West Bomberai languages

Of the three languages on the mainland, Baham and Iha are closely related to each other while the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages: • Mbaham–Iha: Baham (Mbaham), Iha • Kalamang (Karas) • Timor–Alor–Pantar This split, with two of the three branches on the mainland, suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may be the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did, as Austronesian influence post-dates Proto–West Bomberai and even Proto-Timor–Alor–Pantar. ==History of classification==

Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon included Timor–Alor–Pantar and mainland West Bomberai as separate stocks within Trans–New Guinea. Ross grouped them together to form a branch of his proposed West Trans–New Guinea stock, though with mainland West Bomberai as an additional branch within Timor–Alor–Pantar. Holton & Robinson (2014) found little evidence to support a connection of Timor–Alor–Pantar with Trans–New Guinea, but Holton & Robinson (2017) conceded that a relationship with Trans-New Guinea, and in particular with West Bomberai, was the most likely hypothesis. Usher & Schapper (2022) established that the two mainland branches of the family are no closer to each other than they are to the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages – indeed that Kalamang might be the most divergent, and Usher has begun to reconstruct the West Bomberai protolanguage. ==Phonemes==

Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the following inventory of consonants: Word-initial *k and *kʷ become *ʔ and *w in TAP. *kʷ becomes /k/ and intervocalic *p *t *k become /w, r, zero/ in Kalamang. Prenasalized plosives did not occur initially in Proto-West Bomberai, having merged with the voiceless plosives. Medially, *mb *nd *ŋɡ become voiced stops in TAP; this is an areal feature, with proto-Austronesian *mb *nd *ŋɡ having done the same in neighboring Austronesian languages. The vowels are still uncertain, but are likely to have been a simple *a *e *i *o *u system and appear to have included a diphthong *ai. ==Pronouns==

Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the free pronouns as: : The correspondences are mostly straightforward; initial *k has been lost from Timor–Alor–Pantar. ==Cognates==

Protoforms of the 40 most-stable items in the Swadesh list include the following. : == References ==