The Papuan languages are the non-

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

and non-

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal ...

languages spoken on the western Pacific island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

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 ...

, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan (non-Austronesian) speaking

Melanesians Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in a wide area from Indonesia's New Guinea to as far East as the islands of Vanuatu and Fiji. Most speak either one of the many languages of the Austronesian language fam ...

as distinct from

-speaking

was first suggested and named by

Sidney Herbert Ray Sidney Herbert Ray (28 May 1858 – 1 January 1939) was a British comparative and descriptive linguist who specialised in Melanesian languages.Papers and field notes relating to his linguistic work are held bSOAS Special Collections/ref> In 1 ...

in 1892.

is the most linguistically diverse region in the world. Besides the Austronesian languages, there are some (arguably) 800 languages divided into perhaps sixty small language families, with unclear relationships to each other or to any other languages, plus many

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

s. The majority of the Papuan languages are spoken on the island of New Guinea, with a number spoken in the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island ( Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. It was previously the main landmass in the German Empire-associated North Solomons. Its land area ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its ca ...

to the east, and in

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. H ...

Timor Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, al ...

and the Alor archipelago to the west. The westernmost language, Tambora in

Sumbawa Sumbawa is an Indonesian island, located in the middle of the Lesser Sunda Islands chain, with Lombok to the west, Flores to the east, and Sumba further to the southeast. Along with Lombok, it forms the province of West Nusa Tenggara, but there ...

, is extinct. One Papuan language, Meriam, is spoken within the national borders of Australia, in the eastern

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost extremity of the Australian ma ...

. Several languages of Flores,

Sumba Sumba ( id, Pulau Sumba) is an island in eastern Indonesia. It is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands and is in the province of East Nusa Tenggara. Sumba has an area of , and the population was 779,049 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as a ...

, and other islands of eastern Indonesia are classified as Austronesian but have large numbers of non-Austronesian words in their basic vocabulary and non-Austronesian grammatical features. It has been suggested that these may have originally been non-Austronesian languages that have borrowed nearly all of their vocabulary from neighboring Austronesian languages, but no connection with the Papuan languages of Timor has been found. In general, the

Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages The Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP) languages form a proposed branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 700 languages (Blust 1993). Distribution The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in the Lesser Sun ...

are marked by a significant historical Papuan influence, lexically, grammatically, and phonologically, and this is responsible for much of the diversity of the Austronesian language family.

Speaker numbers

Most Papuan languages are spoken by hundreds to thousands of people; the most populous are found in the

New Guinea highlands The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's tallest peak, Puncak Jaya , the highest mountain in Oceania. The range is home ...

, where a few exceed a hundred thousand. These include Western Dani (180,000 in 1993) and Ekari (100,000 reported 1985) in the western (Indonesian) highlands, and Enga (230,000 in 2000),

Huli Huli may refer to: * Huli (dish), a lentil-based dish, also called Sambar, common in South India and Sri Lanka * Huli people, indigenous people in Papua New Guinea * Huli language, language of Huli people * Huli District, district in Xiamen, Fujia ...

(150,000 reported 2011), and Melpa (130,000 reported 1991) in the eastern (PNG) highlands. To the west of New Guinea, the largest languages are

Makasae Makasae (also known as Makassai, Macassai, Ma'asae, Makasai) is a Papuan language spoken by about 100,000 people in the eastern part of East Timor, in the districts of Baucau and Viqueque, just to the west of Fataluku. It is the most widely spoke ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...

(100,000 in 2010) and Galela in

(80,000 reported 1990). To the east, Terei (27,000 reported 2003) and Naasioi (20,000 reported 2007) are spoken on Bougainville.

History of classification

Although there has been relatively little study of these languages compared with the Austronesian family, there have been three preliminary attempts at large-scale genealogical classification, by

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...

Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Early life Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and the Hungarian- ...

, and Malcolm Ross. The largest family posited for the Papuan region is the Trans–New Guinea

phylum In biology, a phylum (; plural: phyla) is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclatu ...

, consisting of the majority of Papuan languages and running mainly along the highlands of New Guinea. The various high-level families may represent distinct migrations into New Guinea, presumably from the west.Wurm 1975 Since perhaps only a quarter of Papuan languages have been studied in detail, linguists' understanding of the relationships between them will continue to be revised. Statistical analyses designed to pick up signals too faint to be detected by the comparative method, though of disputed validity, suggest five major Papuan stocks (roughly Trans–New Guinea,

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''no ...

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

, and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Papuan languages); long-range comparison has also suggested connections between selected languages, but again the methodology is not orthodox in historical linguistics. The

Great Andamanese languages The Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family once spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. History By the late 18th century, when the British first established a colonial presenc ...

may be related to some western Papuan languages, but are not themselves covered by the term Papuan.

Greenberg's classification

Joseph Greenberg proposed an

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

phylum containing the (Northern)

Andamanese languages The Andamanese languages are a pair of language families spoken by the Andamanese peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. The two language families are Great Andamanese and Ongan, while the Sentinelese language is spoken by an unc ...

, all Papuan languages, and the

Tasmanian languages The Tasmanian languages were the languages indigenous to the island of Tasmania, used by Aboriginal Tasmanians. The languages were last used for daily communication in the 1830s, although the terminal speaker, Fanny Cochrane Smith, survived u ...

, but not the Australian Aboriginal languages. Very few linguists accept his grouping. It is distinct from the Trans–New Guinea phylum of the classifications below.

Usher (2020)

Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter, with the advice of Papuan researchers such as

William Croft William Croft (baptised 30 December 1678 – 14 August 1727) was an English composer and organist. Life Croft was born at the Manor House, Nether Ettington, Warwickshire. He was educated at the Chapel Royal under the instruction of John Blow, ...

Matthew Dryer Matthew S. Dryer is a professor of linguistics at the State University of New York at Buffalo who has worked in typology, syntax, and language documentation. He is best known for his research on word order correlations, which has been widely cit ...

, John Lynch,

Andrew Pawley Andrew Kenneth Pawley (born 1941 in Sydney), FRSNZ, FAHA, is Emeritus Professor at the School of Culture, History & Language of the ''College of Asia & the Pacific'' at the Australian National University. Career Pawley was born in Sydney b ...

, and Malcolm Ross, have reconstructed low-level constituents of Papuan language families to verify which purported members truly belong to them. In many cases Usher and Suter have created new names for the member families to reflect their geographic location. Much of their classification is accepted by ''

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute fo ...

'' (though the names are not; ''Glottolog'' invents its own names). As of 2020, the following families are identified: *'' Abinomn'' * Arai and Samaia Rivers (unites Left May, Amto–Musan, and ''

Pyu Pyu, also spelled Phyu or Phyuu, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. is a town in Taungoo District, Bago Region in Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions requ ...

'') *

Bulaka River The Bulaka River is a river in southern Western Papua, in the Papua province, Indonesia.Sungai Bulaka
- Geonames ...

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay ( id, Teluk Cenderawasih, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay ( id, Teluk Sarera) and formerly Geelvink Bay ( nl, Geelvinkbaai), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Gui ...

(= East Geelvink Bay) * East Trans-Fly (unites Eastern Trans-Fly, Pahoturi, and ''

Waia WAIA (1600 AM) was a radio station formerly licensed to Beaver Dam, Kentucky, United States. The station was owned by Starlight Broadcasting Co., Inc. History The station originally signed on on June 21, 1969. Before October 1, 1996, it was W ...

'') * Enga – Southern Highlands *

Etna Bay Etna Bay ( id, Teluk Etna, nl, Etna-baai) is a bay in eastern Kaimana Regency, situated in the southeastern corner of West Papua province, Indonesia.Teluk Etnaat GeoNames.Org (cc-by) post updated 2012-01-17; database downloaded on 2015-11-27 Th ...

(= Mairasi) * Kaki Ae – Kerema Bay (= Eleman) * Keram and Ramu Rivers (= Ramu) *'' Kibiri-Porome'' * Kiwai *

Lakes Plains The Mamberamo Lakes Plains (Dutch Meervlakte, Malay ''dataran danau-danau'') are a large, flat low-lying area of the Mamberamo River basin in the Indonesian province Papua on the island of New Guinea. The plain is defined by the meandering trib ...

* Lower Sepik River *

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 ...

– Upper Yuat River (unites Arafundi and Piawi) * Middle Yuat River *

Morehead River The Morehead River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. It is located just to the east of the Bensbach River, and to the west of the Fly River. The river flows through the Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands. The mouth of the river is loca ...

(= Yam) *

Nawa River Nawa may refer to: * Nawa, Rajasthan, a city and Tehsil in Nagaur district in the Indian State of Rajasthan * Nawa District, a district in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan * Nawa, Afghanistan, a town in the central part of Nawa District, in Ghazni Pr ...

(= Kaure–Kosare) * Northwest New Guinea (tentative. unites Fas, Sentani,

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political bo ...

, Sko, and Tor–Kwerba–Nimboran) * Oro – Wharton Range (unites Binanderean and Goilalan) *

Papuan Gulf The Gulf of Papua is located in the southern coast region of New Guinea. It has a total surface area of . Geography Some of New Guinea's largest rivers, such as the Fly River, Turama River, Kikori River, Purari River, and Wawoi River flow i ...

(tentative. unites Kutubuan– Kikorian, East Strickland, Doso–Turumsa, Gogodala–Suki, and Teberan–'' Wiru''–'' Pawaia'') *

Pauwasi River Pauwasi may refer to: *Pauwasi languages *East Pauwasi languages *West Pauwasi languages *South Pauwasi languages The South Pauwasi languages are a likely small language family of New Guinea, potentially consisting of Yetfa, Kimki, Lepki, Mu ...

(expands Pauwasi with several recently discovered languages) * Senagi *

Senu River The Senu River is a river in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. Senu Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) GeoNames (or GeoNames.org) is a user editable geographical database available and accessible through various web services, under a Creative ...

(unites '' Kwomtari'', '' Nagatman'', and '' Busa'') *

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

* Simbu – Western Highlands (= Chimbu–Wahgi) * Torricelli Range – Sepik Coast (= Torricelli) * Trans–New Guinea * West Papua In addition, poorly attested

Karami Karami (Arabic كرامي) is an Arabic-based Lebanese surname, particularly that of a famous Lebanese Sunni Muslim political family. It is often francicised in the media as Karamé. It is to be differentiated from the Classical Arabic term Kar ...

remains unclassified. Extinct Tambora and the

East Papuan languages The East Papuan languages is a defunct proposal for a family of Papuan languages spoken on the islands to the east of New Guinea, including New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, and the Santa Cruz Islands. There is no ev ...

have not been addressed, except to identify Yele as an Austronesian language.

Wurm (1975)

The most widely used classification of Papuan languages is that of

, listed below with the approximate number of languages in each family in parentheses. This was the scheme used by '' Ethnologue'' prior to Ross's classification (below). It is based on very preliminary work, much of it

typological Typology is the study of types or the systematic classification of the types of something according to their common characteristics. Typology is the act of finding, counting and classification facts with the help of eyes, other senses and logic. Ty ...

, and Wurm himself has stated that he doesn't expect it to hold up well to scrutiny. Other linguists, including

William A. Foley William A. Foley (''William Auguste "Bill" Foley;'' born 1949) is an American linguist and professor at Columbia University He was previously located at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Papuan and Austronesian languages. Foley develo ...

, have suggested that many of Wurm's phyla are based on

areal feature In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a proto-language, or, common ancestor language. That is, an areal feature is contrasted ...

s and structural similarities, and accept only the lowest levels of his classification, most of which he inherited from prior taxonomies. Foley (1986) divides Papuan languages into over sixty small language families, plus a number of isolates. However, more recently Foley has accepted the broad outline if not the details of Wurm's classification, as he and Ross have substantiated a large portion of Wurm's Trans–New Guinea phylum. According to

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sout ...

(see below), the main problem with Wurm's classification is that he did not take contact-induced change into account. For example, several of the main branches of his Trans–New Guinea phylum have no vocabulary in common with other Trans–New Guinea languages, and were classified as Trans–New Guinea because they are similar

grammatically In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domai ...

. However, there are also many Austronesian languages that are grammatically similar to Trans–New Guinea languages due to the influence of contact and bilingualism. Similarly, several groups that do have substantial basic vocabulary in common with Trans–New Guinea languages are excluded from the phylum because they do not resemble it grammatically. Wurm believed the Papuan languages arrived in several waves of migration with some of the earlier languages (perhaps including the Sepik–Ramu languages) being related to the Australian languages, a later migration bringing the West Papuan, Torricelli and the East Papuan languages and a third wave bringing the most recent pre-Austronesian migration, the Trans–New Guinea family. *

Amto–Musan languages Amto–Musan is a language family of two closely related but mutually unintelligible Papuan languages, Amto and Siawi, spoken along the Samaia River of Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea. Languages Foley (2018) and Usher (2020) agree that t ...

(2) * ''

Burmeso language The Burmeso language – also known as Taurap – is spoken by some 300 people in Burmeso village along the mid Mamberamo River in Mamberamo Tengah subdistrict, Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua province, Indonesia. It is surrounded by the Kwerba l ...

'' (isolate) * '' Busa language'' (isolate) *

East Bird's Head languages East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

(3) *

(36) *

Geelvink Bay languages The East Geelvink Bay or East Cenderawasih languages are a language family of a dozen Papuan languages along the eastern coast of Geelvink Bay in Indonesian Papua, which is also known as Sarera Bay or Cenderawasih. Languages The East Geelvink ...

(12) * '' Yuri language'' (isolate) * ''

Porome language Porome, also known as Kibiri, is a Papuan language of southern Papua New Guinea. Classification Porome was classified as a language isolate by Stephen Wurm. Although Malcolm Ross linked it to the Kiwaian languages, there is no evidence for ...

'' (isolate) * Kwomtari–Baibai languages (6) *

Left May languages The Left May or Arai languages are a small language family of half a dozen closely related but not mutually intelligible languages in the centre of New Guinea, in the watershed of the Left May River. There are only about 2,000 speakers in all. F ...

(7) * Sepik–Ramu languages (104) *

Sko languages The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the Vanimo coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indone ...

(7) *

Torricelli languages The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh ...

(48) *

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-lar ...

(598) *

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 b ...

(26) * ''

Yalë language The Yalë language, also known as Nagatman, is spoken in northwestern Papua New Guinea. It may be related to the Kwomtari languages, but Palmer (2018) classifies it as a language isolate. There were 600 speakers in 1991 and 30 monolinguals at a ...

'' (isolate) Two of Wurm's isolates have since been linked as the *

Lower Mamberamo languages The Lower Mamberamo languages are a recently proposed language family linking two languages spoken along the northern coast of Papua province, Indonesia, near the mouth of the Mamberamo River. They have various been classified either as heavily P ...

(2), and since Wurm's time another isolate and two languages belonging to a new family have been discovered, * ''

Abinomn language The Abinomn language (Avinomen, Foya) is a likely language isolate initially reported by Mark Donohue from Papua province, Indonesia. It is also known as Avinomen, Baso (deprecated), and Foia. There are about 300 speakers. Classification Abinomn ...

'' (isolate) *

Bayono–Awbono languages Bayono–Awbono is a recently discovered Papuan language cluster spoken in Papua Province, Indonesia, to the south of the Somahai languages. All that is known of them is a few hundred words recorded in first-contact situations recorded in Wilbri ...

(2).

Foley (2003)

Foley summarized the state of the literature. Besides Trans–New Guinea and families possibly belonging in TNG ( see), he accepted the proposals for, *

Lower Sepik-Ramu Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also

*Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

( Lower Sepik + Lower Ramu) * Middle Sepik (incl. Ndu and maybe Sepik Hill) * Torricelli * Sko *

Lakes Plain The Mamberamo Lakes Plains (Dutch Meervlakte, Malay ''dataran danau-danau'') are a large, flat low-lying area of the Mamberamo River basin in the Indonesian province Papua on the island of New Guinea. The plain is defined by the meandering tribu ...

and

(probably related) * East Bird's Head * West Bird's Head * Marind * Bougainville (2 branches not close to each other:

North Bougainville North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''no ...

+ South Bougainville)

Ross (2005)

Malcolm Ross re-evaluated Wurm's proposal on purely lexical grounds. That is, he looked at shared vocabulary, and especially shared idiosyncrasies analogous to English ''I'' and ''me'' vs. German ''ich'' and ''mich''. The poor state of documentation of Papuan languages restricts this approach largely to

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...

s. Nonetheless, Ross believes that he has been able to validate much of Wurm's classification, albeit with revisions to correct for Wurm's partially typological approach. (See

.) '' Ethnologue'' (2009) largely follows Ross. It has been suggested that the families that appear when comparing pronouns may be due to pronoun borrowing rather than to genealogical relatedness. However, Ross argues that Papuan languages have closed-class pronoun systems, which are resistant to borrowing, and in any case that the massive number of languages with similar pronouns in a family like Trans–New Guinea preclude borrowing as an explanation. Also, he shows that the two cases of alleged pronoun borrowing in New Guinea are simple coincidence, explainable as regular developments from the protolanguages of the families in question: as earlier forms of the languages are reconstructed, their pronouns become ''less'' similar, not more. (Ross argues that open-class pronoun systems, where borrowings are common, are found in hierarchical cultures such as those of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and Japan, where pronouns indicate details of relationship and social status rather than simply being grammatical

pro-form In linguistics, a pro-form is a type of function word or expression that stands in for (expresses the same content as) another word, phrase, clause or sentence where the meaning is recoverable from the context. They are used either to avoid repe ...

s as they are in the more egalitarian New Guinea societies.) Ross has proposed 23 Papuan language families and 9–13 isolates. However, because of his more stringent criteria, he was not able to find enough data to classify all Papuan languages, especially many isolates that have no close relatives to aid in their classification. Ross also found that the

(or at least the Warembori language—he had insufficient data on Pauwi) are Austronesian languages that have been heavily transformed by contact with Papuan languages, much as the

Takia language Takia is an Austronesian language spoken on Karkar Island, Bagabag Island, and coastal villages Megiar and Serang, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), offic ...

has. The

Reef Islands – Santa Cruz languages A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock o ...

of Wurm's East Papuan phylum were a potential 24th family, but subsequent work has shown them to be highly divergent Austronesian languages as well. Note that while this classification may be more reliable than past attempts, it is based on a single parameter, ''pronouns,'' and therefore must remain tentative. Although pronouns are conservative elements in a language, they are short and utilise a reduced set of the language's

phonemic inventory In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...

. Both phenomena greatly increase the possibility of chance resemblances, especially when they are not confirmed by

lexical Lexical may refer to: Linguistics * Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language * Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification * Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge * Lexica ...

similarities. * Trans–New Guinea (reduced to 466–493 languages) * ?

Extended West Papuan 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 ab ...

(tentative) **

(27) **

East Bird's Head – Sentani languages The East Bird's Head – Sentani languages form a family of Papuan languages proposed by Malcolm Ross which combines the East Bird's Head and Sentani families along with the Burmeso language isolate. Sentani had been a branch of Stephen Wurm's ...

(9) ** ''

Yawa Yawa may refer to: Language *Yawa language (Papuan) *Yawa languages (Austronesian) *Gugu Yawa language, Australia *Yahua language, Amazon People *Xolile Yawa *Yawa Hansen-Quao *Tōsanjin Yawa Places *Yawa, Central African Republic, a village in L ...

'' (1–2) *

Mairasi languages The Mairasi languages, also known as Etna Bay are a small independent family of Papuan languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are named after ...

(4) * East Cenderawasih (Geelvink Bay) languages (10) *

Lakes Plain languages The Lakes Plain languages are a family of Papuan languages, spoken in the Lakes Plain of Indonesian New Guinea. They are notable for being heavily tonal and for their lack of nasal consonants. Classification The Lakes Plain languages were tenta ...

(19; upper

Mamberamo River The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,146 km) and third largest in Oceania by discharge (5,500 m3/s) volume after Fly River (7,500 m3/s) and Sepik (7,000 m3 ...

) *

Tor–Kwerba languages The Foja Range languages, or Tor–Kwerba in more limited scope, are a family of about two dozen Papuan languages. They are named after the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea. Languages All the languages had been part of Stephen Wurm's 1975 ...

(17) *

Nimboran languages The Nimboran languages are a small family of Papuan languages, spoken in the Grime River watershed, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. However, when proto-Nimboran pronouns are reconstructed ''(*genam'' "I" and '' ...

(5) *

Skou languages The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the Vanimo coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indon ...

(8) *

Border languages The Border or Upper Tami languages are an independent family of Papuan languages in Malcolm Ross's version of the Trans–New Guinea proposal. Unlike the neighboring Sepik languages and many other Papuan language families of northern New Guine ...

(15) *

Left May – Kwomtari languages The Left May – Kwomtari or Arai–Kwomtari languages are a possible small family of Papuan languages proposed by Malcolm Ross, which links the Left May (Arai) family with the Kwomtari–Fas proposal (Loving & Bass 1964). However, the propos ...

(13) (problematic) ** Left May (7) ** Fas (2) **? Kwomtari (3) *

Senagi languages The Senagi languages are a small family of Papuan languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They consist of the two languages Angor and Dera. The Angor language is unusu ...

(2) (perhaps related to Sepik) *

(40–50) (perhaps related to Sepik) *

Sepik languages The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have ...

(51) *

Ramu – Lower Sepik languages The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...

(40) (first proposed by Foley) *

Yuat languages The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an independent family in the classification of Malcolm Ross, but are included in Stephen Wurm's ...

(5) *

Piawi languages The Piawi languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken in the Schraeder Range of the Madang Highlands of Papua New Guinea that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New Guinea proposal. They are now connected to the Arafundi and ...

(2) (perhaps in Ramu) * South-Central Papuan languages (22) *

Eastern Trans-Fly languages The Eastern Trans-Fly (or Oriomo Plateau) languages are a small independent family of Papuan languages spoken in the Oriomo Plateau to the west of the Fly River in New Guinea. Classification The languages constituted a branch of Stephen Wurm ...

(4; one in Australia) * ?

Yele – West New Britain languages Yele – West New Britain is a tentative language family proposal by Malcolm Ross that unites three languages: Anêm and Ata (Wasi) of western New Britain, and more dubiously Yélî Dnye (Yele) of Rossel Island. These were classified as East P ...

(tentative) ** '' Yélî Dnye'' (Yele) (isolate) ** '' Anêm'' (isolate) ** '' Ata'' (Pele-Ata, Wasi) (isolate) * Baining (East New Britain) languages (8) *

North Bougainville languages The North Bougainville or West Bougainville languages are a small language family spoken on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. They were classified as East Papuan languages by Stephen Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable, and wa ...

(4) *

South Bougainville languages The South Bougainville or East Bougainville languages are a small language family spoken on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. They were classified as East Papuan languages by Stephen Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable, and wa ...

(9) *

Central Solomons languages The Central Solomon languages are the four Papuan languages spoken in the state of the Solomon Islands. The four languages are, listed from northwest to southeast, * Bilua of Vella Lavella and Ghizo islands, * Touo (also known as ''Baniata)'' o ...

(4) ;Language isolates Sorted by location ''north

Irian New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres S ...

:'' *

(Baso, Foia) *

Isirawa language Isirawa is a Papuan language spoken by about two thousand people on the north coast of Papua province, Indonesia. It's a local trade language, and use is vigorous. Stephen Wurm (1975) linked it to the Kwerba languages within the Trans–New Guin ...

(Donohue links it to Kwerba) ''

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capita ...

:'' *

Karkar language The Karkar language, also known as Yuri, is the sole Eastern Pauwasi language of Papua New Guinea. There are about a thousand speakers along the Indonesian border spoken in Green River Rural LLG, Sandaun Province. Writing system Dialects ...

(Yuri) – since shown to be a

Pauwasi language The Pauwasi languages are a likely family of Papuan languages, mostly in Indonesia. The subfamilies are at best only distantly related. The best described Pauwasi language is Karkar, across the border in Papua New Guinea. They are spoken around ...

* Busa language *

(Nagatman) ''

:'' *

Taiap language Tayap (also spelled Taiap; called Gapun in earlier literature, after the name of the village in which it is spoken) is an endangered Papuan language spoken by fewer than 50 people in Gapun village of Marienberg Rural LLG in East Sepik Province, ...

(Gapun), located on what had been an offshore island 4000 BCE ''

:'' *

Sulka language Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea. In 1991, there were 2,500 speakers in eastern Pomio District, East New Britain Province. Villages include Guma () in East Pomio Rural LLG.Reesink, Ger. 2005. Sulka of East New Brita ...

, on

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the D ...

* Kol language, on New Britain *

Kuot language The Kuot language, or Panaras, is a language isolate, the only non-Austronesian language spoken on the island of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. Lindström (2002: 30) estimates that there are 1,500 fluent speakers of Kuot. Perhaps due to the sm ...

(Panaras), on

New Ireland New Ireland may refer to: Geography * New Ireland (island), large island in the state of Papua New Guinea * New Ireland Province, administrative division of Papua New Guinea Politics * United Ireland, the proposed unification of the islan ...

;Other Former isolates classified by Ross: *

(Taurap), in the

(Kibiri), in the Kiwai family of Trans–New Guinea *

Morwap language Elseng (Morwap, Janggu, Sawa, Tabu) is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 300 people (in 1991) in the Indonesian province of Papua. It is also known as Morwap, which means "what is it?" ‘Morwap’ is vigorously rejected as ...

(Elseng), in the

(on basic lexical resemblances) Languages reassigned to the Austronesian family: * Lower Mamberamo (Donohue argues this is a relexified Papuan family;

Yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, u ...

may not belong) *

Kazukuru language Kazukuru is an extinct language that was once spoken in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. The Dororo and Guliguli languages (if they even existed) were transcriptional variants, dialects, or closely related. The speakers of Kazukuru gradually merged ...

(2007) * Reef Islands – Santa Cruz (2007) Unclassified due to lack of data: *

(2) * Kenati (isolate) * Komyandaret (isolate) * Maramba (unattested) * Massep (isolate) * Molof (isolate) * Momuna family: Momina, Momuna (Somahai) * Samarokena (apparently Kwerba) *

Saponi The Saponi or Sappony are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.Raymond D. DeMaillie, "Tutelo and Neighboring Groups," pages 286–87. They spoke a Siouan language, related to the languages of ...

(shares basic vocab, but not pronouns, with Lakes Plains) * Tause (Ross placed it provisionally in East Bird's Head – Sentani to encourage research, but does not claim it is related) * Tofamna (isolate) *

Usku Usku, or Afra, is a nearly extinct and poorly documented Papuan language spoken by 20 or more people, mostly adults, in Usku village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency, Papua, Indonesia. Wurm (1975) placed it as an independent branch of Tran ...

(isolate) Unaccounted for: * Bayono-Awbono (TNG) *

(isolate, has been classified as Kwomtari–Baibai) * Kosare *

Kapori Kapori (Kapauri) is a Papuan language of Pagai Pagai is a village on the southeast coast of Tutuila Island, American Samoa. It is located on the edge of Faga'itua Bay, and in between the villages of Faga'itua and Alofau. Pagai is six mile ...

* Purari (has been linked to Eleman, but with little evidence) * There is a cluster of languages in West Papua between the upper

Taritatu River The Taritatu or Idenburg River also called Baliem River is a river in the northern part of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is the largest tributary of Mamberamo River with a total length of . Name During the Dutch colonial era it was know ...

and the PNG border, including Molof, Usku, and Tofamna listed above but also Namla, Murkim, Lepki, and Kembra, which do not appear to be related to each other or to other languages in the area. Namla, recently discovered, may prove to be related to Tofamna once more data comes in. Murkim and Lepki show some similarities to each other, though these may not be genetic. * Tambora (unclassified, with one lexical item possibly connecting it to languages of Timor) * Doso * Kimki

Wichmann (2013)

Søren Wichmann Søren Wichmann (born 1964) is a Danish linguist specializing in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, Mesoamerican languages, and epigraphy. Since June 2016, he has been employed as a University Lecturer at Leiden University Centre for Li ...

(2013) accepts the following 109 groups as coherent Papuan families, based on computational analyses performed by the

Automated Similarity Judgment Program The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) is a collaborative project applying computational approaches to comparative linguistics using a database of word lists. The database is open access and consists of 40-item basic-vocabulary lists f ...

(ASJP) combined with

Harald Hammarström Harald Hammarström (born 1977 in Västerås, Sweden) is a Swedish linguist. He is currently an Associate Senior Lecturer at Uppsala University. Hammarström is especially known for his extensive work on curating ''Glottolog'', a bibliographic dat ...

's (2012) classification. Some of the groups could turn out to be related to each other, but Wichmann (2013) lists them as separate groups pending further research. 9 families have been broken up into separate groups in Wichmann's (2013) classification, which are: * Biksi (2 groups) * Dibiyaso- Doso-Turumsa (2 groups) * Kwalean (2 groups) *

Lower Sepik-Ramu Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also

*Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

(5 groups) * Morehead-Wasur (2 groups) * Nuclear Trans-New Guinea (16 groups) * Pauwasi (2 groups: ''Western'' and ''Eastern'') * Sentanic (2 groups) * Sko (2 groups) # West Timor-Alor-Pantar /

-''

Bunaq The Bunak (also known as Bunaq, Buna', Bunake) people are an ethnic group that live in the mountainous region of central Timor, split between the political boundary between West Timor, Indonesia, particularly in Lamaknen District and East Tim ...

'' # South Bougainville #'' Wiru'' # Namla-Tofanma #ex-Pauwasi-1 (Western Pauwasi) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-1 ( Asmat–Kamoro) # Mombum # Marindic #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-2 ( Awyu–Dumut) # Inland Gulf #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-3 (''

Oksapmin Oksapmin is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in Oksapmin Rural LLG, Telefomin District, Sandaun, Papua New Guinea. The two principal dialects are distinct enough to cause some problems with mutual intelligibility. Oksapmin has dyadic kins ...

'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-4 ( Ok) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-5 ( Finisterre-Huon) # Goilalan #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-6 ( Chimbu–Wahgi) #''

Kamula Kamula (Kamira, Wawoi) is a Trans–New Guinea language that is unclassified within that family in the classification of Malcolm Ross (2005). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018) leave it as unclassified. Demographics ...

'' / Awin–Pa / Bosavi / East Strickland #ex-Dibiyaso-Doso-Turumsa-1 ('' Dibiyaso'') # Angan # Duna-Bogaya #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-7 ( Engan) #

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

/ Ndu / Walio # Greater Kwerba / Tor-Orya #

Nimboran Nimboran (Nambrong) is a Papuan language of Nimboran District, Jayapura Regency, Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of ...

/ '' Kapauri'' /

#'' Elseng'' #

North Halmahera North Halmahera Regency ( id, Kabupaten Halmahera Utara) is a regency (on Halmahera Island) of North Maluku Province, Indonesia. It was declared a Regency on 31 May 2003. The capital town of the regency lies at the port of Tobelo. The Regency, ...

#'' Yalë'' #ex-Dibiyaso-Doso-Turumsa-2 ( Doso-Turumsa) # Kwomtari #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-8 ( Mek) #ex-Morehead-Wasur-1 ('' Yey, Nambu'') # Hatam-Mansim #''

Mor Mor or MOR may refer to: Names and titles * Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor * Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór * Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac Radio and television * Middle of the road (music) genre * ...

'' # Pahoturi / Eastern Trans-Fly #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-9 ( Kainantu-Goroka) # Yareban / Mailuan #''

Dem DEM was the ISO 4217 currency code for the Deutsche Mark, former currency of Germany Computing * Digital elevation model, a digital representation of ground-surface topography or terrain ** .dem, a common extension for USGS DEM files * Discrete ...

'' #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-10 ( Southern Adelbert: '' Nend, Atemble, Apali,

Faita First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) is a non-profit organization based in Beverly Hills, California. According to its website, the organization was created "to recognize, honor and promote" Native Americans in the United States Native Ame ...

, Anamgura, Mum, Musak, Moresada, Utarmbung, Anam, Paynamar, Sileibi, Wadaginam'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-11 ( Dani) #

West Bomberai The West Bomberai languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea and in East Timor and neighboring islands of Indonesia. Languages Two of the languages of the mainland, Baham and Iha, are clos ...

#ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-12 ( Wissel Lakes) # Koiarian #'' Kaki Ae'' #'' Moraori'' #'' Mawes'' # Kolopom #

Bulaka River The Bulaka River is a river in southern Western Papua, in the Papua province, Indonesia.Sungai Bulaka
- Geonames ...

#'' Molof'' # Yuat- Maramba #'' Kaure-Narau'' # Tirio # Kayagar # Suki-Gogodala / ''

'' / Kiwaian #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-13 ( Binanderean + Kowan: '' Binandere, Baruga, Kowan, Korafe, Suena, Waskia, Zia'') #''

Fasu Fasu, also known as Namo Me, is one of the Kutubuan languages of New Guinea. Varieties Wurm and Hattori (1981) considered its three principal dialects, Fasu, Some and Namumi, to be three languages, which they called the West Kutubuan family. Ho ...

''- East Kutubu #'' Pawaia''- Teberan # Turama-Kikori #

# Eleman #

Mairasi Mairasi ( Faranyao and Kaniran) is a Papuan language of the Bomberai Peninsula of West Papua, Indonesia. The Northeastern dialect may be a distinct language. Distribution Locations: *Kaimana Regency **Interior villages: Umbran, Jamna Fata, Ma ...

#'' Touo'' #ex-Kwalean-1 ('' Humene''-'' Uare'') #''

Tanahmerah Tanah Merah (or Tanamerah, literally means ''Red Land'') is a town in South Papua province of Indonesia (not to be confused with Tanahmerah Bay) on the bank of Digul river, located some two hundred miles from Merauke within the interior of West ...

'' #'' Savosavo'' #'' Bilua'' # Manubaran #'' Kuot'' #'' Burmeso'' # Amto-Musan / Left May / '' Busa'' #ex-Sentanic-1 ('' Sowari'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-1 ('' Ap Ma'') #'' Taiap'' #ex-Sko-1 ('' I'saka, Skou,

Vanimo Vanimo is the capital of Sandaun Province (West Sepik) in north-westernmost Papua New Guinea and of Vanimo-Green River District. It is located on a peninsula close to the border with Indonesia. Religion Its Holy Cross Pro-Cathedral is the epi ...

Wutung Wutung (Udung) and Sangke (Nyao) are a Skou language or pair of languages of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in the villages of Wutung () and Sangke in Bewani/Wutung Onei Rural LLG of Sandaun Province. The two varieties are sometimes considered se ...

; Dusur, Leitre'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-2 (

Nor–Pondo The Lower Sepik a.k.a. Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family by K Laumann in 1951 under the name Nor–Pondo, and included in Donald Laycock's now-d ...

: ''

Angoram Angoram is a town and seat of Angoram District in East Sepik Province in north-western Papua New Guinea. The area is noted for its rubber and cocoa plantations and the town is situated on the Sepik River. The town is served by Angoram Airport. It ...

, Chambri, Nor,

Kopar Kopar is a railway station in Kopar Road, Dombivli. It lies on the Vasai Road–Roha route and Central main line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway The Mumbai Suburban Railway ( Marathi: मुंबई उपनगरीय रेल्� ...

, Yimas'') # Geelvink Bay #''

Konda Konda may refer to: *Kondia or Konda, 18th century Mansi principality, Russia *Konda (river) in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Konda (Vitim), river in Buryatia, Russia * Konda, Indonesia, a town in West Papua * Konda, Angola, municipal ...

''-'' Yahadian'' #

South Bird's Head The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström ( ...

family /

Inanwatan Inanwatan is a small coastal town in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. The town is located on the southern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanju ...

#Nuclear Torricelli #''

Urim In the Hebrew Bible, the Urim ( he, ''ʾŪrīm'', "lights") and the Thummim ( he, ''Tummīm'', meaning uncertain, possibly "perfections") are elements of the ''hoshen'', the breastplate worn by the High Priest attached to the ephod. They are ...

'' #'' Ata'' # Monumbo #ex-Sentanic-2 ( Sentani proper) #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-3 ('' Banaro'') #

#ex-Kwalean-2 ('' Mulaha'') #'' Lavukaleve'' #'' Anem'' #ex-Morehead-Wasur-2 ('' Kunja'') #'' Papi'' #'' Mpur'' #'' Abun'' / ''

Maybrat Maybrat may refer to the following topics from Southwest Papua, Indonesia: * Maybrat language * Maybrat people * Maybrat Regency Maybrat Regency is a regency of Southwest Papua Province of Indonesia. It has an area of , and had a population of 33 ...

'' / West Bird's Head #

#''

'' #ex-Biksi-1 ('' Kimki'') #ex-Sko-2 ('' Rawo, Barupu; Poo,

Ramo {{other uses A ramo (Kwaio: ''lamo'') was a warrior-leader among certain tribes on Malaita in the Solomon Islands. A ramo was recognized when he had killed an adversary in personal combat, and established an intimidating reputation. This was also b ...

, Sumararo, Womo'') #ex-Biksi-2 ('' Yetfa'') #'' Yeli Dnye'' # Lepki–Murkim #ex-Pauwasi-2 (Eastern Pauwasi) # East Bird's Head #'' Kosare'' #''

'' #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-14 ( Croisilles) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-15 ('' Kobon'') # Senagi # Piawi #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-4 ('' Rao'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-5 (''

Kire Kire may refer to: * Kireji, a category of words used in some types of Japanese poetry * Kire language, a Ramu language of Papua New Guinea * Kire (surname) People with the name * Easterine Kire (born 1959), poet and author * Ezra Kire (born 19 ...

Kaian Kaian (Kayan) is a Ramu language of Kaian village () in Yawar Rural LLG, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New ...

, Aruamu'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-16 ( Croisilles) An automated computational analysis (

ASJP The Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) is a collaborative project applying computational approaches to comparative linguistics using a database of word lists. The database is open access and consists of 40-item basic-vocabulary lists f ...

4) by Müller, Velupillai, Wichmann et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013.
ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)
'. found lexical similarities among the following language groups. Note that some of these automatically generated groupings are due to chance resemblances. * Yuat, Kwalean, Mailuan * Lower Sepik, Monumbo *

Wipi Wipi, also known as Gidra, Jibu or Oriomo, is a Papuan language of New Guinea. It is a member of the Eastern Trans-Fly family, the other languages of this family being Gizrra, Meriam Mir and Bine. The family has influenced the neighbouring Kiw ...

, Marind *

, Kimki * Biksi, Yele * Lepki-Murkim, Karkar-Yuri * Skou, Kaure-

Marienberg Marienberg is a town in Germany. It was the district capital of the Mittlerer Erzgebirgskreis (Central Ore Mountains district) in the southern part of Saxony, and since August 2008 it has been part of the new district of Erzgebirgskreis. As of ...

, Mpur * Touo, Savosavo, Bilua * Angan,

* Binandere, Waskia, Tiwi, Senagi *

, Elseng * Kwerba,

* Mek,

Tayap Tayap is a small village of Cameroon located in the Centre Region, between the country's capital Yaounde (86 km) and Douala (164 km). The village of Tayap is part of the Ngog-Mapubi district of the Nyong-et-Kéllé department. Situa ...

Abau Abau is a Papuan language spoken in southern Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea, primarily along the border with Indonesia. In 2002, there were estimated to be between 4,500 and 5,000 speakers, and this number does not appear to have declined s ...

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 wo ...

, Timor-Alor-Pantar *

, Dani, Oriomo,

Morehead Morehead may refer to: * Morehead (surname) * Morehead languages of New Guinea Places Places in United States ** Morehead, Kentucky ** Morehead City, North Carolina Morehead, Kentucky institutions ** Morehead State University ** Morehead State Eagl ...

Meyah Meyah (Meax) is a West Papuan language spoken in Miyah District, Tambrauw Regency of West Papua, Indonesia. The Meyah language is agglutinative and head-marking and has no grammatical cases. It has subject-object-verb word order, which comes f ...

Sougb Sougb, or Sogh, is a Papuan languages, Papuan language of the East Bird's Head languages, East Bird's Head language family spoken in the east of the Bird's Head Peninsula to the east of Meyah and to the south of Manokwari, including the area of So ...

, Hatam *

Kainantu Kainantu is a town in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It had some historical significance as an airstrip town during WWII. It functions primarily as a market town for local produce growers and cash croppers. It is located on the "High ...

, Yareban- Manubaran * Kwomtari, Pawaia, Kwalean * Sentani, Busa, Amto-Musan, Left May * Lavukaleve, Anem,

Gorokan Gorokan is a suburb of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The s ...

* Kaure, Makayam * Gogodala, Tabo, Kiwaian,

* Kayagaric,

Bulaka River The Bulaka River is a river in southern Western Papua, in the Papua province, Indonesia.Sungai Bulaka
- Geonames ...

, Eleman * Engan, Duna-Bogaya * Marind, Asmat-Kamoro, Mombum- Kolopom * Dubu-Towei, Wiru * Tofanma, Turama-Kikorian * Awyu * Inland Gulf, Ok-Oksapmin * Bosavi, East Strickland, Kapauku, Doso * Kutubuan * Angan *

, Awin-Pa, Goilalan, Leonard Schultze * Koiarian * Purari, Kaki Ae * Chimbu-Wahgi, Finisterre-Huon

Palmer (2018)

Bill Palmer et al. (2018) propose 43 independent families and 37 language isolates in the Papuasphere, comprising a total of 862 languages. A total of 80 independent groups are recognized. While Pawley & Hammarström's internal classification of Trans-New Guinea largely resembles a composite of Usher's and Ross' classifications, Palmer et al. do not address the more tentative families that Usher proposes, such as Northwest New Guinea. The coherence of the

, East Bird's Head, Pauwasi, Kwomtari, and Central Solomons families are uncertain, and hence are marked below as "tentative." ''Papuan independent language families (43 families)'' *

Trans New Guinea Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom * ''Trans'' (film ...

(431) * Torricelli (50) *

(45) *

Lower Sepik-Ramu Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also

*Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

(35) *

Yam Yam or YAM may refer to: Plants and foods *Yam (vegetable), common name for members of ''Dioscorea'' * Taro, known in Malaysia and Singapore as yam * Sweet potato, specifically its orange-fleshed cultivars, often referred to as yams in North Amer ...

(27) * Timor-Alor-Pantar (26) * Tor-Kwerba (23) *

(20) *

(14) * Sko (13) * East Cenderawasih Bay (10) *

(10) *

(10) entative; 3 families?* Kwomtari (6) entative; 4 families?* Leonard Schultze (6) * Upper Yuat (6) * West Bird's Head (6) * East Bird's Head (5) entative; 2 families?* Baining (5) * Pauwasi (5) entative; 2 families?*

(5) * Yuat (5) * Left May (5) *

Pahoturi River The Pahoturi, or Paho River, is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. Pahoturi Riverin Geonames.org (cc-by) post updated 2011-07-09; database downloaded 2015-06-22 See also *List of rivers of Papua New Guinea *Pahoturi languages The Pahotu ...

(5) * Eleman (5) *

(4) * South Bougainville (4) * Central Solomons (4) entative; 4 isolates?* Oriomo (4) * Sentani (4) *

(3) * Butam-Taulil (2) * Bayono-Awbono (2) * Teberan (2) * Kaure (2) * Lepki (2) * Senagi (2) * Tofanma (2) *

Yapen Yapen (also Japan, Jobi) is an island of Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is Mios Num Islan ...

(2) * Amto-Musan (2) * Doso-Turumsa (2) * Komolom (2) * Yelmek-Maklew (2) ''Papuan isolates and unclassified languages (37 total)'' ;

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...

Bomberai Peninsula Bomberai Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Bomberai), otherwise known as the Bird's Beak Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Paruh Burung), is located in the Western New Guinea region, opposite to and to the south of the Bird's Head Peninsula. To the west lies ...

(5) * Abun * Mpur * Maibrat *

* Tanah Merah ;North coast / hinterland (12) * Abinomn * Burmeso * Elseng * Kapauri * Kembra * Keuw * Kimki * Massep * Mawes * Molof *

* Yetfa ;Central West Papua (2) *

* Uhunduni ;

Ramu The Ramu River is a major river in northern Papua New Guinea. The headwaters of the river are formed in the Kratke Range from where it then travels about northwest to the Bismarck Sea. Along the Ramu's course, it receives numerous tributaries ...

basin (3) * Busa * Taiap * Yadë ;

Gulf of Papua The Gulf of Papua is located in the southern coast region of New Guinea. It has a total surface area of . Geography Some of New Guinea's largest rivers, such as the Fly River, Turama River, Kikori River, Purari River, and Wawoi River flow ...

/ hinterland (8) * Dibiyaso * Kaki Ae *

* Pawaia * Porome * Purari * Tabo ;

(6) * Anêm * Ata *

Kol Kol or KOL may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional characters * Kol, a character in ''Star Trek: Discovery'' * Kol Skywalker, a member of the Skywalker family in ''Star Wars'' * Isamot Kol, a DC Comics superhero Other uses in art ...

* Kuot * Makolkol * Sulka ;

Rossel Island Rossel Island (named after de Rossel, a senior officer on the French expedition of d'Entrecasteaux, 1791-1793; also known as Yela) is the easternmost island of the Louisiade Archipelago, within the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Tree Isl ...

(

Louisiade Archipelago The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread ...

) (1) * Yélî Dnye

''Glottolog'' 4.0 (2019)

'' 4.0 (2019), based partly on Usher, recognizes 70 independent families and 55 isolates. ;Families (70) * Nuclear Trans-New Guinea (314) **''Subgroups'': **

(106) ** Finisterre-Huon (61) ** Asmat-Awyu-Ok (49) ** Kainantu-Goroka (28) ** Chimbu-Wahgi (17) ** Enga-Kewa-Huli (14) ** Dani (13) ** Greater Binanderean (13) ** Mek (8) ** Paniai Lakes (5) * Nuclear Torricelli (55) *

(36) *

Lower Sepik-Ramu Lower may refer to: *Lower (surname) *Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) *Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also

*Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

(30) * Timor-Alor-Pantar (23) *

(20) * Morehead-Wasur (19) *

Anim Anim or ANIM may refer to: Places *A city in the mountains of Judah, now el-Ghuwein, near Eshtemoh, about 10 miles south-west of Hebron *An alternative spelling for the biblical city of Anem, now Jenin * Anim synagogue, a synagogue in Israel ...

(17) *

(15) *

(15) * Angan (13) * Ndu (13) * Tor-Orya (13) * Geelvink Bay (10) * Sko (10) * Dagan (9) * South Bougainville (9) * Greater Kwerba (8) * Koiarian (8) * Mailuan (8) * Bosavi (7) * Baining (6) * East Strickland (6) * Goilalan (6) * Kiwaian (6) * Left May (6) *

(6) * Eleman (5) * Nimboranic (5) * Pauwasi (5) * West Bird's Head (5) * Yareban (5) * Yuat (5) * Arafundi (4) * Eastern Trans-Fly (4) *

(4) * Sentanic (4) * Suki-Gogodala (4) * Turama-Kikori (4) * Walioic (4) * East Bird's Head (3) * Kamula-Elevala (3) * Kayagaric (3) * Kolopom (3) * Kwalean (3) * Mairasic (3) * Ulmapo (3) *

(3) * Amto-Musan (2) * Baibai-Fas (2) * Bayono-Awbono (2) * Bogia (2) *

Bulaka River The Bulaka River is a river in southern Western Papua, in the Papua province, Indonesia.Sungai Bulaka
- Geonames ...

(2) * Doso-Turumsa (2) * East Kutubu (2) * Hatam-Mansim (2) *

(2) * Konda-Yahadian (2) * Kwomtari-Nai (2) * Lepki-Murkim (2) * Manubaran (2) * Mombum-Koneraw (2) * Namla-Tofanma (2) * Pahoturi (2) * Piawi (2) * Senagi (2) * Somahai (2) * Taulil-Butam (2) * Teberan (2) * Yawa-Saweru (2) ;Isolates (55) * Abinomn * Abun * Ambakich * Anem * Ap Ma * Asabano * Bilua * Bogaya * Burmeso *

Damal Damal, formerly Petereke, is a town in Ardahan Province of Turkey, on the road from Kars Kars (; ku, Qers; ) is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. Its population is 73,836 in 2011. Kars was in the ancient region know ...

* Dibiyaso * Duna * Elseng *

* Guriaso * Kaki Ae *

* Kaure-Narau *

Kehu Thomas Brunner (April 1821 – 22 April 1874) was an English-born surveyor and explorer remembered for his exploration of the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. Brunner was born in April 1821 in Oxford. When he was fifteen, he began t ...

* Kembra *

Kibiri Porome, also known as Kibiri, is a Papuan language of southern Papua New Guinea. Classification Porome was classified as a language isolate by Stephen Wurm. Although Malcolm Ross linked it to the Kiwaian languages, there is no evidence for a c ...

* Kimki *

* Kosadle * Kuot * Lavukaleve * Marori * Massep * Mawes * Maybrat-Karon * Molof *

* Mpur * Odiai * Papi * Pawaia * Pele-Ata * Purari *

* Sause * Savosavo * Sulka * Tabo * Taiap * Tambora *

* Touo *

* Wiru *

* Yele * Yerakai * Yetfa

External relations

proposed that the

(or at least the

) off the coast of

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

are related to the Papuan or West Papuan languages.

stated that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the West Papuan and Timor–Alor families "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity ..in a number of instances". However, he considered this not evidence of a connection between (Great) Andamanese and Trans–New Guinea, but of a

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or su ...

from an earlier migration to New Guinea from the west. Greenberg also suggested a connection to the

. However, the Tasmanian peoples were isolated for perhaps 10,000 years, genocide wiped out their languages before much was recorded of them, and few linguists expect that they will ever be linked to another language family.

(1986) noted lexical similarities between

R. M. W. Dixon Robert Malcolm Ward "Bob" Dixon (born 25 January 1939, in Gloucester, England) is a Professor of Linguistics in the College of Arts, Society, and Education and The Cairns Institute, James Cook University, Queensland. He is also Deputy Director o ...

's 1980 reconstruction of proto-

and the languages of the East New Guinea Highlands. He believed that it was naïve to expect to find a single Papuan or Australian language family when New Guinea and Australia had been a single landmass for most of their human history, having been separated by the

only 8000 years ago, and that a deep reconstruction would likely include languages from both. However, Dixon later abandoned his proto-Australian proposal, and Foley's ideas need to be re-evaluated in light of recent research. Wurm also suggested the Sepik–Ramu languages have similarities with the Australian languages, but believed this may be due to a substratum effect, but nevertheless believed that the Australian languages represent a linguistic group that existed in New Guinea before the arrival of the Papuan languages (which he believed arrived in at least two different groups).

Typology

The West Papuan, Lower Mamberamo, and most Torricelli languages are all left-headed, as well as the languages of

and

. These languages all have

SVO word order SVO may refer to: * Saturn Valley Online, an EarthBound MMORPG * Sheremetyevo International Airport, one three major airports serving Moscow, Russia, IATA Airport Code * Social value orientations, a psychological construct * Sparse voxel octree, ...

, with the exception of the language isolate Kuot, which has VSO word order. All other Papuan languages are right-headed. Tonal Papuan languages include the Sko, Lepki, Kaure, Kembra,

, and Keuw languages.

References

Notes

General references

* * * * * * * *

External links

TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea
(by Simon Greenhill)
2003 bibliography of languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Indonesian PapuaSummer Institute of Linguistics site on languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Papua New Guinea
* ttp://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/research_projects/delp/papuan.php Bill Foley on Papuan languages
Dryer's Papuan Language Families and GeneraTimothy Usher's Newguineaworld site
{{Authority control Languages of Indonesia Languages of Papua New Guinea

Speaker numbers

History of classification

Greenberg's classification

Usher (2020)

Wurm (1975)

Foley (2003)

Ross (2005)

Wichmann (2013)

Palmer (2018)

''Glottolog'' 4.0 (2019)

External relations

Typology

See also

References

Notes

General references

Further reading

External links