East Tor River

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

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The East Tor River family consists of two or three closely-related languages spoken … Indonesia's Papua province.

The internal classification of East Tor River is as follows:

East Tor River

Jofotek (Mander)

Biri-Itik

Biri

Itik

Oosterwal's (1961, Smits and Voorhoeve eds. 1994 after Oosterwal) Mander and Stokhof's (ed. 1983: 103-108 after unattributed) Foya are clearly the same language as Lee and Wambaliau's (2005: 49-62) Jofotek. Stokhof's (ed. 1983: 103-108 after unattributed) Biri has been identified with Oosterwal's Ittik and Ittik-Tor, but it is not clear that these are precisely the same language, although it seems likely that they are closer to one another than to Jofotek. It is designated as Biri here for lack of a better name. Oosterwal's Ittik and Ittik Tor are dialects of the same language which diverged in recent times.

Oosterwal (1961: 273-277) 78 comparative terms for Ittik, Ittik-Tor and Mander and (pp. 283-284) …

Voorhoeve (1975: 107) 37 comparative terms for Mander and Itik after Anceaux (n.d.)

Stokhof ed. (1983) Holle unattributed comparative vocabularies of (pp. 103-108) Biri and (pp. 108-115) Foya

Smits and Voorhoeve eds. (1994: 18-266) comparative vocabularies of two unspecified varieties of Itik/Betef (Ittik and Ittik-Tor) and of Mander after Oosterwal (n.d.)

Sawi (2005) 239 comparative terms and 21 sentences for Jefutej of Biri dua village

Lee and Wambaliau (2005: 49-62) 239 comparative terms and 21 sentences for Jofotek of Biridua village after Sawi

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Proto-East Tor River had 14 consonants and 8 vowels as follows:

Any consonant, vowel or diphthong can occur intially or medially.

Only a restricted set of consonants occurs word-finally:

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These correspondences are exemplified as follows, with Mander, Ittik and Ittik-Tor forms drawn from Oosterwal (1961: 273-284, Smits and Voorhoeve eds. 1994: 18-266 after Oosterwal,) Foya and Biri from Stokhof (1983: 103-115 after unattributed) and Jofotek from Lee and Wambaliau (2005: 49-62.) Lee and Wambaliau's forms appear here as they were given in standard IPA transcription. Oosterwal and Stokhof's source use Dutch-based orthographies, with Oosterwal using doubled consonants as well as h to cue preceding short vowel qualities and both using the conventions <è ò> to signify [ɛ ɔ] in some contexts, or <é> to signify long [e] rather than schwa. Since vowel length does not appear to be contrastive in East Tor River, we have assumed these distinctions to indicate Dutch vowel qualities rather than length per se. There are some transcription errors in Stokhof's recapitulations of presumably handwritten vocabularies, which we've corrected here where both the problem and the intended character are obvious.

Initial and medial bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial and medial apical nasal /*n/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

In one example in which /*n/ is followed by the destressed segment /*əb/, /*n/ is denasalized to /d/ [d t] in Biri, an affectation shared with other Tor River languages:

Initial and medial labiodebtal voiceless fricative /*f/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial and medial apical voiceless stop /*t/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Initial and medial laminal voiceless fricative /*s/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Velar voiceless stop /*k/ has been found to occur only initially. It is retained as such in Jofotek and Mander and dropped in Itik as in other Tor River languages:

Rounded velar voiceless stop /*kʷ/ has been found to occur only initially. It is retained as such in Jofotek and Mander and deoccluded to /w/ in Itik as in other Tor River languages:

Bilabial voiced stop /*b/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Apical voiced stop /*d/ has not been found medially. Initially, it is generally retained as such in all descendants:

In one example where initial /*d/ as confirmed through outcomparison is followed by high front vowel /*i/, it has been palatalized to [dʒ] in Jofotek:

Laminal voiced /*dz/ has not been found medially. Initially, it is realized as [dʒ] in Jofotek and Mander, is merged with voiceless fricative /s/ in Biri and inconsistently with apical stop /d/ in Itik:

Velar voiced stop /*g/ …:

In several examples, each associated with reduplication in adjectives, initial /*g/ is unexpectedly reflected as voiceless /k/ in Jofotek and Mander:

Rounded velar voiced stop /*gʷ/ …:

Bilabial non-stop /*w/ …:

Apical non-stop /*ɾ/ has not been found to occur initially. Medially, it is retained as such in all descendants:

In addition to the simple consonants given above, there are a small number of prenasalized medials which are interpreted here as clusters arising either from compounding or contraction.

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Only a restricted set of consonants occurs finally.

Final bilabial nasal /*m/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final apical nasal /*n/ …:

Final labiodental voiceless fricative /*f/ …:

Final apical voiceless stop /*t/ …:

Final laminal /*s/ is retained as such in all descendants:

Final velar voiceless stop /*k/ …:

Final apical non-stop /*ɾ/ is generally retained as such in all descendants:

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