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Wikipedia / Yareban languages

The Yareban or Musa River languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken near the Musa River in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of TransNew Guinea.

Languages

The languages are,

Barijian is suggested by lexicostatistics in Dutton (1971).

The only pronouns which are known in enough languages to reconstruct are na 1sg and a 2sg, which are common to all Yareban languages.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:

  1. {|

and *dz were acquired through loans, but may have already been present in the protolanguage. *ʔ and *g may have been allophones.

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

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:

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! !!sg!!du!!pl |- !1excl |rowspan=2|*na|| ||*ewa |- !1incl |*uwa||*i[j]a |- !2 |*a|| ||*ja |- !3 |*dawa|| ||*ema(wa) |}

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:

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! gloss !! Proto-Musa River |- | head || *bo-tai |- | hair/feather || *idi |- | ear || *ome |- | eye || *nai-tai |- | nose || *iboʔo |- | tooth || *ni[ʔ]o |- | tongue || *meana |- | foot/leg || *buɾi |- | blood/salt || *iwa |- | bone || *tai |- | skin/bark || *ope |- | breast || *ama |- | louse || *uʔa |- | dog || *kua |- | pig || *boɾo |- | bird || *gasiɾa; *ada |- | egg || *baka; *uɾimi |- | tree || *ana |- | man/person || *e[ʔe]me |- | woman/wife || *aweta |- | sun || *eweaka |- | moon || *maɾabe; *sakaɾa |- | water || *adua |- | fire || *inaʔa |- | stone || *oma; *gebiɾo |- | path || *daʔaba |- | name || *ibi |- | eat/drink || *it- |- | one || *demu |}

Evolution

Yareban reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:

Yareba language:

  • ama ‘breast’ < *amu

  • ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a

  • rarara ‘dry’ < *(ŋg,k)atata

  • baba ‘father’ < *mbapa

  • iji ‘hair’ < *iti[C]

  • ifu ‘name’ < *imbi

  • kofiti ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu

  • ogo ‘water’ < *ok[V]

  • eme ‘man’ < *ambi

Abia language:

  • amai ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)

  • sagai ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ

References