Molof language
Unclassified language of Indonesia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Molof (Ampas, Poule, Powle-Ma) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.[1]
RegionPapua: 9 villages located 100 km to the south of Jayapura; in Keerom Regency, Senggi District, Molof village
Native speakers
230 (2005)[1]Classification
Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. Søren Wichmann (2018)[2] tentatively considers it to be a language isolate, as does Foley (2018).[3] Usher (2020) tentatively suggests it may be a Pauwasi language.[4]
Phonology
Basic vocabulary
Basic vocabulary of Molof from Rumaropen (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):[5][3]
Molof basic vocabulary gloss Molof ‘bird’ au ‘blood’ mɪt ‘bone’ antai ‘breast’ mu ‘ear’ ou ‘eat’ nɪ ‘egg’ li ‘eye’ lum ‘fire’ tombe ‘give’ tui ‘go’ tuɨ ‘ground’ aigiman ‘hair’ era ‘hear’ ar/arai ‘I’ məik ‘leg’ vu ‘louse’ əlim ‘man’ lomoa ‘moon’ ar ‘name’ ti ‘one’ kwasekak ‘road, path’ mɪtnine ‘see’ lokea ‘sky’ mejor ‘stone’ rɨ ‘sun’ neman ‘tongue’ aifoma ‘tooth’ tɨ ‘tree’ war ‘two’ atati ‘water’ yat ‘we’ ti ‘woman’ anar ‘you (sg)’ in
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[6][7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]
gloss Molof head emi hair ela ear ou eye lom nose toŋga tooth te tongue ai leg fu louse lem bird au egg le blood mat bone antai skin kant breast mu tree woar man lomo woman anale sun nei moon ar water jat; yat fire tombe stone le road, path mef name ti eat ne one kwasekak two ateti
