Orya–Tor languages

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

Orya–Tor
Geographic
distribution		Tor River region, Western New Guinea
Linguistic classificationNorthwest Papuan?
Subdivisions
Glottologtoro1256[1]

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.[2] 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.[1]

Languages

Foley (2018)

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

Tor
 

Orya (Uria / Warpok / Warpu)

 
 

Sause (Seuce) (?)

 
 
 

Berik (Upper Tor)

 
 

Itik

 
 

Kwesten

 
 

Mander [not a distinct language]

 
 

Dineor (Maremgi)

 
 

Wares [doesn't exist]

 
 
 

Bonerif (Benaraf / Edwas – not the same language)

 
 

Dabe

 
 

Jofotek-Bromnya

 
 

Keijar (Keder)

 
 

Kwinsu (Ansudu)

 
 
 

Betaf (Tena)

 
 

Vitou (Takar)

 
 
 
 
 

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:[4]

Orya – Tor River
 

Orya

 
Tor River
 

Maremgi (Dineor)

 
 

Edwas (Benaraf)

 
Berik–Bonerif
 

Berik

 
 

Bonerif

 
 
East Tor River
 

Jofotek (Mander)

 
 

Itik

 
 
Tor Coast
 

Kwesten

 
 

Dabe

 
 

Keijar

 
East Tor Coast
 

Kwinsu

 
Fitou–Tena
 

Tena (Betaf)

 
 

Fitou (Vitou)

 
 
 
 
 
 

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.)[5]

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory tentatively as follows:[4]

*m*n
*p*t*s*k*kʷ
*b*d*dz*gʷ
*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*aiexclusive we?
inclusive we*ne
thou*emeiyou*em
s/he*jethey?

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of the East Tor Coast branch as:[4]

East Tor Coast
sgpl
1excl *ai/ana*ai-saise (?)
1incl *ne-saise (?)
2 *im[i]*im[i]-saise
3 *dei*dei-saise
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References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tor–Orya". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Clouse, Duane A. (1997). Karl Franklin (ed.). "Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plains languages of Irian Jaya". Papers in New Guinea Linguistics. 2: 133–236. ISSN 0078-9135. OCLC 2729642.
  3. Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. New Guinea World, Orya–Tor River
  5. Reported also in Hammarström (2015) Ethnologue 16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices
  • Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
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