North Tairora

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

North Tairora is spoken by 5,000 people (2010) living in a large number of villages south and southeast of Kainantu in the Kainantu and Obura-Wonenara districts of Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands province (Vincent 2010: v, q.v. 2010: iv.) It is spoken in at least two dialects, that of Vaantura (Bantura) village in the north, designated as standard Tairora, and that of Kuvaira (Suwaira) in the south (Vincent 2010 vi, ibid.)

Capell (1948-1949: 350-354) pronouns and 118 comparative terms for Taiora

Vincent and Vincent (1961) final verbs (unobtained)

Vincent and Vincent (1962) verbal morphology and syntax (unobtained)

Vincent and Vincent (1962) phonology (unobtained)

Vincent and Vincent (1964) grammar

Vincent and Vincent (1968) grammar (unobtained)

Vincent (1973: 530-546) nominal morphology of Bantura village

Vincent (1973: 561-587) verbal morphology

Vincent, compiler (1973: 625-688) texts

Vincent (1994) dictionary

Vincent and Vincent (1994) sketch phonology

Vincent (2010) dictionary and grammar of Tairora of Vaantura village, including many alternate forms from the Kuvaira (Suwaira) dialect

McKaughan (1964: 98-121) includes 546 comparative terms for Tairora of Batainabura village, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 694-738)

McKaughan (1973: 588-597) sequential clauses

Bee (1965: 1-37) 58 Tairora reflexes of proto-Kainantu, reprinted in McKaughan ed. (1973: 739-768)

Kerr (1973: 769-799) 35 Tairora reflexes of proto-Kainantu kin terms

Vincent and Vincent (1962, 1994, Vincent 2010: v-vi) give 12 consonants and 6 vowels for North Tairora as follows:

Bilabial stop /p/ is optionally fricated to [ɸ].

Vincent and Vincent state that fricative /h/ varies between [h s] in some words. As Tairora /*s/ regularly yields North Tairora /h/, it's conceivable that examples of [s] (none of which are given) are original and a phoneme /s/ is needed.

Initial apical non-stop /ɾ/ is realized as lateral [l] when followed by non-front vowels /ɐ ɑ: o u/.

Bilabial non-stop /β/ is historically and structurally equivalent to glide /w/, hence its placement in the chart above. Initially, it may be realized as lenis voiced stop [b].

Prenasalized stops /mp nt ŋk/ are historically clusters; otherwise neither final consonants nor consonant clusters occur.

In addition to the simple vowels above, there are two diphthongs:

There are two phonemic tones, low and high, with stress usually but not invariably accompanying high tone. Neither tone nor stress is indicated in the orthography.

Vincent (1973: 531-532, 2010: 583-584) gives free pronouns for Tairora of Vaantura in three case forms as follows:

Inalienable possessors of nominals and indirect objects of verbs are indicated by prefixes, which take one of several forms depending upon whether the following root has an 1) initial consonant 2a) an initial vowel other than central vowels /ɐ ɑ:/ 2b) has an initial central vowel /ɐ ɑ:/ or 2c) has initial syllable /ih/ (q.v. Vincent 1973: 583.) Those before consonant initial roots are the most original forms. Second and third persons are not distinguished, nor is the first person singular distinguished from the plural, or dual numbers in any person:

[under construction]

Vincent (1973) …