West Bomberai languages

The (Greater) West Bomberai languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea and in East Timor and neighboring islands of Indonesia.

Languages
Two of the languages of the mainland, Baham and Iha, are closely related to each other; the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages:
 * Mbahaam–Iha: Baham (Mbaham), Iha
 * Karas
 * Timor–Alor–Pantar

This split, with two of the three branches on the mainland, suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may be the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did.

History of classification
Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon included Timor–Alor–Pantar and mainland West Bomberai as stocks within Trans–New Guinea. Ross classified grouped them together, to form a branch within his proposed West Trans–New Guinea, though with most of the diversity in Timor–Alor–Pantar. Holton & Robinson (2014) found little evidence to support a connection with Trans–New Guinea, but Holton & Robinson (2017) conceded that a relationship with Trans-New Guinea and in particular with West Bomberai is the most likely hypothesis. Usher established that the two mainland branches of the family are no closer to each other than they are to the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages – indeed that Karas might be the most divergent, and has begun to reconstruct the West Bomberai protolanguage.

Phonemes
Usher reconstructs the following inventory of consonants:

Prenasalized plosives do not occur initially in Proto-West Bomberai, having merged with the voiceless plosives. Medially, NC becomes voiced stops in TAP, as proto-Austronesian NC does in surrounding Austronesian languages. Word-initial *k and *kʷ become *ʔ and *w in TAP. *kʷ becomes /k/ and intervocalic *p *t *k become /w, r, zero/ in Kalamang.

The vowels are still uncertain, but appear to have included a diphthong *ai.

Pronouns
Usher reconstructs the free pronouns as:



! !!sg!!pl !1excl !1incl !2
 * rowspan=2| *an ~ *na- || *in ~ *ni-
 * *pi
 * *ka || *ki
 * }

The correspondences are mostly straightforward; initial *k has been lost from Timor-Alor-Pantar.

Cognates
Protoforms of the 40 most-stable items in the Swadesh list include the following.


 * {| class="wikitable sortable"

! Proto–West Bomberai !! gloss
 * *am[i/u]n || louse
 * *kira || water
 * *kʷali || ear
 * *kVmV || die
 * *kina || eye
 * *tana || hand/arm
 * *nai || name
 * *war || stone
 * *ami || breast
 * *jaŋgal || path
 * ? || tongue (*maŋg voice/speech)
 * *aŋgin || body/skin
 * *kaja || rain
 * *waik || blood
 * *ukʷan[i] || one
 * *ma || come
 * *tumbər || mountain
 * *nawa || eat/drink
 * *kəna || see
 * *kʷel[e] || skin/bark
 * *jambar || dog
 * }
 * *aŋgin || body/skin
 * *kaja || rain
 * *waik || blood
 * *ukʷan[i] || one
 * *ma || come
 * *tumbər || mountain
 * *nawa || eat/drink
 * *kəna || see
 * *kʷel[e] || skin/bark
 * *jambar || dog
 * }
 * *tumbər || mountain
 * *nawa || eat/drink
 * *kəna || see
 * *kʷel[e] || skin/bark
 * *jambar || dog
 * }
 * *kʷel[e] || skin/bark
 * *jambar || dog
 * }
 * }