The Koiarian languages Koiari are a small family of

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia. Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...

spoken in the "

Bird's Tail The Papuan Peninsula, also known as the Bird's Tail Peninsula, is a large peninsula in Papua New Guinea, southeast of the city of Lae, that makes up the southeastern portion of the island of New Guinea. The peninsula is the easternmost extent of th ...

" (southeastern peninsula) of New Guinea. They are classified within the Southeast Papuan branch of Trans–New Guinea.

Languages

The languages are: * Koiaric branch (Koiari): Grass Koiari, Mountain Koiari– Koitabu * Baraic branch ( Managalas Plateau):

Barai Bărăi is a village development committee in Udayapur District in the Sagarmatha Zone of south-eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Central Burea ...

– Namiae, Ese (Managalasi), Ömie Dutton (2010) classifies the Koiarian languages as: *Baraic ** Ömie **

– Managalasi (incl. Namiae) *Koiaric ** Mountain Koiari ** Koita – Grass Koiari

Proto-language

Pronouns

Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns as:New Guinea World, Owen Stanley Range
/ref> :

Vocabulary

The following basic vocabulary words of Proto-Koiarian and other lower-level reconstructions are from the Trans-New Guinea database: :

Evolution

Koiarian reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: Koiari language: *''muka'' ‘lump’ < *maŋgV ‘round object’ *''uni'' ‘egg’ < *mun(a,i,u)ka *''idu'' ‘tree’ < *inda *''iya'' ‘cassowary’ < *ku(y)a *''karika'' ‘dry’ < *(ŋg,k)atata *''muni'' ‘stone < *(na)muna *''nana'' ‘older same-sex sibling’ < *nan(a,i) *''u-tuvu'' ‘ashes’ < *kambu-sumbu Managalasi language: *''ata'' ‘bone’ < *kondaC *''muka'' ‘lump’ < *maŋgV ‘round object’ *''iha'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''uma'' ‘louse’ < *iman *''uka'' ‘bird’ < *yaka *''tuua'' ‘short’ < *tukumba *''muna'' ‘stone’ < *(na)muna *''ija'' ‘tree’ < *inda *''otoka'' ‘knee’ < *(k,ŋg)atuk *''kora'' ‘dry’ < *(ŋg,k)atata

Phonotactics

Like the

Binanderean languages The Greater Binanderean or Guhu-Oro languages are a language family spoken along the northeast coast of the Papuan Peninsula – the "Bird's Tail" of New Guinea – and appear to be a recent expansion from the north. They were classified as a bra ...

and other Koiarian languages only allow for open syllables and do not allow final CVC.

References

*Dutton, Tom. 2003
A dictionary of Koiari, Papua New Guinea, with grammar notes
Pacific Linguistics 534. Canberra: Australian National University.
Proto-Koiarian
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Dutton, T.E. 2010. Reconstructing Proto Koiarian: The history of a Papuan language family, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Proto-Koiariac
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Dutton, T.E. 2010. Reconstructing Proto Koiarian: The history of a Papuan language family, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Proto-Baraic
''TransNewGuinea.org''. From Dutton, T.E. 2010. Reconstructing Proto Koiarian: The history of a Papuan language family, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. {{Papuan languages Owen Stanley Range languages Languages of Central Province (Papua New Guinea) Languages of Oro Province