The Finisterre–Huon languages comprise the largest

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 ...

within the

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. They were part of the original TNG proposal, and William A. Foley considers their TNG identity to be established. The languages share a small closed class of verbs taking pronominal object prefixes some of which are cognate (Suter 2012), strong morphological evidence that they are related.

History of classification

Huon and Finisterre, and then the connection between them, were identified by Kenneth McElhanon (1967, 1970). When McElhanon compared notes with his colleague Clemens Voorhoeve, who was working on the languages of southern Irian Jaya, they developed the concept of Trans–New Guinea. Apart from the evidence which unites them, the Finisterre and Huon families are clearly valid language families in their own right, each consisting of several fairly-well defined branches. (See Finisterre languages and Huon languages.)

Pronouns

Ross (2005) reconstructs the pronouns as follows: : These are not all coherent: 3sg *ya and *i are found in Huon, for example, while 3sg *wa is found in Finisterre. In other cases, however, the multiple forms are found in both branches.

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) and McElhanon (1967), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

Evolution

Finisterre-Huon reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:

Kâte language Kâte is a Papuan language spoken by about 6,000 people in the Finschhafen District of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It is part of the Finisterre–Huon branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family (McElhanon 1975, Ross 2005). It was a ...

: *''bɔruŋ'' ‘flame’ < *mbalaŋ ‘flame’ *''butoŋ'' ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C *''bekɔ'' ‘orphan’ < *mbVŋga(-masi) *''masiŋ'' ‘widow’ < *masi *''sambɔŋ'' ‘sky’ < *sambV ‘cloud’ *''tofeʔ'' ‘saliva’ < *si(mb,p)atV *''lo-'' ‘take’ < *(nd,t)a- *''munduŋ'' ‘inner yolk of egg’ < *mundun ‘internal organs’ *''go'' ‘2sg’ < *ŋga *''hɔmo-'' ‘die’ < *kumV- *''bɔriʔ'' ‘glitter, flash of lightning’ < *(m,mb)elak ‘light, lightning’ *''mi'' ‘not’ < *ma-'' ‘not’ *''maŋu(zo)'' ‘to vomit’ < *mV(k,ŋ)V t(e,i)- *''ame(ʔ)'' ‘breast’ < *amu *''tsimin(uŋ)'' ‘stiff coarse hair’ < * d,smu ,t ‘hair’ *''imeŋ'' ‘louse’ < *iman ‘louse’ *''no'' ‘1sg’ < *na ‘1sg’ *''nɔ-'' ‘eat’ < *na-

Selepet language Selepet (or Selepe) is a Papuan languages, Papuan language spoken in Selepet Rural LLG, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Evolution Below are some reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea proposed by Andrew Pawley, Pawley (2012): References

...

: *''balam'' ‘flame’ < *mbalaŋ *''(ni)bilim'' ‘tongue’ < *mbilaŋ *''kɔlɔp'' ‘fire’ < *kend(o,u)p *''kɔlip'' ‘long’ < *kuta(mb,p)(a,u) *''irak'' ‘new’ < *kVtak *''sak'' ‘sand’ < *sa(ŋg,k)asin *''somot'' ‘hair’ < *(s,nd)umu(n,t) *''madu'' ‘orphan’ < *masi *''si-'' ‘burn’ < *nj(a,e,i)- ‘burn’ *''ga'' ‘2sg’ < *ŋga *''kaku-'' ‘carry on shoulder’ < *kakV- *''kɔu'' ‘ashes’ < *kambu ‘ashes’ *''belek'' ‘lightning’ < *(m,mb)elak *''ibi'' ‘name’ < *imbi *''mete'' ‘forehead’ < *me(n,t)e ‘head’ *''man-'' ‘live, dwell’ < *mVn *''imen'' ‘louse’ < *iman'' ‘louse’ *''(n)am'' ‘breast, milk’ < *amu ‘breast’

Footnotes

References