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The Tor family, named after the Tor River, is clearly established. Its closest relative appears to be Orya.
Stephen Wurm (1975) linked Orya and the Tor languages with the Lakes Plain languages, forming a branch of his Trans–New Guinea phylum. Clouse (1997) found no evidence of such a connection.[1]Malcolm Ross (2005) linked them instead with part of another erstwhile branch of TNG in a Tor–Kwerba proposal, and Usher makes a broadly similar proposal. Glottolog accepts only the link with Orya as having been demonstrated.[2]
Languages
Foley (2018)
Foley (2018) provides the following classification.[3]
Jofotek and Mander are found to be the same language, whereas the ISO conflation of Edwas and Bonerif is found to be spurious.
A Wares language is not attested. (The Wares people are not known to have a distinct language, and the language of the village of Wares is Mawes.)[5]
Proto-language
Phonemes
Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory tentatively as follows:[4]
*m
*n
*p
*t
*s
*k
*kʷ
*b
*d
*dz
*gʷ
*w
*ɾ
The stop *d is marginal and only occurs initially. *ɾ does not occur initially.
*i
*u
*e
*o
*ɛ
*ə
*ɔ
*a
Pronouns
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Orya–Tor are,
Usher (2020) reconstructs the pronouns of the East Tor Coast branch as:[4]
East Tor Coast
sg
pl
1excl
*ai/ana
*ai-saise (?)
1incl
*ne-saise (?)
2
*im[i]
*im[i]-saise
3
*dei
*dei-saise
Basic vocabulary
Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are:[4]
gloss
Proto-Orya-Tor River
Proto-Tor River
Orya
head
*nəbaɾ
*nəbaɾ
leaf/hair
*aɾ[ɛ/a][n/ŋ]
*aɾ[ɛ/a][n/ŋ]
ala
eye
*nVwɛ
*nVwɛ
nwe
nose
*masɛ
*masɛ
mase
tongue
*mapəɾ[Vm]
*mafəɾVm
mahal
foot/leg
*ta[g]əna
*ta[g]əna
tana
breast
*mo̝m
*mo̝m
mom
louse
*nɛna
*nɛna
dog
*gʷəɾa
*gʷəɾa
pig
*gʷas
*gʷas
bird
*dzu
*dzu
egg
*s[u]w[e̝]
*s[u]w[e̝]
tree/wood
*te̝
*te̝
te
woman/wife
*kʷe̝
*kʷe̝
we
moon
*p[ɛⁱ]n
*fɛⁱn
water
*pɔ
*fɔ
ho
path
*nVɾ
*nVɾ
name
*bo̝s[ɛ/a]
*bo̝s[ɛ/a]
bose
one
*apa
*afa
two
*nawɛt
*nawɛt
References
↑Clouse, Duane A. (1997). Karl Franklin (ed.). "Towards a reconstruction and reclassification of the Lakes Plains languages of Irian Jaya". Papers in New Guinea Linguistics. 2: 133–236. ISSN0078-9135. OCLC2729642.
12Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol.4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp.433–568. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp.15–66. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN0858835622. OCLC67292782.
