Molof language
Molof (Ampas, Poule, Powle-Ma) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.[1]
| Molof | |
|---|---|
| Poule | |
| Region | Papua: 9 villages located 100 km to the south of Jayapura; in Keerom Regency, Senggi District, Molof village |
Native speakers | 230 (2005)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | msl |
| Glottolog | molo1262 |
| ELP | Powle-Ma |
Classification
Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. Søren Wichmann (2018)[2] tentatively considers it to be a language isolate, as does Foley (2018).[3] Usher (2020) tentatively suggests it may be a Pauwasi language.[4]
Phonology
Molof has a small consonant inventory, but a large one for vowels.
Molof consonants, quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | plain | plain | plain | |||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | p | t | k | kʷ | ||
| Fricative | f | fʷ | s | |||
| Liquid | r | |||||
| Semivowel | j | w | ||||
Molof vowels (8 total), quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Close-mid | e | ə | o |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | |
| Open | a |
Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Molof from Rumaropen (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][3]
Molof basic vocabulary gloss Molof ‘bird’ au ‘blood’ mɪt ‘bone’ antai ‘breast’ mu ‘ear’ ou ‘eat’ nɪ ‘egg’ li ‘eye’ lum ‘fire’ tombe ‘give’ tui ‘go’ tuɨ ‘ground’ aigiman ‘hair’ era ‘hear’ ar/arai ‘I’ məik ‘leg’ vu ‘louse’ əlim ‘man’ lomoa ‘moon’ ar ‘name’ ti ‘one’ kwasekak ‘road, path’ mɪtnine ‘see’ lokea ‘sky’ mejor ‘stone’ rɨ ‘sun’ neman ‘tongue’ aifoma ‘tooth’ tɨ ‘tree’ war ‘two’ atati ‘water’ yat ‘we’ ti ‘woman’ anar ‘you (sg)’ in
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
gloss Molof head emi hair ela ear ou eye lom nose toŋga tooth te tongue ai leg fu louse lem bird au egg le blood mat bone antai skin kant breast mu tree woar man lomo woman anale sun nei moon ar water jat; yat fire tombe stone le road, path mef name ti eat ne one kwasekak two ateti
References
- Molof at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages Archived 2020-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
- Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- New Guinea World
- Rumaropen, Benny. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report of the Poulle Language of Molof and Waley Villages, Keeron District, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished manuscript. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
- Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
- Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
- Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
External links
