Mor is a nearly extinct Trans–New Guinea language of Indonesia. It is spoken along the Budidi River and the Bomberai River on the Bomberai Peninsula.[2]
| Mor | |
|---|---|
| Region | Fakfak Regency, West Papua |
Native speakers | 30 (2012)[1] 70 semi-speakers (2012) |
Language family | Trans–New Guinea
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | moq |
| Glottolog | morb1239 |
| ELP | Mor (Bomberai Peninsula, Indonesia) |
Map: The Mor language of New Guinea
The Mor language
Other Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Uninhabited | |
It may form a tentative independent branch of that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005), but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.[3] However, the only connections are the 1sg and 2 ng pronouns na- and a-:
| sg | pl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | na-ya | ne-a |
| 2 | a-ya | omase |
| 3 | mena | morimene |
Usher classifies it with the other Trans–New Guinea languages of the Berau Gulf.[4]
Nominal inflection for number in Mor is limited to only certain animate nouns, such as mor ‘man’ and mor-ir ‘men’. Other nouns do not inflect for number, such as is ‘bird/birds’.[2]: 97
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[5] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[6]
| gloss | Mor |
|---|---|
| head | idura |
| hair | sa |
| eye | nana |
| tooth | nasona |
| leg | bana |
| louse | twoa |
| dog | afuna |
| pig | bia |
| bird | isa |
| egg | utreta |
| blood | wabmina |
| bone | weten |
| skin | gina |
| tree | wara |
| man | hiamia |
| sun | seba |
| water | sea |
| fire | taha |
| stone | puata |
| name | inagenena |
| eat | masmore |
| one | nadu |
| two | kin |
A word list of Mor has also been collected by Johannes Anceaux.[7]
Papuan language families (Palmer 2018 classification) | |||||||||||
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| Trans-New Guinea subgroups |
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| Eastern Nusantara families and isolates |
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| Bird's Head Peninsula families and isolates |
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| Northern Western New Guinea families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Central Western New Guinea families and isolates |
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| Sepik-Ramu basin families and isolates |
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| Gulf of Papua and southern New Guinea families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Bismarck Archipelago and Solomon Islands families and isolates | |||||||||||
| Rossel Island isolate |
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| Proposed groupings |
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| Proto-language |
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