The Taulil–Butam or Butam–Taulil 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
East New Britain Province
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely d ...
,
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 may be related to the
Baining languages
The Baining languages are a small language family spoken by the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. They appear to be related to the neighboring Taulil–Butam languages, which immigrated from New Irela ...
. Speakers consistently report that their ancestors came from
New Ireland.
Classification
The languages are:
*
Taulil
*
Butam (extinct)
The languages are not close but are clearly related. They are classified with the
Baining languages
The Baining languages are a small language family spoken by the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. They appear to be related to the neighboring Taulil–Butam languages, which immigrated from New Irela ...
in an
East New Britain
East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely de ...
family by Ross (2001, 2005), based on similarities in their pronominal paradigms, but so far no other work has been done to support such a connection. The Austronesian impact on the languages, or at least on Taulil, is small.
See also
*
Baining languages
The Baining languages are a small language family spoken by the Baining people on the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. They appear to be related to the neighboring Taulil–Butam languages, which immigrated from New Irela ...
*
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogr ...
References
*
Ross, Malcolm (2005). Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages." In: Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide and Jack Golson, eds, ''Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples,'' 15-66. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
External links
East New Britain languages database at TransNewGuinea.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taulil-Butam languages
East New Britain languages
Languages of East New Britain Province