Orya–Tor languages explained

Orya–Tor
Familycolor:Papuan
Fam1:Northwest Papuan?
Child1:Tor
Child2:Orya
Glotto:toro1256
Glottorefname:Tor–Orya

The Orya–Tor languages are a family of just over a dozen Papuan languages spoken in Western New Guinea, Indonesia.

Classification

The Tor family, named after the Tor River, is clearly established. Its closest relative appears to be Orya.

Stephen Wurm (1975) linked Orya and the Tor languages with the Lakes Plain languages, forming a branch of his Trans–New Guinea phylum. Clouse (1997) found no evidence of such a connection.[1] Malcolm Ross (2005) linked them instead with part of another erstwhile branch of TNG in a Tor–Kwerba proposal, and Usher makes a broadly similar proposal. Glottolog accepts only the link with Orya as having been demonstrated.[2]

Languages

Foley (2018)

Foley (2018) provides the following classification.[3]

Foley considers the inclusion of Sause within the Tor family to be questionable due to insufficient lexical evidence.[3] See Kapauri–Sause languages.

Usher (2020)

Timothy Usher provides the following classification:

Jofotek and Mander are found to be the same language, whereas the ISO conflation of Edwas and Bonerif is found to be spurious.A Wares language is not attested. (The Wares people are not known to have a distinct language, and the language of the village of Wares is Mawes.)[4]

Proto-language

Phonemes

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

  • m
  • n
  • p
  • t
  • s
  • k
  • b
  • d
  • dz
  • w
  • ɾ
The stop *d is marginal and only occurs initially. *ɾ does not occur initially.
  • i
  • u
  • e
  • o
  • ɛ
  • ə
  • ɔ
  • a

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Orya–Tor are,

I
  • ai
exclusive we ?
inclusive we
  • ne
thou
  • emei
you
  • em
s/he
  • je
they ?

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of the East Tor Coast branch as:[5]

East Tor Coast! !!sg!!pl
1excl
  • ai/ana
  • ai-saise (?)
1incl
  • ne-saise (?)
2
  • im[i]
  • im[i]-saise
3
  • dei
  • dei-saise

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[5]

gloss Proto-Orya-Tor River Proto-Tor River Orya
head
  • nəbaɾ
  • nəbaɾ
leaf/hair
  • aɾ[ɛ/a][n/ŋ]
  • aɾ[ɛ/a][n/ŋ]
ala
eye
  • nVwɛ
  • nVwɛ
nwe
nose
  • masɛ
  • masɛ
mase
tongue
  • mapəɾ[Vm]
  • mafəɾVm
mahal
foot/leg
  • ta[g]əna
  • ta[g]əna
tana
breast
  • mo̝m
  • mo̝m
mom
louse
  • nɛna
  • nɛna
dog
  • gʷəɾa
  • gʷəɾa
pig
  • gʷas
  • gʷas
bird
  • dzu
  • dzu
egg
  • s[u]w[e̝]
  • s[u]w[e̝]
tree/wood
  • te̝
  • te̝
te
woman/wife
  • kʷe̝
  • kʷe̝
we
moon
  • p[ɛⁱ]n
  • fɛⁱn
water
ho
path
  • nVɾ
  • nVɾ
name
  • bo̝s[ɛ/a]
  • bo̝s[ɛ/a]
bose
one
  • apa
  • afa
two
  • nawɛt
  • nawɛt

External links

Notes and References

  1. Clouse . Duane A. . 1997 . Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plains languages of Irian Jaya . Karl Franklin. Papers in New Guinea Linguistics . 2 . 133–236 . 0078-9135 . 2729642 .
  2. Web site: Hammarström. Harald. Forke. Robert. Haspelmath. Martin. Bank. Sebastian. 2020. Tor-Orya . Glottolog 4.3.
  3. 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.
  4. Reported also in Hammarström (2015) Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices
  5. https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/northwest-new-guinea/foja-range/orya-tor-river New Guinea World, Orya–Tor River