The Porapora languages (alternatively the core Grass or Porapora River languages) are a pair of closely related languages in the Ramu language family, Gorovu and Adjora (Abu), spoken along the border of East Sepik Province and Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. Foley classifies them as part of the Grass group of languages, but Usher break up the Grass languages. Foley (2018) included Aion (Ambakich) as well,[1] but it has since been shown to be one of the Keram languages.
| Porapora River | |
|---|---|
| core Grass Porapora River | |
| Geographic distribution | East Sepik Province and Madang Province, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | Ramu
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | agoa1234 |
Phonemes
editUsher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:[2]
*m *n *ŋ *p *t *s *k *mb *nd [*ndz] *ŋg *w *ɾ *j *ɣ
Vowels are *i *ʉ *u *a.
Pronouns
editUsher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:[2]
singular dual plural 1st person *[ŋg]u *aŋgʉ *ani 2nd person *ŋu *uŋgʉ *uni 3rd person *mV ? *mV-nʉ
Adjora has 1SG na, but that derives from an oblique form.
References
edit- ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". 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. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ^ a b New Guinea World, Porapora River
External links
edit- Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Porapora River