Tirio languages

Not to be confused with Tiriyó language.

The Tirio languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross. The Tirio languages have about 40% of their lexicon in common.

Tirio
Lower Fly River
Geographic distribution	New Guinea
Linguistic classification	Trans–New Guinea Anim (Fly River)[1] Tirio
Language codes
Glottolog	tiri1259
Map: The Tirio languages of New Guinea   The Tirio languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

Languages

• Baramu
• Bitur (Mutum)
• Tirio (Makayam, Aturu)
• Were (Kiunum)

Evans (2018) lists the Tirio languages as:^[2]

• Tirio (Makayam)
• Bitur (Paswam, Mutum)
• Lewada-Dewara, spoken on Dewala village on Sumogi Island
• Adulu (Aturu), also spoken on Sumogi Island

Baramu is somewhat more divergent in vocabulary, but this may reflect language contact rather than divergence in its position within the family. Pronouns are only available for Tirio itself (Makayam).

The moribund language Abom was once classified as a divergent Tirio language, sharing only an eighth of its lexicon with the others, but it turns out to not belong to the family at all, nor to the Anim family that Tirio is a branch of.^[3]

A survey of the Tirio languages can be found in Jore and Alemán (2002).^[4]

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:^[5]

*m	*n
*p	*t		*k
*mb	*nd		*ŋg
	*s
*w	*ɾ	*j	*ɣ

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

Pronouns

The pronouns are:^[5]

	sg	pl
1	*naoɣ	*naoj
2	*ɣaoɣ	*jaoɣ
3m	*igi	*jiɣ
3f	–

Evolution

Lower Fly River (Makayam and Baramu) reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma:^[6]

• Makayam makoːth, Baramu mangoːt ‘chin’ < *maŋgat[a] ‘mouth, teeth’
• Makayam (Giribam dialect) Bitur, Baramu moːm ‘seed’ < *maŋgV ‘fruit, seed, round’
• Makayam sakoa ‘lower arm’, Baramu saga ‘arm’ < *sa(ŋg,k)(a,i)l ‘hand, claw’