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Mor language (Papuan)

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Mor
RegionFakfak Regency, West Papua
Native speakers
30 (2012)[1]
70 semi-speakers (2012)
Language codes
ISO 639-3moq
Glottologmorb1239
ELPMor (Bomberai Peninsula, Indonesia)
Map: The Mor language of New Guinea
  The Mor language
  Other Trans–New Guinea languages
  Other Papuan languages
  Austronesian languages
  Uninhabited

Mor is a nearly extinct Trans–New Guinea language of Indonesia. It is spoken along the Budidi River and the Bomberai River on the Bomberai Peninsula.[2]

Classification

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It may form a tentative independent branch of that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005), but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[3] However, the only connections are the 1sg and 2sg pronouns na- and a-:

sg pl
1 na-ya ne-a
2 a-ya omase
3 mena morimene

Usher classifies it with the other Trans–New Guinea languages of the Berau Gulf.[4]

Nouns

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Nominal inflection for number in Mor is limited to only certain animate nouns, such as mor ‘man’ and mor-ir ‘men’. Other nouns do not inflect for number, such as is ‘bird/birds’.[2]: 97 

Vocabulary

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The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]

gloss Mor
head idura
hair sa
eye nana
tooth nasona
leg bana
louse twoa
dog afuna
pig bia
bird isa
egg utreta
blood wabmina
bone weten
skin gina
tree wara
man hiamia
sun seba
water sea
fire taha
stone puata
name inagenena
eat masmore
one nadu
two kin

A word list of Mor has also been collected by Johannes Anceaux.[7]

References

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  1. ^ Mor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ a b 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. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ^ Palmer, Bill (2018). "Language families of the New Guinea Area". 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. 1–20. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  4. ^ New Guinea World, Mor
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  7. ^ Smits, Leo and Clemens L. Voorhoeve. 1998. The J.C. Anceaux Collection of Wordlists of Irian Jaya Languages B: Non-Austronesian (Papuan) languages (Part II). Leiden-Jakarta: Department of Cultures and Languages of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
  • 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.
[edit]
  • Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Mor