The Greater West Bomberai Language Family

Abstract

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1. Introduction to The Papuan languages of Timor, Alor and Pantar. Volume 3

“…Today the TAP languages are considered with reasonable certainty to be related to the West Bomberai languages. Usher and Schapper (2020) demonstrate this link and name the group the Greater West Bomberai family. Building on earlier work reconstructing relevant subgroups (Usher and Schapper 2018, Schapper, Huber and van Engelenhoven 2012, they present a reconstruction of Proto-Greater West Bomberai (PGWB) lexemes and pronominal paradigms, based on a set of largely regular sound correspondences built up subgroup by subgroup.…”

“…In addition to the lexical and free pronominal evidence brought by Usher and Schapper (2020), such morphological links would seem to make a convincing case for the Greater West Bomberai family, and perhaps eventually convincingly to the TNG family, with which both have been linked at one time or another.…”

“…Within TAP, *-ile is reflected in two subgroups of the TAP languages: in Bunaq and in AP languages in the west of Alor-Straits region. 12 Comparison of verbal prefixes in the West Bomberai language Iha and PTAP is also promising (Table 2), with a regular relationship between forms in 1 st and 2 nd person persons of the respective paradigms: Iha n regularly corresponds to PTAP *n, while Iha initial k regularly corresponds to zero in PTAP (Usher and Schapper 2020). Iha has lost the number distinction in its prefixes and has apparently retained reflexes of the original plural forms.…”

Entwined Histories: The Lexicons of Kawaimina and Maka Languages

“…As noted in section 1, some authors have commented on the conspicuous absence of lexical borrowings from Papuan languages in particular Kawaimina languages, while others have asserted the presence of a strong Papuan lexical element. In this section, using our ongoing historical work on the tap family (e.g., Schapper, Huber and Engelenhoven 2012, 2014, Usher and Schapper 2022, we re-examine the question of the Papuan lexical element in the Kawaimina languages.…”

“…These are set out in Table 6.1. ptap etyma and their supporting reflexes are drawn from Usher and Schapper (2022) and Schapper (in preparation). Makasae and Makalero reflexes of each ptap reconstruction are presented in a separate column for ease of comparison with the forms in Kawaimina languages.…”