The Pahoturi River languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken around the Pahoturi (Paho River). This family includes eight language varieties including Agöb (Dabu), Em, Ende, Idan, Idi, Idzuwe, Kawam, and Taeme, which are spoken in the Pahoturi River area south of the Fly River, just west of the Eastern Trans-Fly languages. Idzuwe is no longer spoken. Ross (2005) tentatively includes them in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family, though more recent work has classified Pahoturi River as an independent family within the region.
Some Pahoturi River speakers were originally hunter-gatherers, but have recently shifted to becoming gardeners.
Classification Wurm (1975) and Ross (2005) suggest that the Pahoturi languages may be related to the Tabo (Waia) language just north of the Fly delta. However, they present no evidence, and the pronouns do not match.
Evans and colleagues (2018) classify the Pahoturi River languages as an independent language family.
Languages Five of the varieties have traditionally been grouped into the following two language groups:
Agöb (Dabu), Ende, and Kawam Idi and Taeme
Preliminary work on the language family suggests that these varieties form a dialect chain. It is assumed that Em is more closely related to Agob and Ende, while Idan and Idzuwe are more closely related to Idi and Taeme.
Pahoturi River languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.
|+ List of Pahoturi River languages ! Language !! Location !! Population !! Alternate names |- | Idi || central-east Morehead Rural LLG || 774 || |- | Taeme || northeast Morehead Rural LLG || 834 || Tame, Kondobol, Yao |- | Agob || southeast Morehead Rural LLG || 1,437 || Bugi, Dabu |- | Ende || east Morehead Rural LLG || 542 || |- | Kawam || east Morehead Rural LLG and west Oriomo-Bituri Rural LLG || 457 || Wipim
Phonemes Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:
|*m || *mʷ || *n || || || *ŋ || [*ŋʷ] |- |*p || *pʷ || *t || *ʈ || *ts || *k || *kʷ |- |*b || *bʷ || *d || *ɖ || *dz || *g || *gʷ |- |*mb || *mbʷ || *nd || *ɳɖ || *ndz || *ŋg || *ŋgʷ |- | || || *l || *ɭ || || || |- | || *w || *r || *ɽ || *j || ||
Pronouns The pronouns Ross reconstructs for the family are:
Proto-Pahoturi River
{| class="wikitable" |- |I||*ŋa-na||we||? |- |thou||*ba or *be||you||*-bi |- |s/he||*bo||they||?
Lindsey lists the following pronouns for each of the language varieties in the family. +Pahoturi River pronounsCaseEnglishAgobEmEndeKawamIdiTaemeNominativeI (1sg)ŋənaŋənaŋənaŋənaŋənŋənthou (2sg)boŋoboŋoboŋobuŋobæbæs/he (3sg)bobogobogobobobowe exclusive (1.nsg.excl)ŋumiŋumiŋəmiŋəmiŋəmi/bibiwe inclusive (1.nsg.incl)ibiibiibiibijɪbijəbiyou (2nsg)bibibibibibibibibæbæthey (3nsg)ubiubiubiubibo/wɪbibo/ubiAccusativeI (1sg)ŋənamŋənamŋənəmŋonombomŋənəmthou (2sg)bæmbæmbambæmbabombaboms/he (3sg)obomobomobomobomobomobomwe exclusive (1.nsg.excl)ŋənamŋumimŋəmimŋəmimbimŋəmimwe inclusive (1.nsg.incl)ibomibamibimibimjəbimjɪbimyou (2nsg)bæmbæmbibimbibimbibimbibimthey (3nsg)obamobæmubimubimubim/wəbimubimDativeI (1sg)ŋɵmɽeŋəmɽeŋəmɽeŋəmreblæŋəmʎæthou (2sg)bæɽebabɽebabɽebæbrebæblæbæbʎes/he (3sg)obɽeobɽeobɽeobooblæobʎewe exclusive (1.nsg.excl)ŋɵmraŋumraŋəmiraŋəmirabliŋəmʎiwe inclusive (1.nsg.incl)ibraibraibraibrajəblijɪbʎiyou (2nsg)bærababrabibrabibrabiblibibʎithey (3nsg)obraobraubiraubiraubliubʎiPossessiveI (1sg)ŋɵmoŋəmoŋəmoŋomobo/bænæŋəmothou (2sg)bənebənebənebənebənæbənæs/he (3sg)obooboobooboobo/obænæobowe exclusive (1.nsg.excl)ŋəmaŋəmaŋəmaŋəmabaŋəmawe inclusive (1.nsg.incl)ibaibaibaibajəbajəbayou (2nsg)binabinabinabinabənabənathey (3nsg)obaobaobaobaobawəba
Documentation status The Pahoturi River languages are all under various states of documentation. The following table lists some general lexical, grammatical, textual, and typological resources that have been identified for each of the currently spoken Pahoturi River languages. +Lexical resourcesResourceAgobEmEndeIdanIdiKawamTaemeYamfinder wordlist114N231Swadesh listYNNNYNNDictionaryNNYNYNN +Textual resourcesResourceAgobEmEndeIdanIdiKawamTaemeLanguage data corpus (any)YYYNYYYNorth Wind and the Sun textNNYNYNNThe Pear StoryNNNNNNNBible translationNNY (Mark)NNY (Mark)Y (Luke)Bible stories/Words of LifeYNYNYNY +Typological resourcesResourceAgobEmEndeIdanIdiKawamTaemeLeipzig Valency QuestionnaireNNElicited the verbs in the Q, not onlineNElicited the verbs in the Q, not onlineNNSocial Cognition Parallax Interview CorpusNN5NYNNGrambankNNYNYNNIntercontinental Dictionary SeriesNNYNNNNNumeral Systems of the World's LanguagesNNYNYNYPR Verbal Number questionnaireNNYNYNN
References New Guinea World, Paho River
External links Timothy Usher, New Guinea World, Paho River