Tebi-Towe

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

[under construction]

The Terbi-Towe family consists of two languages, Tebi, also known as Dubu, and Towe (Towei,) spoken …

The internal classificaiton of Tebi-Towe is as follows:

Tebi-Towe

Tebi

Towe

[under construction]

Anceaux (Smits and Voorhoeve 1994) 104 comparative terms for Dubu of Afi village, Tobima of Dubu village after Walton, Dubu after D.A. Mallo and Towei after D.A. Mallo

Galis (1956: appendix 1-12, i.e. 85-97) … comparative terms for Doeboe and Towei

Voorhoeve (1971: 98-109) 84 comparative terms for Dubu after Galis (1956)

Voorhoeve (1975: 114) 37 comparative terms for Dubu and Towei after Galis (1956)

Wambaliau (2004) … comparative terms for Towe of Towe Hitam village

Im (2005) … comparative terms for Tebi of Dubu village

[under construction]

Voorhoeve (1971: …) … (1975: …) … Wuerm (1982: …) …

…
Foley (2018: …) …

[under construction]

Proto-Tebi-Towe had perhaps 12 consonants and 5 vowels as follows:

In addition to the simple vowels given above, four diphthongs are found as follows:

Tebi-Towe lacks phonemic voiced stops because Pauwasi River prenasalized voiced stops have been both denasalized and devoiced.

The distinction between apical non-stops /*r/ and /*l/ is unusual for New Guinean languages.

There re no final consonants.

Consonant clusters are found in onsets. Observed consonant cluters include:

Initial consonants correspond as follows:

Medial consonants correspond as follows:

Vowels and diphthongs correspond as follows:

These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with Towe attestations drawn from … and Tebi from … and ….

Any consonant can occur initially except for apical non-stops /*r *l/.

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

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

Initial velar nasal /*ŋ/ is merged with the reflexes of apical nasal /*n/ in Tebi:

In one examples where initial/*ŋ/ is followed immediately by lateral non-stop /*l/ in a cluster, it is realized as prenasalized or plain voiced stop [ŋg g] in both languages:

Initial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ is retained as such in both languages:

In one example, root-initial /*p/ is sometimes realized as voiced [b] because it is the second member of a compound:

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

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

Initial bilabial voiceless fricative /*ɸ/ is retained as uch in both languages. often realized as labiodental [f]:

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

Initial bilabial non-stop /*w/ is retained as such in both languages:

There are no unambiguous examples of lateral non-stop /*l/ in initial position, though some examples of medial /*l/ may arise from the vowel prosthesis in Tebi (below.)

Initial palatal non-stop /*j/ is retained as such in both languages. It appears that Pauwasi River initial /*j/ has been lost before front vowels (cf. “eye” below) and thus is attested here only when followed by low central vowel /*a/:

Any consonant can occur medially except for velar nasal / *ŋ/.

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

Medial apical nasal /*n/ is as a matter of principle retained as such in both lanuages:

Most examples of medial /*n/ followed by a final vowel are reduced to /ŋ/ in Towe with loss of the final vowel. The fact that all of these examples have front vowels [i e] in Tebi allows for the alternative interpretation that these segments /*nV/ should be reconstructed as merely final /*n/:

Velar nasal /*ŋ/ has not ben found to occur medially, unless the examlpes given with final segment /*nV/ above are taken to represent it.

Medial bilabial voiceless stop /*p/ …:

… [*mb] …

Medial apical voiceless stop /*t/… :

… [*nd] …:

… [nd] …:

Medial velar voiceless stop /*k/ …:

Medial bilabial voiceless fricative /*ɸ/ is retained as such in both languages, often realized as labiodental [f]:

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

… [*ŋg] …:

… [*ŋg] …:

… [*ŋg] …:

Medial bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

Medial rhotic non-stop /*r/… :

… /*r/… :

Medial lateral non-stop /*l/ is palatalized and deoccluded to palatal /j/ in Towe:

Medial palatal non-stop /*j/ …:

… vowels and diphthongs …

High front vowel /*i/ …:

High back rounded vowel /*u/ …:

Mid fron vowel /*e/ …:

Mid back rounded vowel /*o/ …:

Low central vowel /*a/ …:

… /*eⁱ/ …:

… /*oᵘ/ …:

… /*aⁱ/ …:

… /*aᵘ/ …:

[under construction]

Free pronouns for Tebi and Towe are given as follows, with …

No information about the verbal morphology of any South Pauwasi River languages is currently available to us.

[under construction]

…

Tebi in particular shares a number of words with Emem (Emumu) of the East Pauwasi River family. … with Emem attestations from Yuruf village drawn from Lebold and Lee (2016: 24-31):

Emem has in turn borrowed from Tebi, with the following term for “bird” found in three of Lebold and Lee's four villages, with Yambraf Dua's [and] continuing the native East Pauwasi /*and/:

… regional …:

… Indonesian …: