Moraori

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

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…east of Marind territory near the Papuan border.

Drabbe (1954: CITE) 40 speakers…

Donohue (1996: CITE) 150 by 1996…

Due to its location, Moraori has been significantly influenced by not only Marind but also the Morehead River languages Yey and especially Kanum (q.v. Drabbe 1954: 53-68, Donohue 1996.)

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Voorhoeve (1968) Central and South New Guinea Phylum.

Greenberg (1971: CITE) Jei group.

Moraori with Trans-Fly (Wurm: CITE).

Wurm (1971: 158): Moraori Sub-Family of the Morehead and Upper Maro Rivers family. “Like Yey, Moraori is lexically a member of the Morehead and Upper Maro Rivers family only by virtue of its sharing 30% cognates with Kanum which provides a chain through which it can be included in the family. However, its cognition percentage figures with other members of the family are very considerably lower than those shared by Yey with members of the family, and the percentage of cognates which it shares with Yey is only 25. This, and its typological and structural differences from the other members of the family may make it seem likely that a more realistic classification of Moraori may be to give it the status of an independent family-level isolate within the Trans-Fly Stock.”

Wurm (1975)

Donohue (1996: CITE) of Moraori: “any resemblance to a Kanum language represents a chance resemblance or a borrowing relationship, either from the Kanum to the Moraori, or the reverse, or, as is more likely, common borrowing of Marind vocabulary.”

Ross (CITE) correctly placed Moraori with Kolopom based on pronouns.

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Nevermann (1939: 60-69) comparative vocabulary of Moraori

Drabbe (1954: 15-26) grammar and (pp. 53-68) 419 comparative terms for Moraorì

Donohue (1996: 18-50) 158 comparative terms for Wasur village

Sohn, Lebold and Kriens (2009: 31-42) 124 comparative terms for Moraori of Wasur

Arka …

Arka …

Arka …

Drabbe (1954: 15) gives 21 consonants and 6 vowels for Moraorì as follows:

Donohue (1996: CITE) proposes a substantially different inventory:

Donohue (1996: CITE) qualifies that “Vowels follow IPA norms, except that in Marind, Moraori and Muyu the values are intermediate between half open and half closed.” Drabbe's contrastive /e ɛ/ can probably be disregarded, as Drabbe drew this distinction in every language he surveyed.

Drabbe (1954: 16) gives pronouns for Moraorì in three case forms as follows:

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