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Two of the languages of the mainland, Baham and Iha, are closely related to each other; the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages:[1]
Ross (2005) classified Timor–Alor–Pantar with the mainland West Bomberai languages, although this connection is not universally accepted. Usher found that the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages resides within the West Bomberai languages, and is not just their closest relative. This suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may have been the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did.
Classification
Ross (2005) classifies Timor–Alor–Pantar with the West Bomberai languages, the two groups forming a branch within West Trans–New Guinea. Based on a careful examination of new lexical data, Holton & Robinson (2014) find little evidence to support a connection between TAP and TNG.[2] However, Holton & Robinson (2017) concede that a relationship with Trans-New Guinea and West Bomberai in particular is the most likely hypothesis, though they prefer to leave it unclassified for now.[3]
Usher (2020) finds that the two mainland branches of the family are no closer to each other than they are to the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages, and has begun to reconstruct the West Bomberai protolanguage.[1]
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as:[1]
*p
*t
[*ts]
*k
*kʷ
*mb
*nd
[*ndz]
*ŋɡ
*ŋɡʷ
*m
*n
*s
*w
*l, *r
*j
Prenasalized plosives do not occur initially, having merged with the voiceless plosives.
The vowels are *i *u *e *o *a *ɒ and the diphthong *ai.
Pronouns
Usher (2020) reconstructs the free pronouns as:[1]
sg
pl
1excl
*[a/o]n
*in
1incl
*pi (?)
2
*k[a/o]
*ki
Cognates
Protoforms of the 40 most-stable items[4] in the Swadesh list include the following.[1]
Proto–West Bomberai
gloss
*am[i/u]n
louse
*kira
water
*kʷali
ear
*k[i/u]m[i/u]
die
*[a/o]n
I
*kina
eye
*tana
hand/arm
*nai
name
*war
stone
*ami
breast
*k[a/o]
you
*[ja]ŋgal
path
?
tongue (*maŋg[a] voice/speech)
*aŋgin
body/skin
*kaja
rain
*waik
blood
*ukʷan[i]
one
*ma
come
*tVmber
mountain
*ni-
we
*na[wa]
eat/drink
*kena[t]
see
*kʷel[e]
skin/bark
*jambar
dog
Lexical comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]
The following lexical data comparing West Bomberai with other languages of the Bomberai Peninsula and Geelvink Bay is from the Trans-New Guinea database[7] and Usher (2020),[8] unless noted otherwise.
^Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2014), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 155–198, doi:10.17169/langsci.b22.48
^Holton, Gary; Robinson, Laura C. (2017), "The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages", in Klamer, Marian (ed.), Alor Pantar languages: History and Typology Second Edition, Berlin: Language Sciences Press, pp. 147–190, doi:10.5281/zenodo.437098
^Holman, Eric W., Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Viveka Velupillai, André Müller, Dik Bakker (2008). "Explorations in Automated Language Classification". Folia Linguistica, Vol. 42, no. 2, 331–354
^Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
^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. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
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