The East Kutubuan 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
Trans–New Guinea languages
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia.
Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...
(TNG) in the classification of
Malcolm Ross. There are just two languages,
:
Fiwaga and
Foi,
which are not close to the
West Kutubuan languages. These were linked in a "Kutubuan" family by Franklin and Voorhoeve in 1973, but there is some debate over whether they are closer to each other than to other Kikorian languages. Although East Kutubuan has proto-TNG vocabulary, Ross considers its inclusion in TNG to be questionable.
References
*
{{Languages of Papua New Guinea
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Kutubuan languages