ema	lema	jema

Ross (2014)

The following basic vocabulary words of Proto-Manubaran and lower-level reconstructions by Malcolm Ross (2014)^[3] ^[4] ^[5] are from the Trans-New Guinea database:^[6]

gloss	Proto-Manubaran	Proto-Doromu	Proto-Maria
head	ada	ada	ada
hair	weʔia	ue-ta	ueʔa
ear	ane-ma	ane-ma	ane-ma
eye	ne(u)	ne(-)	ne-
nose	uru-ma	uru-ma	uru-ma
tooth	gade	gade	gade
tongue	afie	afie	ahie
leg	[n,y]u-ka	yu-ka	nu-ʔa; *one-ʔa
louse	gue	gue	gue
dog	auna	auna	auna
pig	Dona	dona	tona
bird	erena	erena	erena
egg	une-ma	une-ma	une-ma
blood		tava	tae(k,ʔ)a
bone	nena	nena	nena
skin	roʔ(o,a)	ro(a)	roʔ(o,a)
tree	yabo	yabo	yabo
man	amie	amie	amie
woman		rema	oue
sky	gure	gure	gure
sun	maida(ka)	meida(ka)	maidaʔa
moon	e(y)oʔa; *mohe- (?)		eoʔa
water	koru	koru	ʔoru
fire	ita	ita	ita
stone		fore	vaʔiga
name	roka	roka	roʔa-ba
eat	iri-	iri	iri-
one	yokohi	yokoima	yoʔohi
two	(ye)(ka)ma[nu]	re-manu	ye-ma

Evolution

Maria reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[7]

ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
baba(e) ‘father’ < *mbapa
kuyau ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a
ita(isa) ‘tree’ < *inda

External links

Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range
(ibid.) Proto–Mount Brown

Notes and References

https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/papuan-peninsula/owen-stanley-range New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range
https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/trans-new-guinea/papuan-peninsula/owen-stanley-range/mount-brown New Guinea World, Mount Brown
[Malcolm Ross (linguist)|Ross, Malcolm]
[Malcolm Ross (linguist)|Ross, Malcolm]
[Malcolm Ross (linguist)|Ross, Malcolm]
Web site: TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea . Greenhill . Simon . 2016. 2020-11-05.
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.