Porapora languages explained

Porapora River
Also Known As:	core Grass Porapora River
Region:	East Sepik Province and Madang Province, Papua New Guinea
Familycolor:	Papuan
Fam1:	Ramu
Fam2:	Ramu proper
Fam3:	Tamolan–Ataitan
Child1:	Gorovu
Child2:	Adjora
Glotto:	agoa1234
Glottorefname:	Agoan

The Porapora languages (alternatively the core Grass or Porapora River languages) are a pair of closely related languages in the Ramu language family, Gorovu and Adjora (Abu), spoken along the border of East Sepik Province and Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. Foley classifies them as part of the Grass group of languages, but Usher break up the Grass languages.Foley (2018) included Aion (Ambakich) as well,^[1] but it has since been shown to be one of the Keram languages.

Phonemes

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

m	n		ŋ
p	t	s	k
mb	nd	[*ndz]	ŋg
w	ɾ	j	ɣ

Vowels are *i *ʉ *u *a.

Pronouns

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

	singular	dual	plural
1st person	[ŋg]u	aŋgʉ	ani
2nd person	ŋu	uŋgʉ	uni
3rd person	mV	?	mV-nʉ

Adjora has na, but that derives from an oblique form.

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Porapora River

Notes and References

1. Book: Foley, William A. . Palmer . Bill . 2018 . The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide . The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs . The World of Linguistics . 4 . Berlin . De Gruyter Mouton . 197–432 . 978-3-11-028642-7.
2. https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/keram-and-ramu-rivers/ramu-river/guam-and-moam-rivers/porapora-river New Guinea World, Porapora River