family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
of three clearly related languages:
* Kwoma
*Kwanga–Mende
** Kwanga
** Seim
They are generally classified among the
Sepik languages
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a language family, family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik River, Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than prese ...
of northern
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
; Malcolm Ross places them in a Middle Sepik branch of that family.
They are spoken to the north of the
Sepik River
The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the third largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River, Fly and Mamberamo River, Mamberamo. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provi ...
near
Ambunti
Ambunti is a town in Ambunti-Dreikikier District of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. It has a population of 2,110.
The town serves as a gateway to April Salome Forest Management Area.Ambulas-speaking region of Mapr (near Wosera town).
Pronouns
Pronouns in Nukuma languages:
:
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from Foley (2005) and Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. ''masək'', ''masiki'' for “head”) or not (e.g. ''miːma'', ''nogəpie'' for “woman”).
:
See also
*
Kwoma people
The Kwoma are a people of northeastern New Guinea who live in the Peilungupo mountains north of the Sepik River. They speak the Kwoma language.
Land
The climate is warm and humid, with rain falling almost every day, so that crops may be planted ...