Mor language (Papuan)

Mor is a nearly extinct Trans–New Guinea language of Indonesia. It is spoken along the Budidi River and the Bomberai River on the Bomberai Peninsula.

It may form a tentative independent branch of that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005), but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate. However, the only connections are the 1sg and 2sg pronouns na- and a-:

Usher classifies it with the other Trans–New Guinea languages of the Berau Gulf.

Nominal inflection for number in Mor is limited to only certain animate nouns, such as mor ‘man’ and mor-ir ‘men’. Other nouns do not inflect for number, such as is ‘bird/birds’.

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

A word list of Mor has also been collected by Johannes Anceaux.

Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. doi:10.15144/PL-572. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.