Mor is a nearly extinct
Trans–New Guinea language of Indonesia. It is spoken along the
Budidi River and the
Bomberai River
Bomberai Peninsula () is located in the Western New Guinea region. It is south of the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Bintuni Bay separates the two peninsulas. To the west lies the Sebakor Bay and to the south Kamrau Bay. On the southeast Arguni Bay ...
on the
Bomberai Peninsula
Bomberai Peninsula () is located in the Western New Guinea region. It is south of the Bird's Head Peninsula, and Bintuni Bay separates the two peninsulas. To the west lies the Sebakor Bay and to the south Kamrau Bay. On the southeast Arguni ...
.
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
A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
.
However, the only connections are the 1sg and 2sg pronouns ''na-'' and ''a-'':
Usher classifies it with the other Trans–New Guinea languages of the
Berau Gulf
The Berau Gulf (), formerly the MacCleur Gulf, separates the Vogelkop (Doberai) and Bomberai Peninsulas of Western New Guinea. It opens on the Ceram Sea to the west and ends in Bintuni Bay to the east.
Geography
Berau Bay is formed by the broa ...
.
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’.
Vocabulary
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
:
A word list of Mor has also been collected by
Johannes Anceaux
Johannes Cornelis Anceaux (4 July 1920 in Schiedam, Netherlands – 6 August 1988 in Leiderdorp, Netherlands) was a Dutch linguist and anthropologist known for his extensive work on Papuan and Austronesian languages.
Apart from his monographs o ...
.
[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.]
References
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Mor
{{Papuan languages
Berau Gulf languages
Languages of Western New Guinea
Endangered Papuan languages