Tofanma or Tofamna is a poorly documented Papuan language of Indonesia. Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Trans–New Guinea, but Ross (2005) could not find enough evidence to classify it. It appears to be related to Namla, a neighboring language.

Tofanma
RegionPapua: Keerom Regency, Senggi District, most of Namla, Tofanma Dua, and Tofanma Satu villages
Native speakers
250 (2005)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3tlg
Glottologtofa1246
ELPTofanma

Vocabulary

edit

Tofanma vocabulary from Foley (2018):[2]

gloss Tofanma
‘bird’ yetai
‘blood’ læki
‘bone’ da
‘breast’ mu
‘ear’ kemblale
‘eat’ dimisipe
‘egg’ li
‘eye’ yei
‘fire’ ve
‘give’ vænə
‘go’ wao
‘ground’ yai
‘hair’ kemblena
‘hear’ varli
‘I’ ne
‘leg’ wukudaʔ
‘louse’ bili
‘man’ lamle
‘moon’ min-yaku
‘name’ ame
‘one’ kenanu
‘road, path’ mæki
‘see’ mæsi
‘sky’ nəmlo
‘stone’ kəlo
‘sun’ yaku
‘tongue’ kuguku
‘tooth’ dimi
‘tree’ la
‘two’ næni
‘water’ basu
‘we’ ngu
‘woman’ ale
‘you (sg)’ wo
‘you (pl)’ dule

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),[3][4] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[5]

gloss Tofanma
head kemble
hair kemble-na
ear kemb lelu
eye jei; yei
nose məniti
tooth geme
tongue goŋgogok
leg wanta
louse bli
bird jetai; yetai
egg taili
blood leki
bone nta
skin jefake; yefake
breast mo
tree kili
man lame
woman ale
sun jaku; yaku
moon menti-gaku
water basu
fire we
stone klo
road, path meka
name emi
eat sembe
one kenano
two neni

References

edit
  1. ^ Tofanma at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. "Miscellaneous Notes on Languages in West Irian, New Guinea". In Dutton, T., Voorhoeve, C. and Wurm, S.A. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 14. A-28:47-114. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1971. doi:10.15144/PL-A28.47
  4. ^ Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
  5. ^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  • Wambaliau, Theresia. 2005. Survey Report on the Tofanma Language in Papua, Indonesia. (in Indonesian). Unpublished manuscript. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
edit