The Tonda languages form a branch of the

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 ...

language family of southern

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 ...

. There are over 10 languages. Tonda languages share some areal features are shared with the

Kolopom languages The Kolopom languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm Stephen Adolphe Wurm ( hu, Wurm István Adolf, ; 19 August 1922 – 24 October 2001) was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist. Earl ...

Languages

The Tonda languages are:West Morehead River
/ref> ;Tonda / West Morehead River * Arammba *Central Morehead River: Anta, Kómnzo, Wára, Wérè, Kémä, Kánchá * Warta Thuntai *

Bensbach River The Bensbach River is a river in southwestern Papua New Guinea. It is located just to the east of the Maro River in Merauke Regency, Indonesia, and just to the west of the Morehead River in Papua New Guinea. The mouth of the river, Torasi Estu ...

**Upper Bensbach River *** Mblafe– Ránmo ***Ngarna–Rema **** Nggarna (Sota) **** Rema **Kanum ***Ngkolmpu: Ngkâlmpw/Ngkontar, Bädi ***South Kanum: Bârkâli-Smärki, Tämer Notes (see Evans 2018: 681): *Each terminal bullet point lists a different

dialect chain A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

. * Ránmo is linguistically a dialect of Mblafe, but Ránmo speakers consider their language to be a separate, distinct language. * Wérè is linguistically a dialect of Wára, but Wèré speakers consider their language to be a separate, distinct language.

Numeral typology

Tonda languages are unique for their

base-6 A senary () numeral system (also known as base-6, heximal, or seximal) has 6, six as its radix, base. It has been adopted independently by a small number of cultures. Like decimal, it is a semiprime, though it is unique as the product of the only ...

numeral systems, which likely originated from counting yams (rather than fingers or body parts as with most other languages).Hammarström, Harald. (2009
Whence the Kanum Base-6 Numeral System?
''Linguistic Typology'' 13(2). 305-319.

References

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–West Morehead River
(under construction 2020)

Languages

Numeral typology

References

External links

Further reading