Morori language

Not to be confused with Moriori language.

Morori (Marori, Moaraeri, Moraori, Morari) is a moribund Papuan language of the Kolopom branch of the Trans–New Guinea family. It is separated from the other Kolopom languages by the intrusive Marind family.^[3] All speakers use Papuan Malay or Indonesian as L2, and many know Marind.^[2]

Morori
Marori
Moraori
Region	Kampung Wasur, Merauke Regency, South Papua, Indonesia[1]
Ethnicity	Marori; 250 (1998)[2]
Native speakers	(50 cited 1998)[2]
Language family	Trans–New Guinea Southwest Coast Kolopom Morori
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mok
Glottolog	moro1289
ELP	Marori
Map: The Morori language of New Guinea   The Morori language (near the southern cape)   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

A dialect extinct in 1997, Menge, is remembered from ceremonial use.

Marori is spoken in Kampung Wasur, which in 2010 had 413 people (98 families) total and 119 Marori people (52 Marori families).^[1]

Phonology

Marori has 22 consonants and 6 vowels, which are:^[1]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	prenasal	ᵐb	ⁿd	ⁿʤ	ᵑɡ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
	voiceless	p	t		k
Fricative		ɸ	s			h
Approximant		w	l	j
Rhotic			r

Vowels

i, e, æ, a, o, u

On the other hand, the majority of Trans-New Guinea languages usually have around 10–15 consonants.^[1]

Pronouns

Pronouns, but little else, connect it to TNG:

	sg	pl
1	na	ni-ɛ
2	ka	ki-ɛ
3	ŋɡafi	ŋɡamdɛ

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),^[4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[5]

gloss	Morori
head	merao
hair	pu
eye	ayix
tooth	terox
leg	tegu
louse	nemeŋk
dog	koro
pig	bosik
bird	ujif
egg	vi
blood	ŋgorom
bone	ŋgwar
skin	par
tree	kwi
man	yexri
sun	kum
water	deke
fire	sir
stone	mere
name	nex
eat	kef
one	sekodu
two	yenadu

Evolution

Marori reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[6]

• mam ‘breast’ < *amu
• mam ‘mother’ < *am(a,i)
• nemeŋk ‘louse’ < *niman
• sa ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asiŋ
• ŋwar ‘bone’ < *kondaC

Further reading

• Gebze, Wilhelmus and Mark Donohue. 1998. Kamus Kecil Bahasa Moraori. [Marori picture dictionary]: Distributed in Wasur, Papua.