The Senu River languages are a small
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
spoken in the
Senu River watershed of
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 consist at least of the Kwomtari languages,
Kwomtari and
Nai, with several additional languages more distantly related to them.
Classification
The family consists of at least the two relatively closely related languages Kwomtari and Nai.
Baron (1983)
Baron adds the highly divergent language Guriaso:
*Kwomtari stock
**
Guriaso
**Kwomtari–Nai family (Nuclear Kwomtari)
***
Kwomtari
***
Nai ( Biaka)
Guriaso shares a small number of cognates with Kwomtari–Nai. Baron (1983) considers the evidence to be convincing when a correspondence between and (from ) is established:
* Compare Biaka .
** Metathesis of /p/ and /t/.
Usher (2020)
Usher further classifies
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
(Nagatman) with Guriaso, and adds
Busa, all under the name "Senu River".
NewGuineaWorld Senu River
/ref>
;Senu River (Kwomtari–Busa)
* Kwomtari– Nai
* Guriaso–Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
*Odiai ( Busa)
Confusion from Laycock
There has been confusion over the membership of the Kwomtari family, apparently due to a misalignment in the publication (Loving & Bass 1964) of the data used for the initial classification. (See Baron 1983.) Because of this, Laycock classified the Kwomtari languages as part of a spurious Kwomtari–Fas family, which confusingly was also often called "Kwomtari" in the literature. However, Baron sees no evidence that the similarities are due to relationship. Usher likewise discounts the inclusion of the Fas languages. See Kwomtari–Fas languages for details.
References
*
*
*
External links
Kwomtari languages database at TransNewGuinea.orgWietze Baron, The Kwomtari Phylum
(accessed 2011-4-15)
{{language families
Language families
Languages of Sandaun Province