Manubaran languages

The Manubaran languages are a small family of Trans–New Guinea languages spoken around Mount Brown in the "Bird's Tail" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.

Manubaran
Mount Brown
Geographic distribution	Mount Brown, southeastern peninsula of Papua New Guinea: Central Province
Linguistic classification	Trans–New Guinea Papuan Peninsula Owen Stanley Range[1] Manubaran
Language codes
Glottolog	manu1261

Languages

The languages are Doromu and Maria, and are 63% lexically similar.

Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[2]

*m	*n
*p	*t		*k	*ʔ
*b	*d		*g
	*s			[*h]
*w	*ɾ	*j

Vowels are *a *e *i *o *u.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:^[2]

	sg	pl
1	*na	*[o/u]na
2	*ja
3	*ina

Basic vocabulary

Usher (2020)

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Mount Brown and Proto-Doromu-Koki, as well as Proto-Gebi and Proto-Maria, by Usher (2020) are:^[2]

gloss	Proto-Mount Brown	Proto-Doromu-Koki	Proto-Gebi	Proto-Maria
head	*ada	*ada	ada	*ada
hair/feather(s)	*u[w]e[t/k]a	*u[w]eta	uweta	*u[w]eʔa
ear	*anema	*anema	anema	*anema
eye	*ne	*ne	ne-una	ne[ʔ]una
nose	*uɾuma	*uɾuma	uruma	*uɾuma
tooth	*gade	*gade	gadi	*gade
tongue	*api[j]e	*aɸi[j]e	api	*aɸi[j]e
blood	*daweʔa	*dawaʔa	dawa	*daweʔa
bone	*nena	*nena	nena	*nena
skin/bark	*ɾoʔo	*ɾoʔo	lo-o	*ɾoʔo
breast	*sisu	*sisu	sisu	*hihu
louse	*gu[w]e	*gu[w]e	gu-e	*gu[w]e
dog	*auna	*auna	auna	*auna
pig	*dona	*dona	dona	*dona
bird	*eɾena	*eɾena	eerma	*eɾena
egg	*unema	*unema	unema	*unema
tree	*jabo	*jabo	iabo	*jabo
man/husband	*ami[j]e	*ami[j]e	amie	*ami[j]e
woman/wife	*ɾema	*ɾema	lema
sun	*me[i]daʔa	*me[i]daʔa	meda	*me[i]daʔa
moon	*ejoʔa	*ejoʔo	e-io	*ejoʔa
water/river	*koɾu	*koɾu	oru ≈ koro-	*ʔoɾu
fire	*ita	*ita	ita	*iha
stone	*waʔiga		waiga	*waʔiga
path	*ida	*ida	ida
name	*ɾoka	*ɾoka		*ɾoʔa
eat/drink	*iɾi-	*iɾi-		*iɾi-
one	*jokohi	*jokoi	jokio	*joʔohi
two	*[ɾ/j]ema	*[ɾ]ema	lema	*jema

Ross (2014)

The following basic vocabulary words of Proto-Manubaran and lower-level reconstructions by Malcolm Ross (2014)^[3][4][5] are from the Trans-New Guinea database:^[6]

gloss	Proto-Manubaran	Proto-Doromu	Proto-Maria
head	*ada	*ada	*ada
hair	*weʔia	*ue-ta	*ueʔa
ear	*ane-ma	*ane-ma	*ane-ma
eye	*ne(u)	*ne(-)	*ne-
nose	*uru-ma	*uru-ma	*uru-ma
tooth	*gade	*gade	*gade
tongue	*afie	*afie	*ahie
leg	*[n,y]u-ka	*yu-ka	*nu-ʔa; *one-ʔa
louse	*gue	*gue	*gue
dog	*auna	*auna	*auna
pig	*Dona	*dona	*tona
bird	*erena	*erena	*erena
egg	*une-ma	*une-ma	*une-ma
blood		*tava	*tae(k,ʔ)a
bone	*nena	*nena	*nena
skin	*roʔ(o,a)	*ro(a)	*roʔ(o,a)
tree	*yabo	*yabo	*yabo
man	*amie	*amie	*amie
woman		*rema	*oue
sky	*gure	*gure	*gure
sun	*maida(ka)	*meida(ka)	*maidaʔa
moon	*e(y)oʔa; *mohe- (?)		*eoʔa
water	*koru	*koru	*ʔoru
fire	*ita	*ita	*ita
stone		*fore	*vaʔiga
name	*roka	*roka	*roʔa-ba
eat	*iri-	*iri	*iri-
one	*yokohi	*yokoima	*yoʔohi
two	*(ye)(ka)ma[nu]	*re-manu	*ye-ma

Evolution

Maria reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[7]

• ama ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• baba(e) ‘father’ < *mbapa
• kuyau ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a
• ita(isa) ‘tree’ < *inda