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

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

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

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

glossMor
headidura
hairsa
eyenana
toothnasona
legbana
lousetwoa
dogafuna
pigbia
birdisa
eggutreta
bloodwabmina
boneweten
skingina
treewara
manhiamia
sunseba
watersea
firetaha
stonepuata
nameinagenena
eatmasmore
onenadu
twokin

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

References

  1. Mor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. 1 2 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.
  • Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Mor
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