Namla-Tofanma

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

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The Namla-Tofanma family consists of two languges, Namla and Tofanma (Tofamna,) spoken … Indonesia's Papua province.

The internal classification of Namla-Tofanma is as follows:

Namla-Tofanma

Namla

Tofanma

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Anceaux (Smits and Voorhoeve 1994) … after Mallo

Galis (1956: appendix 1-12, i.e. 85-97) … comparative terms for Tofamna (Tofanma)

Voorhoeve (1971: 98-109) … comparative terms for Tofamna after …

Voorhoeve (1975: 116) 36 comparative terms for Tofamna after Galis (1956)

Lee (2005) … comparative terms for Namla

Menanti (2005) 245 comparative terms for Sembramtəla of Tefalma (Tofanma I) village

Wambaliau (2005: 24-27) 245 comparative terms for Tofanma after Menanti

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… initial consonants …

Initial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in both languges:

Initial apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in both languages:

Initial bilabial voicelss stop /*p/ …:

Initial apical voiceless stop /*t/ is retained as such in both languages:

Initial laminal voiceless /*s/ is retained as such in both languagtes:

Velar voiceless stop /*k/ is retained as such in both languages:

One apparent counterexample is found also in Towe [kenemˈba] and may simply be in error:

Initial bilabial prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ …:

One example with initial voiceless [p] in both families is proabbly a loan from Tebi-Towe:

Initial apical prenasaized voiced stop /*nd/ is retained as such in both languages, often as devoiced [nt nʈ nt̪]:

Initial velar prenasalized voiced stop /*ŋg/ …:

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

Initial apical non-stop /*l/ is retained as such in both languages:

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ is retained as such in both languages:

… medial consonants …

Medial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in both languages:

Medial apical nasal /*n/ is retained as such in both languages:

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is retained as such in both languages, unlike root-initial /*p/ which is fricated to [f] (above):

A number ofTofanma words have a medial labidental fricative [f]. Many of these are loans from Yetfa to the south (below,) in which the reflex of South Pauwasi River medial /*p/ as /ɸ/ is regular.

Medial apical voiceless stop /*t/ has been found in only one word, in which it is retained as such in both languages:

Medial laminal voicelss /*s/ is retained as such in both languages:

Medial velar voiceless stop /*k/ is retained as such in both languages:

Medial bilabial prenasalized voiced stop /*mb/ …:

Medial apical presnasalized voiced stop /*nd/ is retained as such in both languages, often as devoiced [nt nʈ nt̪]:

Medial velar prenasalized voiced stop /*ŋg/ :

Root-medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ has been found in only one word which may be a loan from or to Towe:

Medial apical non-stop /*l/ is retained as such in both languages:

… [r] …which we show here as <R&gt. It is suspected that this <*R&gt is really the root-medial allophne of voiceless stop /*t/ as otherwise medial /*t/ (above) is markedly uncommon:

Palatal non-stop /*j/ has not been found to occur medially.

Only one consonant, bilabial nasal /*m/, occurs finally.

Final bilabial nasal /*m/ is lost in Tofanma with nasalization of the preceding vowel, although nasalization is not consisently indicated in Menanti's Tofanma and is not indicated at all in Mallo's:

One example in which /*m/ disappears in Tofanma is given with a final vowel in Lee's Namla, but it might be asked if this isn't a doublet borrowed from Tebi [mamu] (Im 2006) or simply in error, especially as final /*m/ characterizes also East Pauwasi River and South Pauwasi River forms:

… vowels and diphthongs…

High front vowel /*i/ is retained as such in both languages:

High back rounded vowel /*u/ is retained as such in both languages:

High mid front vowel /*e̝/ is raised and merged with the reflexes of /*i/ in modern Tofanma. Variant reflexes [e i] in Mallo's vocabulary shows this merger to have been completed only very recently:

High mid back rounded vowel /*o̝/ is raised and merged with the reflexes of /*u/ in modern Tofanma. Variant reflexes [o u] in Mallo's vocabulary shows this merger to have been completed only very recently:

Low mid front vowel /*ɛ/ …:

Low mid back rounded vowel /*ɔ/ is uncommon. It is …:

Low mid central vowel /*æ/ …:

In one recurring correspondence, Namla has high front [i] while Tofanma has low front [æ]… This pattern is tentatively reconstructed with /*æ/ because it is very common and there are otherwise no examples of /*æ/ followed by /*i *e̝/:

Low central vowel /*a/ is not nearly as common as /*æ/ (above/) It is retained as such in both languages:

When followed by high mid back rounded /*o̝/ in the following syllable, /*a/ is backed and rounded to [ɔ] in Namla:

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No information on Namla-Tofanma verbal morpholgy is currently availabe to us.

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Tofanma has borrowed a number of terms from Yetfa to the south, with Yetfa attestations drawn from Kim (2006.) None of the words below are found in Namla. According to Kim, some Yetfa speakers live in the Tofanma Dua village in the Tofanma language region:

Namla shares a few terms with Poule (a.k.a. Molof,) with Poule attestations drawn from Rumaropen (2005.) The direction of borrowing isn't immediately clear:

… Some of these matches may well be legitimate mutual retentions: