| East Geelvink Bay | |
|---|---|
| East Cenderawasih | |
| Geographic distribution | Papua Province,Indonesia |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primarylanguage families |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | geel1240 |
 | |
TheEast Geelvink Bay orEast Cenderawasih languages are alanguage family of a dozenPapuan languages along the eastern coast ofGeelvink Bay in IndonesianPapua, which is also known as Sarera Bay or Cenderawasih.
Of these, only Turunggare, Barapasi, and Bauzi are known well enough to demonstrate a relationship, though they are all lexically similar (> 60%). The unclassifiedKehu language, spoken between Turunggare and Burate, may turn out to be East Geelvink Bay as well.[1]
Bauzi is the best documented East Geelvink Bay language, but may or may not be representative of the Geelvink Bay family as a whole.[1]
A relationship betweenYawa, spoken onYapen Island, and the East Geelvink Bay languages was tentatively proposed byC. L. Voorhoeve in 1975[citation needed] in a proposal he calledGeelvink Bay. The hypothesis was taken up byStephen Wurm, who developed it as part of an initial attempt to classify thePapuan languages; however, the relationship would be a distant one, and later linguists such asMark Donohue considered Yawa to be alanguage isolate.
Clouse (1997)[2] removed theLakes Plain languages of the upperMamberamo River in the interior of Papua fromTrans–New Guinea, where Würm had placed them, and by comparison with Bauzi and Demisa proposes them to be a sister family of the East Geelvink Bay languages. Basic vocabulary cognates that Clouse suggests to connect the two stocks include:
| meaning | Proto-Lakes Plain | Bauzi | Demisa |
|---|---|---|---|
| 'eye' | *kudatiCV | (faxo) | halukwa |
| 'muscle' | *tV | nubu | (betinukwa) |
| 'water' | *deida | vaɔ | wɔte |
| 'fire' | *kudaide | vua | gwa |
| 'tree' | *kuCV | uto | |
| 'black' | *kVCa | gihot | giho |
| 'child' | *tau-bri | data | dataβi |
| 'we' | *ai | i | |
| 'go, walk' | *kidia | la | |
| 'blow' | *pudV | fɛu | |
| 'feces' | *pade | haɛ | |
| 'arrow' | *poka | fɔ | |
| 'bad' | Proto-Tariku: *ɸVra | fait |
However, in his 2005 classification based on comparative evidence from pronouns,Malcolm Ross treats all three groups as separate families, with Yawa tentatively placed in an extendedWest Papuan family.
Verbal morphology in the East Geelvink Bay family is less complex than that ofTor-Kwerba languages, but is more complex than that of theLakes Plain languages.[1]
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto–East Geelvink Bay are,
| I | *e | we | *i |
| thou | *o | you | *u |
| s/he | *a | they | ? |
Basic vocabulary of selected East Cenderawasih languages (Barapasi,Bauzi,Demisa,Tunggare) listed inFoley (2018). These are not necessarily cognate.[1]
| gloss | Barapasi | Bauzi | Demisa | Tunggare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘bird’ | de | bume | bijana | dinarate |
| ‘blood’ | nosi | vasɛa | nahabi | nahavei |
| ‘bone’ | para | fa | heta | ha |
| ‘eat’ | ai | æ | ɣayo | |
| ‘egg’ | moʔa | ɔɔ | mwa | ʔoʔo |
| ‘eye’ | aronua | faxo | halukwa | hanua |
| ‘fire’ | awa | vua | gwa | urehe |
| ‘give’ | wai | lɔ | nore | |
| ‘ground’ | deta | bake | bæi | baʔe |
| ‘hair’ | nawa | ohuta | ohutai | ohitaʔi |
| ‘head’ | osi | ohula | ohuda | ʔohaha |
| ‘I’ | emi | e | emdə | ei |
| ‘leg’ | naro | naɔ | naro | nal |
| ‘louse’ | woa | vɔa | yo | ʔua |
| ‘man’ | doro | dam | damateha | date |
| ‘name’ | here | ɛ | ʔe | |
| ‘one’ | orari | væmtɛa | natudüe | duaʔa |
| ‘see’ | ute | aa | maʔai | |
| ‘stone’ | aea | kɛ | ɛdu | hahia |
| ‘sun’ | wapao | ala | arɔ | au |
| ‘tooth’ | moru | mo | molu | mou |
| ‘tree’ | auma | uto | uto-me | |
| ‘two’ | apimi | bɛhæsu | utahu | amaite |
| ‘water’ | waro | vaɔ | wɔte | mana |
| ‘we’ | i-me | i | i | |
| ‘you (pl)’ | u-mi | u | wi |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Clouse (1997)[2] and Voorhoeve (1975),[3] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[4]
| gloss | Bauzi | Demisa | Barapasi | Tunggare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| head | dauha; ohula | ohuda | osi | ʔohaha |
| hair | ohuta | ohutai | nəwa | ohitaʔi |
| ear | dogoi | hema | ||
| eye | fako; faxo | halukwa | aronua | hanua |
| nose | ɔmtɔ | omata | ||
| tooth | mõ | moru | mou | |
| tongue | iso | itsa | ||
| leg | nabaː; nao | naɾo | naro | nal |
| louse | vɔa; vwa | yo | woa | ʔua |
| dog | vɛm; veme | nimi | weme | |
| pig | doho; dɔhɔ | beiji | doho | |
| bird | bume; bumɛ | bijana | de | dinarate |
| egg | ʔo; ɔɔ | mwa | moʔa | ʔoʔo |
| blood | vasɛa; veiso | nahabi | nosi | nahavei |
| bone | fa; oveha | heta | para | ha |
| skin | sogoba; sɔkɔba | hiɔ | terebaʔa | isaʔa |
| breast | ahudɛ | ubɾa | ||
| tree | uto | auma | uto-me | |
| man | data | doro | date | |
| sky | asum | asunawa | ||
| sun | ala; ala(meoho) | aɾɔ | wapao | au |
| moon | ala | aɾo | ||
| water | valo; vaɔ | wɔte | waro | mana |
| fire | üwa; vua | gwa | awa | urehe |
| stone | kɛ; khe | ɛdu | aea | hahia |
| name | ɛ; ele | here | ʔe | |
| eat | æ; udeʔa | aire | ghayo | |
| one | væmtɛa; vamtia | natudüe | orari | duaʔa |
| two | beasu; bɛhæsu | utahu | apimi | amaite |
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". InAndrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.).Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66.doi:10.15144/PL-572.ISBN 0858835622.OCLC 67292782.