The Mabuso 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 closely related languages in New Guinea. They were linked with the
Rai Coast languages
The Rai Coast languages are a family of languages in the Madang stock of New Guinea.
Sidney Herbert Ray identified what was then known of the Rai Coast languages as a unit in 1919. They were linked with the Mabuso languages in 1951 by Arthur Cap ...
in 1951 by
Arthur Capell
Arthur Capell (28 March 1902 – 10 August 1986) was an Australian linguist, who made major contributions to the study of Australian languages, Austronesian languages and Papuan languages.
Early life
Capell was born in Newtown, New South Wale ...
in his
Madang
Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century.
Hist ...
family, which Wurm (1975) included in his
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) phylum.
Malcolm Ross reconstructed the pronouns of proto-Mabuso and noted that "the integrity of the Mabuso group is fairly obvious".
Languages
*
Hanseman languages (see)
*South Mabuso
**Kokon:
Girawa,
Kein (Bemal)
**Munit–Gum
***
Munit
***
Gum languages (see)
References
*Z'graggen, J.A. ''A comparative word list of the Mabuso languages, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea''. D-32, xvi + 199 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1980.
{{Madang languages
Languages of Papua New Guinea
Central Madang languages