# Pahoturi languages

The Pahoturi River languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken around the Pahoturi (Paho River). This family includes eight language varieties including Agöb (Dabu), Em, Ende, Idan, Idi, Idzuwe, Kawam, and Taeme, which are spoken in the Pahoturi River area south of the Fly River, just west of the Eastern Trans-Fly languages. Idzuwe is no longer spoken. Ross (2005) tentatively includes them in the proposed Trans-Fly – Bulaka River family, though more recent work has classified Pahoturi River as an independent family within the region.
Some Pahoturi River speakers were originally hunter-gatherers, but have recently shifted to becoming gardeners.$^{:649}$

## Classification

Wurm (1975) and Ross (2005) suggest that the Pahoturi languages may be related to the Tabo (Waia) language just north of the Fly delta. However, they present no evidence, and the pronouns do not match.
Evans and colleagues (2018) classify the Pahoturi River languages as an independent language family.

## Languages

Five of the varieties have traditionally been grouped into the following two language groups:
* Agöb (Dabu), Ende, and Kawam
* Idi and Taeme
Preliminary work on the language family suggests that these varieties form a dialect chain. It is assumed that Em is more closely related to Agob and Ende, while Idan and Idzuwe are more closely related to Idi and Taeme.
Pahoturi River languages and respective demographic information listed by Evans (2018) are provided below.
    List of Pahoturi River languages LanguageLocationPopulationAlternate names Idicentral-east Morehead Rural LLG774 Taemenortheast Morehead Rural LLG834Tame, Kondobol, Yao Agobsoutheast Morehead Rural LLG1,437Bugi, Dabu Endeeast Morehead Rural LLG542 Kawameast Morehead Rural LLG and west Oriomo-Bituri Rural LLG457Wipim

## Phonemes

Usher (2020) reconstructs the consonant inventory as follows:
    *m*mʷ*n*ŋ[*ŋʷ] *p*pʷ*t*ʈ*ts*k*kʷ *b*bʷ*d*ɖ*dz*g*gʷ *mb*mbʷ*nd*ɳɖ*ndz*ŋg*ŋgʷ *l*ɭ *w*r*ɽ*j

## Pronouns

The pronouns Ross reconstructs for the family are:
Proto-Pahoturi River
    I*ŋa-nawe? thou*ba or *beyou*-bi s/he*bothey?
Lindsey lists the following pronouns for each of the language varieties in the family.
Pahoturi River pronouns :
| Case | English | Agob | Em | Ende | Kawam | Idi | Taeme |
| Nominative | I (1sg) | ŋəna | ŋəna | ŋəna | ŋəna | ŋən | ŋən |
| Nominative | thou (2sg) | boŋo | boŋo | boŋo | buŋo | bæ | bæ |
| Nominative | s/he (3sg) | bo | bogo | bogo | bo | bo | bo |
| Nominative | we exclusive (1.nsg.excl) | ŋumi | ŋumi | ŋəmi | ŋəmi | ŋəmi/bi | bi |
| Nominative | we inclusive (1.nsg.incl) | ibi | ibi | ibi | ibi | jɪbi | jəbi |
| Nominative | you (2nsg) | bibi | bibi | bibi | bibi | bæ | bæ |
| Nominative | they (3nsg) | ubi | ubi | ubi | ubi | bo/wɪbi | bo/ubi |
| Accusative | I (1sg) | ŋənam | ŋənam | ŋənəm | ŋonom | bom | ŋənəm |
| Accusative | thou (2sg) | bæm | bæm | bam | bæm | babom | babom |
| Accusative | s/he (3sg) | obom | obom | obom | obom | obom | obom |
| Accusative | we exclusive (1.nsg.excl) | ŋənam | ŋumim | ŋəmim | ŋəmim | bim | ŋəmim |
| Accusative | we inclusive (1.nsg.incl) | ibom | ibam | ibim | ibim | jəbim | jɪbim |
| Accusative | you (2nsg) | bæm | bæm | bibim | bibim | bibim | bibim |
| Accusative | they (3nsg) | obam | obæm | ubim | ubim | ubim/wəbim | ubim |
| Dative | I (1sg) | ŋɵmɽe | ŋəmɽe | ŋəmɽe | ŋəmre | blæ | ŋəmʎæ |
| Dative | thou (2sg) | bæɽe | babɽe | babɽe | bæbre | bæblæ | bæbʎe |
| Dative | s/he (3sg) | obɽe | obɽe | obɽe | obo | oblæ | obʎe |
| Dative | we exclusive (1.nsg.excl) | ŋɵmra | ŋumra | ŋəmira | ŋəmira | bli | ŋəmʎi |
| Dative | we inclusive (1.nsg.incl) | ibra | ibra | ibra | ibra | jəbli | jɪbʎi |
| Dative | you (2nsg) | bæra | babra | bibra | bibra | bibli | bibʎi |
| Dative | they (3nsg) | obra | obra | ubira | ubira | ubli | ubʎi |
| Possessive | I (1sg) | ŋɵmo | ŋəmo | ŋəmo | ŋomo | bo/bænæ | ŋəmo |
| Possessive | thou (2sg) | bəne | bəne | bəne | bəne | bənæ | bənæ |
| Possessive | s/he (3sg) | obo | obo | obo | obo | obo/obænæ | obo |
| Possessive | we exclusive (1.nsg.excl) | ŋəma | ŋəma | ŋəma | ŋəma | ba | ŋəma |
| Possessive | we inclusive (1.nsg.incl) | iba | iba | iba | iba | jəba | jəba |
| Possessive | you (2nsg) | bina | bina | bina | bina | bəna | bəna |
| Possessive | they (3nsg) | oba | oba | oba | oba | oba | wəba |

## Documentation status

The Pahoturi River languages are all under various states of documentation. The following table lists some general lexical, grammatical, textual, and typological resources that have been identified for each of the currently spoken Pahoturi River languages.
Lexical resources :
| Resource | Agob | Em | Ende | Idan | Idi | Kawam | Taeme |
| Yamfinder wordlist | 1 | 1 | 4 | N | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Swadesh list | Y | N | N | N | Y | N | N |
| Dictionary | N | N | Y | N | Y | N | N |
Textual resources :
| Resource | Agob | Em | Ende | Idan | Idi | Kawam | Taeme |
| Language data corpus (any) | Y | Y | Y | N | Y | Y | Y |
| North Wind and the Sun text | N | N | Y | N | Y | N | N |
| The Pear Story | N | N | N | N | N | N | N |
| Bible translation | N | N | Y (Mark) | N | N | Y (Mark) | Y (Luke) |
| Bible stories/Words of Life | Y | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
Typological resources :
| Resource | Agob | Em | Ende | Idan | Idi | Kawam | Taeme |
| Leipzig Valency Questionnaire | N | N | Elicited the verbs in the Q, not online | N | Elicited the verbs in the Q, not online | N | N |
| Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus | N | N | 5 | N | Y | N | N |
| Grambank | N | N | Y | N | Y | N | N |
| Intercontinental Dictionary Series | N | N | Y | N | N | N | N |
| Numeral Systems of the World's Languages | N | N | Y | N | Y | N | Y |
| PR Verbal Number questionnaire | N | N | Y | N | Y | N | N |