The Eastern Trans-Fly (or Oriomo Plateau) languages are a small independent

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...

spoken in the

Oriomo Plateau The Oriomo Plateau is a plateau in Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

in [ Geonames.org (cc-by)]; post updated 2011-07-09; database downloaded 2015-06-22 The Oriomo languages are spoken in the region. See also *Oriomo-Bituri R ...

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 determined that some of the languages he classified as Trans-Fly were not actually part of the Trans-New Guinea family but were instead heavily influenced by Trans-New Guinea languages. In 2005, Ross removed most of these languages, including Eastern Trans-Fly, from Wurm's Trans-New Guinea classification. Timothy Usher links the four languages, which he calls ''

Oriomo Plateau The Oriomo Plateau is a plateau in Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

in [ Geonames.org (cc-by)]; post updated 2011-07-09; database downloaded 2015-06-22 The Oriomo languages are spoken in the region. See also *Oriomo-Bituri R ...

'', 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. The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. ''iřeʔu'', ''iřeku'', ''ilkʰəp'' for “eye”) or not (e.g. ''dřeŋgo'', ''ume'', ''yɔŋg'' for “dog”). :

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)