The Arafundi languages are a small
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of clearly related languages in
East Sepik Province
East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size.
History
Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier b ...
,
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. They are conjectured to be related to the
Piawi and
Madang languages
The Madang or Madang–Adelbert Range languages are a language family of Papua New Guinea. They were classified as a branch of Trans–New Guinea by Stephen Wurm, followed by Malcolm Ross. William A. Foley concurs that it is "highly likely" t ...
. They are named after the
Arafundi River.
Alfendio is an old synonym for ''Arafundi'', from when it was still considered a single language.
Languages
The Arafundi languages form a
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...
where language boundaries are blurred.
The Arafundi languages are,
[Usher, Timothy (2020) New Guinea World]
Arafundi River
/ref>
* Nanubae
* Tapei
* Andai (Meakambut)
* Awiakay (Karamba)
Kassell, et al. (2018) recognize Andai, Nanubae, and Tapei.
Foley (2018) cites Hoenigman (2015) for 'Upper Arafundi' and 'Lower Arafundi', as well as listing Awiakay and 'Imboin'.
Classification
Laycock (1973) grouped the Arafundi languages with the Ramu languages
The Ramu languages are a family of some thirty languages of Northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by John Z'graggen in 1971 and linked with the Sepik languages by Donald Laycock two years later. Malcolm Ross (2005) classi ...
, although (according to his comments in the introduction) this grouping was apparently impressionistic and not based on either reconstructive work or lexicostatistics. Ross (2005) retains Laycock's grouping without comment. However, Foley (2005) does not include Arafundi within Ramu, and ''Ethnologue'' (2009) shows them as an independent family. Foley has suggested instead that the Arafundi and Piawi languages
The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and M ...
may be related (Comrie 1992), a position confirmed by Timothy Usher.NewGuineaWorld Arafundi and Upper Yuat Rivers
/ref>
Proto-language
Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-Arafundi River by Usher (2020) are:[
:
]
See also
* Yimas-Arafundi Pidgin
References
* Comrie, Bernard. "The recognition of the Piawi language family." In Tom Dutton, Malcolm Ross and Darrell Tryon, eds. ''The language game: Papers in memory of Donald C. Laycock''. 111-113. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 1992.
*
* Laycock, Donald. ''Sepik languages - checklist and preliminary classification''. Pacific Linguistics B-25. Canberra, 1973.
*
External links
Arafundi languages database at TransNewGuinea.orgArafundi River
New Guinea World.
{{Language families
Upper Yuat languages
Languages of East Sepik Province