Greater Binanderean languages

The Greater Binanderean or Guhu-Oro languages are a language family spoken along the northeast coast of the Papuan Peninsula – the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea – and appear to be a recent expansion from the north. They were classified as a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) by Stephen Wurm (1975) and Malcolm Ross (2005), but removed (along with the related Goilalan languages) by Timothy Usher (2020).[3] The Binandere family proper is transparently valid; Ross connected it to the Guhu-Semane isolate based on pronominal evidence, and this has been confirmed by Smallhorn (2011). Proto-Binanderean has been reconstructed in Smallhorn (2011). There is evidence that settlements of people speaking Oceanic languages along the Binanderean coast were gradually absorbed into inland communities speaking Binanderean languages (Bradshaw 2017).

Greater Binanderean
Guhu-Oro
Geographic
distribution
Oro Province and parts of southern Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationBinanderean–Goilalan[1]
  • Greater Binanderean
Subdivisions
Glottologbina1276[2]
Map: The Greater Binanderean languages of New Guinea
  Greater Binanderean languages
  Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Classification

Greater Binanderean consists of the Guhu-Samane language and the Binanderean languages proper. Smallhorn (2011:444) provides the following classification:

However, Central Binanderean and Nuclear Binanderean are non-genealogical linkages. Usher (2020), who calls the Binanderean languages proper "Oro" after Oro Province, classifies them very similarly, apart from not reproducing the non-cladistic linkages:[3]

Demographics

Smallhorn (2011:3) provides population figures for the following Binanderean languages.

Total
about 80,000

Pronouns

Ross (2005) reconstructs both independent pronouns and verbal person prefixes:

sg.PNprefix
1 *na*a-
2 *ni*i-
3 *nu*u-

Only 1sg continues the TNG set.

Evolution

Greater Binanderean reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:[4]

Binandere language:

  • birigi ‘lightning’ < *(m,mb)elak
  • mendo ‘nose’ < *m(i,u)undu
  • mundu ‘kidney, testicles’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’
  • (gisi)-moka ‘eye’ < *(kiti)-maŋgV
  • mu ‘sap’ < *muk ‘sap, milk’
  • ami ‘breast’ < *amu
  • kopuru ‘head’ < *kV(mb,p)(i,u)tu
  • ji ‘teeth’ < *(s,)ti(s,t)i ‘tooth’
  • kosiwa ‘spittle’, kosiwa ari- ‘to spit’ < *kasipa tV- ‘to spit’
  • afa ‘father’ < *apa
  • embo ‘man’ < *ambi
  • izi ‘tree’ < *inda
  • ganuma ‘stone’ < *ka[na]m(a,u)una
  • tumba ‘darkness’ < *k(i,u)tuma ‘night’
  • biriga ‘lightning’ < *(m,mb)elak ‘(fire)light’
  • (aßa)-raka ‘fire’ < *la(ŋg,k)a ‘ashes’
  • ni ‘bird’ < *n[e]i
  • na- ‘eat, drink’ < *na-
  • put- ‘to blow’ < *pu + verb
  • tupo ‘short’ < *tu(p,mb)a[C]

Korafe language:

  • munju ‘egg’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’
  • soso ‘urine’ < *sisi
  • aßa-raka ‘burning stick’ < *la(ŋg,k)a ‘ashes’
  • mut- ‘give’ < *mV-
  • niŋg- ‘hear, understand’ < *nVŋg- ‘know’

Suena language:

  • boga-masa ‘destitute’ < *mbeŋga-masi ‘orphan, widow and child’
  • mia ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
  • tumou ‘night’ < *k(i,u)tuma
  • ma ‘taro’ < *mV
  • asi ‘netbag’ < *at(i,u)

Yega language:

  • kari ‘ear’ < *kand(e,i)k(V]

Phonotactics

Like the Koiarian languages, Binanderean languages only allow for open syllables and do not allow final CVC.[4]:87

References

  1. New Guinea World, Oro – Wharton Range
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Greater Binanderean". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. New Guinea World – Guhu-Oro
  4. Pawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". 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. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  • 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.
  • Smallhorn, Jacinta Mary (2011). The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Bradshaw, Joel (2017). Evidence of contact between Binanderean and Oceanic languages. Oceanic Linguistics 56:395–414.

Further reading

  • Proto-Binandere. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-Nuclear-Binandere. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-North-Binandere. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-South-Binandere. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-Orokaiva. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-Coastal-Binandere. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Proto-Baruga. TransNewGuinea.org. From Smallhorn, J. 2011. The Binanderean languages of Papua New Guinea: reconstruction and subgrouping. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
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