The Teberan languages are a well established
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
of
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 ...
that
Stephen Wurm (1975) grouped with the
Pawaia language as a branch of the
Trans–New Guinea phylum.
There are two Teberan languages,
Dadibi and
Folopa (Podopa). They are spoken in
Southern Highlands Province
Southern Highlands is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its provincial capital is the town of Mendi. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2021 census, the total population of Southern Highlands province is 927,306.
History
Separation of H ...
and in adjoining provinces.
Classification
Malcolm Ross (2005) tentatively retains both Teberan and Pawaia within TNG, but sees no other connection between them. Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) tentatively leave Teberan as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.
Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider there to be sufficient evidence for Teberan to be classified as part of
Trans-New Guinea, though they do note the following lexical resemblances between the Teberan languages and
proto-Trans-New Guinea.
:
*''ami'' ‘breast’ < *amu
Folopa:
*''kabu'' ‘stone’ < *ka(mb,m)u
V*''kolemane'' ‘star’ < *kala(a,i)m ‘moon’
*''kile'' ‘eye’ < *(ŋg,k)iti
According to
Dryer (2022), based on a preliminary quantitative analysis of data from the
ASJP database, Teberan is likely to be a subgroup of Trans–New Guinea.
Vocabulary comparison
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:
[Timothy Usher, New Guinea World]
Proto–Dadibi–Folopa
/ref>
:
References
*
External links
* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Dadibi–Folopa
{{language families
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Teberan–Pawaian languages