The Tonda languages form a branch of the
Yam language family of southern
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
. There are over 10 languages.
Tonda languages share some areal features are shared with the
Kolopom languages
The Kolopom languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm
Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
Early ...
.
Languages
The Tonda languages are:
/ref>
;Tonda / West Morehead River
* Arammba
*Central Morehead River: Anta, Kómnzo, Wára, Wérè, Kémä, Kánchá
* Warta Thuntai
*Bensbach River
The Bensbach River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. It is located just to the east of the Maro River in Merauke Regency, Indonesia, and just to the west of the Morehead River in Papua New Guinea.
The mouth of the river, Torasi Estuar ...
**Upper Bensbach River
*** Mblafe– Ránmo
***Ngarna–Rema
**** Nggarna (Sota)
**** Rema
**Kanum
***Ngkolmpu: Ngkâlmpw/Ngkontar, Bädi
***South Kanum: Bârkâli-Smärki, Tämer
Notes (see Evans 2018: 681):
*Each terminal bullet point lists a different dialect chain
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
.
* Ránmo is linguistically a dialect of Mblafe, but Ránmo speakers consider their language to be a separate, distinct language.
* Wérè is linguistically a dialect of Wára, but Wèré speakers consider their language to be a separate, distinct language.
Numeral typology
Tonda languages are unique for their base-6 numeral systems, which likely originated from counting yams (rather than fingers or body parts as with most other languages).[Hammarström, Harald. (2009]
Whence the Kanum Base-6 Numeral System?
''Linguistic Typology'' 13(2). 305-319.
References
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–West Morehead River
(under construction 2020)
Further reading
*Grummitt, John and Janell Masters. 2012.
A Survey of the Tonda Sub-Group of Languages
'. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 2012-018.
{{Yam languages
Western Yam languages