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. All speakers use Papuan Malay or Indonesian as L2, and many know Marind.

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).

Phonology

Marori has 22 consonants and 6 vowels, which are:

LabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottal
Nasalmnɲŋ
Plosiveprenasalᵐbⁿdⁿʤᵑɡ
voicedbdɡ
voicelessptk
Fricativeɸsh
Approximantwlj
Rhoticr

Vowels

i, e, æ, a, o, u

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

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), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

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:

  • 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.

Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew 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:. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC .

  • Arka, I Wayan. 2012. Projecting morphology and agreement in Marori, an isolate of southern New Guinea. In Nicholas Evans and Marian Klamer (eds.), Melanesian Languages on the Edge of Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century, 150-173. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

External links

  • ELAR Collection: deposited by I Wayan Arka