Nor–Pondo languages

Nor–Pondo
Lower Sepik
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Ramu–Lower Sepik Nor–Pondo
Subdivisions:	Nor Pondo  ?Angoram  ?Chambri
Glottolog:	lowe1423

The Nor–Pondo aka Lower Sepik languages are a small language family of northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-defunct 1973 Sepik–Ramu family. Malcolm Ross (2005) broke up the Nor branch and thus renamed the family Lower Sepik; he classifies it as one branch of a Ramu–Lower Sepik language family. Ethnologue (2009) keeps Nor together but breaks up Pondo.

Classification

Lower Sepik   (Nor–Pondo)	Nor family (?)  Murik Kopar  Pondo family (?)  Chambri Karawari (Tabriak), Yimas Angoram

Ross (2005) notes Murik does not share the /p/s characteristic of the first- and second-person pronouns of Kopar and the Pondo languages, so the latter may form a group: Murik vs Kopar–Pondo. Foley (2005) tentatively proposes that Chambri and Angoram may be primary branches: Nor, Chambari, Karawari–Yimas, Angoram.

Pronouns

The pronouns reconstructed for the proto-language are,

Proto–Lower Sepik (Ross)

I	*ama	we two	*ka-i, *ka-pia	we few	*(p)a-ŋk-i-t	we all	*a-i, *a-pia, *i-pi
thou	*nɨmi	you two	*ka-u, *ka-pua	you few	*(p)a-ŋk-u-t	you all	*a-u, *a-pu, *i-pu(a)
s/he	*mɨn	they two	*mɨnɨmp ? (M), *mpɨ ? (F)	they few	*mɨŋkɨ-t	they all	*mump (M), *pum (F)

Proto-Nor–Pondo (Foley)

we two	*ka-i, *ka-pa-i	we few	*(pa)ŋk-it	we all	*a-i, *a-pa-i, *(y)i-i, *(y)i-pa-i
you two	*ka-u, *ka-pa-u	you few	*(pa)ŋk-ut	you all	*a-u, *a-pa-u, *(y)i-u, *(y)i-pa-u
they two	?	they few	*mɨŋkɨ	they all	*mump ?