The Mbahaam–Iha languages are a pair of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea. The two languages, Baham (Mbaham) and Iha, are closely related to each other.

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Proto-language

Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant and vowel inventories as:[1]

*m	*n
*p	*t		*k	*kʷ
*mb	*nd		*ŋg	*ŋgʷ
	*s
*w	*r	*j

Prenasalized plosives do not occur initially, having merged with the voiceless plosives.

The vowels are *i *u *ɛ *ɔ *a and the diphthongs *iɛ *ɛi.

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the free pronouns as:[1]

	sg	pl
1excl	*[a/ɔ]n	[*mbi]
1incl		*in
2	*k[a/ɔ]	*ki
3	*m[a/ɔ]	*mi, *wat

Basic vocabulary

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[1]

gloss	Proto-Mbahaam-Iha	Mbahaam	Iha
head	*kaˈnda	kndaː	kanda
ear	*kʷⁱɛr	kpʷujɛr	pɛr
eye		k(i)jɛp	kɛndɛp
blood	*wⁱɛk	wijɛk	wɛk
bone	*ˈtɔkar	tɔ(ː)qar	tɔqar
skin	*pak	paːk	pak
breast	*sɔn	sɔːn	hɔn ~ sɔn
louse	*mɛⁱn	miːn	mɛin
dog	*jaˈmbar	jambaːr	mbiar
pig	*[ku]ˈndur	kunduːr	ndur
egg	*wun	uːn	wun
tree	*wiˈra	wurʲaː ~ wɛrʲaː	wɛrɛ ~ wrɛ
man/male	*nami-sar	nami-ha	nɛmɛ-har
woman/female	*t[ɔ/u]mb[ɔ/u]r	tumbu-	(tɔ-)tɔmbɔr
sun	*kaˈminV	kamiːni	kimina
moon	*kaˈpas	kabaːs	kabah
water	*kiˈra	krija	kara
stone	*war	waːr	war
name	*nⁱɛ	nʲiɛ	nɛ
eat	*nawa	nɔwa	nɔwa ~ nawa-
one	*ɔkʷɔ[nɔ]	ɔqɔnɔ	pɔ

Protoforms of the 20 most-stable items[2] in the Swadesh list include the following.[1]

gloss	Proto-Mbahaam–Iha
*mɛin	louse
?	two
*kiˈra	water
*kʷiɛr	ear
*kimi	die
*[a/ɔ]n	I
?	liver
? (k(i)jɛp / kɛndɛp)	eye
*tan	hand
*kɔmɛn	hear
*wiˈra, aˈtɔkʷ	tree, tree/wood
*ˈsɛjir	fish
*niɛ	name
*war	stone
?	tooth
*sɔn	breast
*k[a/ɔ]	you
?	path
*ˈtɔkar	bone
?	tongue (*mak voice/language)

References

• Usher, Timothy and Antoinette Schapper, 2018. "The lexicons of the Papuan languages of the Onin Peninsula and their influences". In Antoinette Schapper, ed. Contact and substrate in the languages of Wallacea part 2. NUSA 64: 39–63.

External links

• Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Proto–Mbahaam–Iha