| Nimboran | |
| Also Known As: | Grime River |
| Familycolor: | Papuan |
| Fam1: | Northwest Papuan? |
| Glotto: | nimb1257 |
| Glottorefname: | Nimboranic |
The Nimboran languages are a small family of Papuan languages, spoken in the Grime River and Nawa River watershed in Jayapura Regency, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. However, when proto-Nimboran pronouns are reconstructed (*genam "I" and kom or komot "thou"), they have little resemblance to the proto-TNG pronouns *na and *ga. Usher places them in a North Papuan stock that resembles Cowan's proposal.
Foley (2018) classifies the Nimboran languages separately as an independent language family.[1]
The languages are:
The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for proto-Nimboran are,
| I |
| |
| thou |
| |
| s/he | ? |
Below are pronouns in the Nimboran languages as given by Foley (2018):[1]
| 1excl | ngo | gənam | ganam | ngam | kə ~ kat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1incl | yo | imot | |||
| 2 | ko | mot | ko | kom | kmot |
| 3 | no | nemot |
As in Kaure, pronouns are not specified for number in the Nimboran language.[1]
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[2]
| gloss | Proto-Grime River | |
|---|---|---|
| head |
| |
| leaf/head hair |
| |
| ear |
| |
| eye |
| |
| tooth |
| |
| tongue |
| |
| foot/leg |
| |
| blood/red |
| |
| seed/bone |
| |
| skin/bark |
| |
| breast/milk |
| |
| louse |
| |
| dog |
| |
| pig |
| |
| bird |
| |
| egg |
| |
| tree/wood |
| |
| man/male |
| |
| woman |
| |
| sun |
| |
| moon |
| |
| water/river |
| |
| fire |
| |
| stone |
| |
| path |
| |
| name |
| |
| eat |
| |
| one |
| |
| two |
|
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[4]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. yaŋkabu, iŋkabu for “head”) or not (e.g. kapray, tendu for “one”).
| gloss | Nimboran | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| head | yaŋkabu | iŋkabu | yekembu | yaŋkambu | iŋgiambu | |
| hair | bətə-dop | dop | bəterep | məndü-pra | mendü-pro | |
| eye | nam | nmu-tugon | namo-den | nuŋgroŋ | nuŋgroŋ | |
| tooth | səriŋ | wasraŋ | siŋyaŋ | səriŋ-dowŋ | hriŋ-douŋ | |
| leg | masi | masi | masi | mesi | mesi | |
| louse | səna | səne | səne | səne | hnaŋ | |
| dog | udo | udo | ando | undo | unduo | |
| pig | nəmbu | nəmbo | mbo | ibo | ibwo | |
| bird | iü | iü | ü | iü | iü | |
| egg | si | si | səbi | süp | süp | |
| blood | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | |
| bone | don | don | den | dowŋ | douŋ | |
| skin | suk | saisuk | asuk | sup | sub | |
| tree | di | di | di | di | di-tim | |
| man | sərə | səruə | si | sru | hru | |
| sun | woy | woy | woy | woy | uai | |
| water | bu | bu | bu | bu | bu | |
| fire | koy | koy | kei-sini | kip | kip | |
| stone | dom | dəmu | dəmo | dəmu | demue | |
| name | sü | siü | siu | sü | sü | |
| eat | dam | dam | anime | dam | dam | |
| one | kray | kraya | kapray | tendu | tendü | |
| two | namon | namon | naman | namoŋ | namuan |