Molof language

Molof
Molof
Poule
Region	Papua: 9 villages located 100 km to the south of Jayapura; in Keerom Regency, Senggi District, Molof village
Native speakers	230 (2005)
Language family	Unclassified, possibly Pauwasi or language isolate
Language codes
ISO 639-3	msl
Glottolog	molo1262
ELP	Powle-Ma

Molof (Ampas, Poule, Powle-Ma) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.^[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]

Molof has a small consonant inventory, but a large one for vowels.

Molof consonants, quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):^[3]

	Labial		Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
	plain	labial	Alveolar	Palatal	plain	labial
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Plosive	p		t		k	kʷ
Fricative	f	fʷ	s
Liquid			r
Semivowel				j		w

Molof vowels (8 total), quoted by Foley (2018) from Donohue (n.d.):^[3]

Basic vocabulary of Molof from Rumaropen (2005), quoted in Foley (2018):^[5]^[3]

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1971, 1975),^[6]^[7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:^[8]

^ ^a ^b Molof at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages Archived 2020-11-25 at the Wayback Machine. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d 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.
^ New Guinea World
^ Rumaropen, Benny. 2005. Sociolinguistic Report of the Poulle Language of Molof and Waley Villages, Keeron District, Papua, Indonesia. Unpublished manuscript. Jayapura: SIL Indonesia.
^ 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
^ 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
^ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.