The Ok languages are a family of about a dozen related

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive Language family, family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands, a region corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as Western New Guinea, parts of Indone ...

spoken in a contiguous area of eastern

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

and western

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 ...

. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known is probably Telefol. The Ok languages have

dyadic kinship term Dyadic kinship terms ( abbreviated or ) are kinship terms in a few languages that express the relationship between individuals as they relate one to the other. In English, there are a few set phrases for such situations, such as "they are father a ...

s.The Oksapmin Kinship System
, retrieved May 21, 2009.

History of classification

The Ok languages are clearly related.

Alan Healey Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname *Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *Al ...

identified them as a family in 1962. He later noted connections with the

Asmat languages Asmat is a Papuan language cluster of South Papua South Papua, officially the South Papua Province (), is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the southern portion of Western New Guinea, Papua, following the borders of t ...

and Awyu–Dumut families (Healey 1970). Voorhoeve developed this into a Central and South New Guinea (CSNG) proposal. As part of CSNG, the Ok languages form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea, a position tentatively maintained by Malcolm Ross, though reduced nearly to Healey's original conception. Ross states that he cannot tell if the similarities in CSNG are shared innovations or retentions from proto-TNG. Voorhoeve argues specifically for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley believes that these two families may be closest to

Asmat Asmat may mean: *Asmat people, ethnic group in New Guinea *Asmat languages, of New Guinea *Asmat Regency, Indonesia *Asmat subregion Asmat subregion is a subregion in the northwestern Anseba region (Zoba Anseba) of Eritrea Eritrea, offi ...

among the TNG languages. Loughnane and Fedden (2011) claim to have demonstrated that the erstwhile TNG isolate

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 kin ...

is related to the Ok family. However, this has not been generally accepted because loans from Mountain Ok have not been accounted for. Van den Heuvel & Fedden (2014) argue that Greater Awyu and Greater Ok are not genetically related, but that their similarities are due to intensive contact.

Languages

The languages are: * Ok ** West Ok: Kopkaka (incl. Kwer– Burumakok) ** Ngalum ** Central Ok: Tangko, Nakai– Naki ** Lowland Ok: Iwur– Koma,

Muyu Muyu may refer to: * Muyu people, an indigenous ethnic group of Western New Guinea ** Muyu language * Wooden fish (), an Asian percussion instrument usually associated with Buddhist monks * Muyu, Hubei (), a town of Shennongjia, Hubei, China * Muyu ...

–

Yonggom Yonggom is one of the Ok languages of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. According to its speakers, it is part of a continuum of 9 mutually intelligible dialects of Muyu language Muyu, Moyu,Zahrer, Alexander. 2019. ''First data of Moyu, a lowlan ...

, Ninggerum ** Mountain Ok (Min) *** Mian (incl. Suganga) *** Central Mountain Ok: Tifal, Telefol (incl. Urap) *** South Mountain Ok: Bin,

Faiwol Faiwol is one of the Ok languages of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken at the headwaters of the Fly, Palmer, and Murray rivers in Western Province Western Province or West Province may refer to: *Western Province, Cameroon *Western Province, Rwan ...

(incl. Kauwol, Setaman)

Reconstruction

Phonology

The following are consonants of Proto-Ok:NewGuineaWorld, Ok
/ref> Vowels may be , but this reconstruction may be biased toward Telefol.

Pronouns

Healey & Ross reconstruct the pronouns of proto-Ok are as follows: : Usher (2020) reconstructs the independent pronouns as, : and the subject suffixes as, :

Evolution

Proto-Mountain Ok reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma, as quoted by Pawley & Hammarström (2018) from Healey (1964): * *beːn ‘arm’ < *mbena * *mburuŋ ‘fingernail’ < *mb(i,u)t(i,u)C * *katuun ‘knee’ < *(ng,k)atVk * *maŋkat ‘mouth’ < *maŋgat * *gitak ‘neck’ < *k(a,e)ndak * *kum ‘side of neck’ < *kuma(n,ŋ) * *mutuum ‘nose’ < *mundu * *falaŋ ‘tongue’ < *mbilaŋ * *kaliim ‘moon’ < *kal(a,i)m

Lexicon

Usher (2020)

Some lexical reconstructions by Usher (2020) are: :

Loughnane and Fedden (2011)

Proto-Ok-Oksapmin reconstructions from Loughnane and Fedden (2011): :

References

;Citations ;Sources *

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Digul River – Ok
* (ibid.
Proto-Ok
(see also reconstructions of individual branches) *Healey, Alan. (1964)
The Ok Language Family in New Guinea
*Steer, Martin. (2005)
Languages of the Upper Sepik and Central New Guinea
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ok-Oksapmin languages Languages of Papua New Guinea Languages of Western New Guinea Awyu–Ok languages