Languages of the eastern Bird's Head Reesink, G. editor. Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head. PL-524, ix + 340 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2002. DOI:10.15144/PL-524.cover ©2002 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. Also in PacificLinguistics Ger P. Reesink, 1999, A grammar of Hatam, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Lourens De Vries, 1993, Forms and functionsin Kombai, an AlIryu language of Irian Jaya. John Bowden, 2001, Taba: description of a South Halmahera Austronesian language. Charles E. Grimes, ed., 2000, Sp ices from the East, papers in languages of Eastern Indonesia. Karl Franklin, ed., 1997, Papers in Papuan linguistics, No.2. Andrew Pawley, ed., 1997, Papers in Papuan linguistics, No.3. Keith Berry and Christine Berry, 1999, A description of Abun: a West Papuan language of Irian Jaya. Pacific Linguistics is a publisher specialising in grammars and linguistic descriptions, dictionaries and other materials on languages of the Pacific, the Philippines, Indonesia, Southeast and South Asia, and Australia. Pacific Linguistics, established in 1963 through an initial grant from the Hunter Douglas Fund, is associated with the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. The Editorial Board of Pacific Linguistics is made up of the academic staff of the School's Department of Linguistics. The authors and editors of Pacific Linguistics publications are drawn from a wide range of institutions around the world. Publications are refereed by scholars with relevant expertise who are usuallynot members of the editorial board. The 470 publications before Publication 501 were numbered in four series, A, B, C and D, but the series were merged from the beginning of the year 2000 because the rationale for them had gradually disappeared. FOUNDING EDITOR: Stephen A. Wurm EDITORIAL BOARD: John Bowden, Malcolm D. Ross and Darrell T. Tryon (Managing Editors), I Wayan Arka, Andrew Pawley, Paul Sidwell Pacific Linguistics 524 Languages of the eastern Bird's Head edited by Ger P. Reesink Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Published by Pacific Linguistics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200 Australia Copyright © The author First published 2002 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Ger P. Reesink Languages of the eastern Bird's Head Bibliography. ISBN 0 85883 494 4 1. Doberai Peninsula (Indonesia) - Languages. 2. Irian Jaya (Indonesian) - Languages. 1. The Australian National University. Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. II. Title. (pacific Linguistics 524). 499.12 Copyedited by Joan Birnie Typeset by Jeanette Coombes Cover design by Emily Brissenden Photographs by Cecilia Ode, representing the wallpaintings in the house of Jonathan Mansim, as described in Chapter 5, Appendix 2: Origin story of Mansim. Printed and bound by Union Offset Printers, Fyshwick, Canberra L Table of contents Preface vi Abbreviations vii Maps viii 1 The eastern Bird's Head languages compared 1 Ger P. Reesink 2 A sketch of Mpur 45 Cecilia Ode 3 Morphosyntactic properties of Meyah word classes 109 Gilles Gravelle 4 A grammar sketch of Sougb 181 Ger P. Reesink 5 Mansirn, a lost language of the Bird's Head 277 Ger P. Reesink v Preface A few years ago the Bird's Head area was virtually a white spot on the linguistic map, even though the languages had been classified in families and stocks, most of which were claimed to make up the West-Papuan Phylum. But all of the classifying work was based on rather limited data, basically some wordlists. During the last decade much more detailed data on the languages of this area has become available, especially through the programme 'Irian Jaya Studies: a Programme for Interdisciplinary Research' (ISIR), financed by Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO), a governmental institution within the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Under the general sponsorship of the Indonesian Institute of Research, and more specifically as far as linguistic research was concerned, under the sponsorship of Dr Hasan Alwi, Director of the National Centre for Language Development in Jakarta, fieldwork on a number of languages could be carried out. In addition members of the Summer Institute of Linguistics have published their findings on a few languages. For references to publications pertaining to the Bird's Head, see the bibliographic references to the articles in this volume. One of the languages presented here has virtually disappeared. In some of the linguistic and anthropological literature one can find references to an ethnolinguistic group Borai, also known by the name Mansim, as being related to Hatam, or being a dialect of it. Since a grammar of Hatam has appeared in a separate publication, data of this language figure mainly and importantly in the short sketch of Mansim. The opening article of this volume attempts to sketch the relationships between the languages of the eastern Bird's Head with each other, as well as with languages surrounding the area. It is followed by brief descriptions of four languages, each illustrated with some text material. Each of the contributions is presented as an independent unit, with its own detailed table of contents. Ger P. Reesink vi -------------------------------------, Abbreviations A adjective LNK linker ADV adverbaliser LOC locative ANA anaphoric M masculine ANIM animate MEAS measure noun ART article MOD modal CAUS causative N noun CERT certainty NEG negative CIT citation marker NF Numforese CL clitic NOM nominaliser CLF classifier NP noun phrase COMP completive NUM numeral CONN connective PERF perfective CONT continuative PL plural DEM demonstrative pos possessive DET determiner PRO protest DlR directional PUR purposive DU dual Q question marker DUR durative QUOT quote marker EMP emphatic RC relative clause ENT entreaty RECIP reciprocal EXC exclusive RED reduplication EXCL exclamation REF reflexive F feminine REL relative marker FOC focus RES resultative connective PUT future SF singular feminine HES hesitation SG singular INC inclusive SM singular masculine INCEP inceptive SPEC specific IND indicative TOP topical INS instrument V transitional vowel INT intensifier VBL verbaliser INTER interrogative VOC vocative IRR irrealis 4> zero morpheme (3SG) 1,2,3 first, second, third person vii viii 300 I kilometres AUSTRONESIAN o Map 1: Bird's Head languages in relation to surrounding Austronesian languages ABUN MAYBRAT SOUTHERN BIRO'S HEAD LANGUAGES 100 , ! kilometres Map 2: The Bird's Head languages ix 0 50 N I I I kilometres Saukorem t AMBERBAKEN MPUR eAnjai Origin KEBAR VALLEY of the Mansim MEYAH Anggi Lakes Gij�c?Gida � �( �� � MOSKONA e Merdey SOUGB Origin area of Sougb Bohon Hatam, Meyah Misen !][J and Sougb L.,------' WANDAMEN Lenglou Map 3: Eastern Bird's Head languages, with the origin areas of the various languages marked Reesink, G. editor. Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head. PL-524, ix + 340 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2002. DOI:10.15144/PL-524.cover ©2002 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. 1 The eastern Bird's Head languages compared GER P. REESINK 1 Introduction 2 2 Links throughout the Bird's Head 3 2.1 Pronouns 3 2.2 Lexical comparison 5 3 The genetic relationship between Meyah and Sougb 6 3.1 Verbal morphology 6 3.2 Nominal morphology 9 3.3 Lexical correspondences 10 4 Evidence for eastern Bird's Head grouping and contact 12 4.1 Meyah and Hatam: some inalienable nouns 13 4.2 Sougb and Hatam: connective clitic bi- B 4.3 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam: instrument marking 14 4.4 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam: the nominaliser k 15 4.5 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam, Mpur: the verbaliser (e)be 16 4.6 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam, Mpur: locative/direction marker 17 4.7 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam, Mpur: reciprocal 17 4.8 Some lexical evidence for contact 18 4.9 Meyah, Sougb, Hatam, Biak: verbal adjuncts 21 5 Historical origins 22 6 Inter-ethnolinguistic marriages 24 7 The nature of the eastern Bird's Head languages 25 Appendix: Comparative wordlists of four eastern Bird's Head languages 32 References 41 Ger P. Reesink, Languagesed. of theeastern Bird's Head, 1-44. Canberra:Pacific Linguistics, 2002. Reesink, G.P. "The eastern© Bir d'sGer Head lP.ang uGeesinkages compared". In Reesink, G. editor, Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head. 1 PL-524:1-44. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2002. DOI:10.15144/PL-524.1 ©2002 Pacific Linguistics and/or the author(s). Online edition licensed 2015 CC BY-SA 4.0, with permission of PL. A sealang.net/CRCL initiative. 2 Ger P. Reesink 1 Introduction I The Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya is rather naturally divided into a western and eastern part by the Kamundan and Weriagar rivers, which both spring from the Tamrau Mountains and run parallel to the south flowing into the McCluer Gulf. From two accounts of the oral tradition it seems that, at least to some people, there is an awareness of three major ethnolinguistic groupings in this eastern area. A Hatam speaker told me (at Minyambou in 1994) that Mimpui (= a nominal marker plus the verb pui 'tell') had assigned the Kepala Burung 'Bird's Head' to the three groups Tinam (= Hatam), Tuig (= Sougb) and Sreu (= Meyah). A few years later (at Sururei in 1998) a Sougb speaker stated that Igba was the ancestor of the Sougb, the 1jom (= Hatam) and the Sana (= Meyah). These three groups originated, according to his story, in the area somewhere between Bintuni and Merdey. Neither speaker considered the languages Mpur and Mansim.