Yareban | |
---|---|
Musa River | |
Geographic distribution | Southeastern peninsula of
Papua New Guinea: Oro Province |
Linguistic classification |
Trans–New Guinea
|
Glottolog | yare1250 |
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 Trans–New Guinea.
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.
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows: [2]
*m | *n | |||
*pʰ | *tʰ | [*s] | *kʰ | *ʔ |
*b | *d | [*dz] | [*g] | |
*w | *ɾ | *j |
*s 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.
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as: [2]
sg | du | pl | |
---|---|---|---|
1excl | *na | *ewa | |
1incl | *uwa | *i[j]a | |
2 | *a | *ja | |
3 | *dawa | *ema(wa) |
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are: [2]
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 |
Yareban reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: [3]