Hatam (also spelled ''Hattam, Atam'') is a divergent language spoken on the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, specifically in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n province of West Papua.

Classification

Apart from Mansim (Borai), formerly listed as a dialect, Hatam is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the

West Papuan languages The West Papuan languages are a proposed language family of about two dozen non-Austronesian languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula (Vogelkop or Doberai Peninsula) of far western New Guinea, the island of Halmahera and its vicinity, spoken by ...

, based on similarities in pronouns, ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' and

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

list it as a

language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...

or small independent family.

Distribution

Hatam is spoken on the island of

in the following regencies in the Indonesian province of West Papua: * Pegunungan Arfak Regency: Menyambouw District, Anggi District, Anggi Dida District, Catubouw District, and Hingk District *

Manokwari Regency Manokwari Regency is a regency in West Papua, Indonesia. Following the splitting away of twenty of its former districts in 2013, it now covers an area of 2,762.89 km2 and had a population of 192,663 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, ...

: Manokwari Barat District, Manokwari Selatan District, Tanah Rubuh District, Warmare District, Prafi District * Manokwari Selatan Regency: Oransbari District (Masabui 1 and Masabui 2 villages) and Ransiki District (Sabri village)

Phonology

The phonology of the Hatam language is listed below. In free form, both consonant and vowel phonemes can range to different sounds.

Classification

Distribution

Phonology

References

Further reading