The Demta–Sentani languages form a
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
of coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border.
Languages
*Demta–Sentani
**
Demta
**Sentani proper
***
Sentani
***
Nafri
***
Tabla
A ''tabla'' is a pair of hand drums from the Indian subcontinent. Since the 18th century, it has been the principal percussion instrument in Hindustani classical music, where it may be played solo, as an accompaniment with other instruments a ...
(Tanah Merah)
The term 'Sentani' is ambiguous. It may be used in a wider sense, including Demta, in a narrow sense (Sentani proper) excluding Demta – either as an unrelated language family or as a branch of Demta–Sentani – or for the Sentani language itself. Usher distinguishes these three scopes as 'Demta – Sentani Lake', '
Sentani Lake' and 'Sentani'.
Classification
Demta–Sentani was a branch of
Stephen Wurm
Stephen Adolphe Wurm (, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.
Early life
Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian-speaking Anna Novroczky. ...
's proposal for
Trans–New Guinea. The languages have lexical similarities with the
Asmat–Kamoro languages, though later linguists have not accepted the resemblances as indicative of a genealogical relationship. Pawley and Hammarström (2018) list the following resemblances between the Sentani languages and
proto-Trans-New Guinea, though they classify Sentani as a separate language family rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.
*C. Sentani ''an''- ‘eat’ < *na-
*C. Sentani ''mikæ'' ‘vomit’ (n.) < *mVkV
*C. Sentani ''mu'' ‘penis’ < *mo
*W. Sentani, Tabla ''oto'' ‘leg’ < *k(a,o)ndok
*Tabla ''miŋ'', C. Sentani ''mi'' ‘louse’ < *iman
*C. Sentani ''mi''- ‘come’ < *me-
Ross (2005) does not believe these demonstrate a genealogical relationship, and proposes instead that the Demta–Sentani languages are related to the
East Bird's Head languages
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...
, in a tentative
East Bird's Head – Sentani family.
Foley (2018) classifies them as an independent language family.
Usher (2020) tentatively includes them in a proposed
Northwest Papuan family, though as of 2020 it's not clear whether the resemblances are due to inheritance or borrowing.
The connection between Demta and the Sentani languages is not supported by
Søren Wichmann
Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for L ...
(2013)'s automated comparison.
[Wichmann, Søren. 2013]
A classification of Papuan languages
. 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.
Pronouns
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-family are:
:
Comparative pronouns in Sentani languages:
:
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) (for
Sentani) and Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. possibly ''ey'', ''au'', ''aye'' for “bird”) or not (e.g. ''tuniyiŋgan'', ''yebu'', ''faləm'' for “head”).
:
See also
*
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...
*
Districts of Papua
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
for a list of districts and villages with respective languages
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demta-Sentani languages
Languages of Indonesia
Northwest Papuan languages
Language families