| Nimboran | |
|---|---|
| Grime River | |
| Geographic distribution | Grime-Nawa Valley, Jayapura Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia |
| Linguistic classification | Northwest Papuan?
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | nimb1257 |
The Nimboran languages are a small family of Papuan languages, spoken by the Nimboran people in the Grime River and Nawa River watershed in Jayapura Regency, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. However, when proto-Nimboran pronouns are reconstructed (*genam "I" and kom or komot "thou"), they have little resemblance to the proto-TNG pronouns *na and *ga. Usher places them in a North Papuan stock that resembles Cowan's proposal.
Foley (2018) classifies the Nimboran languages separately as an independent language family.
The languages are:
The pronouns Ross (2005) reconstructs for proto-Nimboran are,
| I | *genam |
| thou | *kom, komot |
| s/he | ? |
Below are pronouns in the Nimboran languages as given by Foley (2018):
| Nimboran | Kemtuik | Gresi | Mlap | Mekwei | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1excl | ngo | gənam | ganam | ngam | kə ~ kat |
| 1incl | yo | imot | |||
| 2 | ko | mot | ko | kom | kmot |
| 3 | no | nemot |
As in Kaure, pronouns are not specified for number in the Nimboran language.
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:
| gloss | Proto-Grime River |
|---|---|
| head | *jaŋkaMBʉ |
| leaf/head hair | *ndɜp |
| ear | *kam[a/ɔ]; *kəni[n/ŋ] |
| eye | *namuɔ |
| tooth | *səɺiŋ; *wasəɺa[ŋ] |
| tongue | *anəmbəɺ[i/ɛ]ŋ; *mambəɺ[ɜ/ɔ]p |
| foot/leg | *masi |
| blood/red | *kin |
| seed/bone | *ndɜn |
| skin/bark | *asu[p/k] |
| breast/milk | *min |
| louse | *səna[ŋ] |
| dog | *unduɔ |
| pig | *inəmbuɔ |
| bird | *jʉ |
| egg | *səwip[i] |
| tree/wood | *ndi |
| man/male | *səɺu |
| woman | *kambuŋ; *ki |
| sun | *wɔj |
| moon | *mbanu |
| water/river | *mbu |
| fire | *kip; *kɜj |
| stone | *ndəmuɔ |
| path | *tap |
| name | *sʉ |
| eat | *ndam |
| one | *kapəɺaj[a] |
| two | *namuan |
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. yaŋkabu, iŋkabu for “head”) or not (e.g. kapray, tendu for “one”).
| gloss | Gresi | Kemtuik | Mekwei | Mlap | Nimboran |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| head | yaŋkabu | iŋkabu | yekembu | yaŋkambu | iŋgiambu |
| hair | bətə-dop | dop | bəterep | məndü-pra | mendü-pro |
| eye | nam | nmu-tugon | namo-den | nuŋgroŋ | nuŋgroŋ |
| tooth | səriŋ | wasraŋ | siŋyaŋ | səriŋ-dowŋ | hriŋ-douŋ |
| leg | masi | masi | masi | mesi | mesi |
| louse | səna | səne | səne | səne | hnaŋ |
| dog | udo | udo | ando | undo | unduo |
| pig | nəmbu | nəmbo | mbo | ibo | ibwo |
| bird | iü | iü | ü | iü | iü |
| egg | si | si | səbi | süp | süp |
| blood | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ | kiŋ |
| bone | don | don | den | dowŋ | douŋ |
| skin | suk | saisuk | asuk | sup | sub |
| tree | di | di | di | di | di-tim |
| man | sərə | səruə | si | sru | hru |
| sun | woy | woy | woy | woy | uai |
| water | bu | bu | bu | bu | bu |
| fire | koy | koy | kei-sini | kip | kip |
| stone | dom | dəmu | dəmo | dəmu | demue |
| name | sü | siü | siu | sü | sü |
| eat | dam | dam | anime | dam | dam |
| one | kray | kraya | kapray | tendu | tendü |
| two | namon | namon | naman | namoŋ | namuan |
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:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.