The Sepik–Ramu languages are an obsolete
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
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 ...
linking the
Sepik,
Ramu,
Nor–Pondo (Lower Sepik),
Leonhard Schultze (Walio–Papi) and
Yuat families, together with the
Taiap 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 ...
, and proposed by
Donald Laycock
Donald Laycock (1936–1988) was an Australian linguist and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work on the languages of Papua New Guinea.
Biography
He was a graduate of University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia and later ...
and
John Z'graggen in 1975.
[Laycock, D. C. and Z'graggen, John A. 1975. The Sepik-Ramu Phylum. In Wurm, S.A. (ed.), Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene, New Guinea Area Languages and Language Study 1, 729-763. Australian National University.]
Sepik–Ramu would consist of a hundred languages of the
Sepik and
Ramu river basins 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 ...
, but spoken by only 200,000 people in all. The languages tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.
The best known Sepik–Ramu language is
Iatmül. The most populous are Iatmül's fellow
Ndu languages
The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepik languages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. ''Ndu'' is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. The languages were first identified as a related famil ...
Abelam and
Boiken, with about 35,000 speakers apiece.
Malcolm Ross and
William A. Foley separately re-evaluated the Sepik–Ramu hypothesis in 2005. They both found no evidence that it forms a valid family. However, all of the constituent branches, except for Yuat within Ramu, remain individually valid in his evaluation. Ross links Nor–Pondo to Ramu in a
Ramu–Lower Sepik proposal, places Leonhard Schultze (tentatively broken up into Walio and Papi) within an extended
Sepik family, and treats Yuat and Taiap as independent families.
Classification
Ethnologue
This list is a mirror of the classification in ''
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 ...
'' 15.
* Sepik–Ramu phylum (based on Laycock 1973)
** ''
Taiap'' isolate
**
Leonhard Schultze stock
***
Walio family (4 languages)
***
Papi family (2 languages)
**
Nor–Pondo stock (6 languages)
** Ramu subphylum (37 languages)
***
Ramu superstock (29 languages)
****
Grass
Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...
stock (5 languages)
****
Arafundi family (2 languages)
****
Annaberg stock (3 languages)
**** Ruboni stock (8 languages)
*****
Ottilien family
*****
Misegian family
**** Goam stock (11 languages)
*****
Ataitan family
*****
Tamolan family
*** Yuat–Langam superstock (13 languages)
****
Mongol–Langam family
**** Yuat–Maramba stock
***** ''
Maramba'' isolate (unattested)
*****
Yuat family
**
Sepik subphylum (50 languages)
ee subclassification at that article
Foley (2018)
Uncontroversially coherent subgroups accepted by Foley (2018) are:
*
Sepik (11 groups)
**
Ndu (
Middle Sepik?)
**
Nukuma (
Middle Sepik?)
**''
Yerakai'' (
Middle Sepik?)
**
Yellow River
The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...
(
Middle Sepik?)
**
Tama
**
Sepik Hill
**
Ram
**
Wogamus (
Upper Sepik?)
**
Iwam (
Upper Sepik?)
**''
Abau'' (
Upper Sepik?)
**''
Amal''
*
Ramu (5 groups)
**
Middle Ramu
**
Tamolan
**
Ataitan (Tanggu)
**
Ottilien–
Misegian
**
Grass
Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...
*
Lower Sepik
*
Leonhard Schultze (Walio-Papi)
**
Walio
**
Papi
*
Yuat
*''
Taiap''
Lexical comparison
Below is a comparison of proto-
Ndu, proto-
Lower Sepik, and proto-
Ottilien reconstructed by and listed in Foley (2005).
:
Due to its highly divergent lexicon, Foley does not classify
Sepik with
Lower Sepik and
Ramu.
See also
*
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...
*
Northwest Papuan languages
The Northwest Papuan languages are a proposed language family of Papuan languages.
Many of the constituent branches of Northwest Papuan were first proposed to be related by H.K.J. Cowan in the 1950s. Voorhoeve (1971) connected the Border and To ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sepik-Ramu languages
Proposed language families
Papuan languages
Languages of Papua New Guinea