| Lower Sepik | |
|---|---|
| Nor–Pondo | |
| Geographic distribution: |
New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification: | Ramu – Lower Sepik
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| Subdivisions: | |
The Lower Sepik or Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-defunct 1973 Sepik–Ramu family. Malcolm Ross (2005) broke up the Nor branch and thus renamed the family Lower Sepik; he classifies it as one branch of a Ramu – Lower Sepik language family.
| Lower Sepik (Nor–Pondo) |
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Murik and Kopar are traditionally placed in a Nor family (thus the name Nor–Pondo). However, Murik does not share the /p/s characteristic of the first- and second-person pronouns of Kopar and the Pondo languages, so Ross (2005) breaks up Nor. Ethnologue (2009) keeps Nor together but breaks up Pondo, retaining only Karawari–Yimas.
The pronouns reconstructed for the proto-language are,
| I | *ama | we two | *ka-i, *ka-pia | we few | *(p)a-ŋk-i-t | we all | *a-i, *a-pia, *i-pi |
| thou | *nɨmi | you two | *ka-u, *ka-pua | you few | *(p)a-ŋk-u-t | you all | *a-u, *a-pu, *i-pu(a) |
| s/he | *mɨn | they two | *mɨnɨmp ? (M), *mpɨ ? (F) |
they few | *mɨŋkɨ-t | they all | *mump (M), *pum (F) |
| we two | *ka-i, *ka-pa-i | we few | *(pa)ŋk-it | we all | *a-i, *a-pa-i, *(y)i-i, *(y)i-pa-i |
| you two | *ka-u, *ka-pa-u | you few | *(pa)ŋk-ut | you all | *a-u, *a-pa-u, *(y)i-u, *(y)i-pa-u |
| they two | ? | they few | *mɨŋkɨ | they all | *mump ? |