| Demta–Sentani | |
|---|---|
| Demta – Lake Sentani | |
| Geographic distribution | Lake Sentani region,Papua |
| Linguistic classification | Northwest Papuan?East Bird's Head – Sentani?
|
| Subdivisions |
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| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | sent1261 |
TheDemta–Sentani languages form alanguage family of coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border.
The term 'Sentani' is ambiguous. It may be used in a wider sense, including Demta, in a narrow sense (Sentani proper) excluding Demta – either as an unrelated language family or as a branch of Demta–Sentani – or for the Sentani language itself. Usher distinguishes these three scopes as 'Demta – Sentani Lake', 'Sentani Lake' and 'Sentani'.
Demta–Sentani was a branch ofStephen Wurm's proposal forTrans–New Guinea. The languages have lexical similarities with theAsmat–Kamoro languages, though later linguists have not accepted the resemblances as indicative of a genealogical relationship. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) list the following resemblances between the Sentani languages andproto-Trans-New Guinea, though they classify Sentani as a separate language family rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.[2]
Ross (2005) does not believe these demonstrate a genealogical relationship, and proposes instead that the Demta–Sentani languages are related to theEast Bird's Head languages, in a tentativeEast Bird's Head – Sentani family.Foley (2018) classifies them as an independent language family.[3]Usher (2020) tentatively includes them in a proposedNorthwest Papuan family, though as of 2020 it's not clear whether the resemblances are due to inheritance or borrowing.
The connection between Demta and the Sentani languages is not supported bySøren Wichmann (2013)'s automated comparison.[4]
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-family are:
| I | *də | exclusive we | *me |
| inclusive we | *e | ||
| thou | *wa | you | ? |
| s/he | *nə | they | ? |
Comparative pronouns in Sentani languages:[3]
| pronoun | Sentani | Tabla | Nafri | Sowari |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1s | də(yæ) | də | te(ye) | mini |
| 2s | wə(yæ) | wə | we(ye) | we |
| 3s | nə(yæ) | nə | ne(ye) | ngane |
| 1p.excl | me(yæ) | e | me | ngama |
| 1p.incl | e(yæ) | |||
| 2p | mə(yæ) | we | mai | me |
| 3p | nə(yæ) | nə | ne(ye) | kumbi |
The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) (forSentani)[5] and Voorhoeve (1975),[6] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[7]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. possiblyey,au,aye for “bird”) or not (e.g.tuniyiŋgan,yebu,faləm for “head”).
| gloss | Sowari | Nafri | Sentani |
|---|---|---|---|
| head | tuniyiŋgan | yebu | faləm |
| hair | pioupiə | mwa | uma |
| eye | kariŋgewa | iro | i joko |
| nose | face | ||
| tooth | itini | cə | itəha |
| leg | nəmbia | oto | oro |
| louse | ami | mi | |
| dog | aweŋgen | yoku | yoku |
| pig | nifie | obo | obo |
| bird | ey | au | aye |
| egg | kuku | to | do |
| blood | owar | sa | oki |
| bone | ari | iro | po |
| skin | yow yim | wa | wa |
| breast | nimə | ||
| tree | ya-yeŋgan | ono | no |
| man | watuga | to | do |
| sun | omar | sipo | hu |
| water | yarim | bu | |
| fire | payn | i | i |
| stone | kara | tuka | duka |
| name | aror | to | do |
| eat | emaŋo | anforu | anəi-ko |
| one | upu | mbe | əmbai |
| two | pugwai | be | be |