Eastern Trans-Fly languages

The Eastern Trans-Fly (or Oriomo Plateau) languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages spoken in the Oriomo Plateau to the west of the Fly River in New Guinea.

Classification

The languages constituted a branch of Stephen Wurm's 1970 Trans-Fly proposal, which he later incorporated into his 1975 expansion of the Trans–New Guinea languages, Trans–New Guinea family as part of a Trans-Fly–Bulaka River languages, Trans-Fly – Bulaka River branch. They are retained as a family but removed from Trans–New Guinea in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (linguist), Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher.

Wurm had concluded that some of his purported Trans-Fly languages were not in the Trans–New Guinea family but rather heavily influenced by Trans–New Guinea languages. Ross (2005) removed the bulk of the languages, including Eastern Trans-Fly, from Wurm's Trans–New Guinea.

Timothy Usher links the four languages, which he calls ''Oriomo Plateau'', to the Pahoturi languages and the Tabo language in an expanded Eastern Trans-Fly family.

Languages

*Meriam language, Meriam (within the national borders of Australia)
*Bine language, Bine
*Wipi language, Wipi (Gidra)
*Gizrra language, Gizrra

Oriomo (Eastern Trans-Fly) languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below. Geographical coordinates are also provided for each dialect (which are named after villages).

:

Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto–Eastern Trans-Fly are,

:

There is a possibility of a connection here to Trans–New Guinea languages, Trans–New Guinea. If the inclusive pronoun is historically a second-person form, then there would appear to be ''i-''ablaut for the plural: ''*ka~ki, **ma~mi, **tapa~tapi.'' This is similar to the ablaut reconstructed for TNG ''(*na~ni, *ga~gi).'' Although the pronouns themselves are dissimilar, ablaut is not likely to be borrowed. On the other hand, there is some formal resemblance to Austronesian pronouns (*(a)ku ''I'', *(ka)mu ''you'', *kita ''we inc.'', *(ka)mi ''we exc.'', *ia ''he/she/it''; some archeological, cultural and linguistic evidence of Austronesian contact and settlement in the area exists (David et al., 2011; McNiven et al., 2011; McNiven et al., 2006; McNiven et al., 2004: 67-68; Mitchell 1995).

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words for Bine (Täti dialect), Bine (Sogal dialect), Gizra (Kupere dialect) and Wipi (Dorogori dialect) are from the Trans-New Guinea database. The equivalent words for Meriam Mir are also included.

:

References

*David, B., McNiven, I.J., Mitchell, R., Orr, M., Haberle, S., Brady, L. & Crouch, J. 2004. Badu 15 and the Papuan-Austronesian settlement of Torres Strait. Archeology in Oceania 39(2): 65-78.
*Fleischmann, L. and Turpeinen, S.
A Dialect Survey of Eastern Trans-Fly Languages
. In Reesink, G.P., Fleischmann, L., Turpeinen, S. and Lincoln, P.C. editors, ''Papers in New Guinea Linguistics'' No. 19. A-45:39-76. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1976.
*McNiven, I.J., Dickinson, W.R., David, B., Weisler, M., Von Gnielinski, F., Carter, M., & Zoppi, U. 2006. Mask Cave: red-slipped pottery and the Australian-Papuan settlement of Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait). Archaeology in Oceania 41(2): 49-81.
*McNiven, I.J., David, B., Richards, T., Aplin, K., Asmussen, B., Mialanes, J., Leavesley, M., Faulkner, P., UlmM, S. 2011 New directions in human colonisation of the Pacific: Lapita settlement of south coast New Guinea. Australian Archaeology 72:1-6.
*Mitchell, R. 1995. Linguistic Archeology in Torres Strait. Unpublished MA thesis (James Cook University: Townsville).

External links

Eastern Trans-Fly languages database at TransNewGuinea.org

{{language families

Eastern Trans-Fly languages,
Trans-Fly languages
Languages of Western Province (Papua New Guinea)