Indo-Pacific is a hypothetical language
macrofamily
In historical linguistics, a macrofamily, also called a superfamily or phylum, is a proposed genetic relationship grouping together language families (also isolates) in a larger scale classification.Campbell, Lyle and Mixco, Mauricio J. (2007), '' ...
proposed in 1971 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 ...
and now believed to be spurious. It grouped together the
Papuan languages of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu
Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea).
It is a simplified version of ...
and
Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
with the
languages of the Andaman Islands (or at least
Great Andamanese
The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely relate ...
) and, tentatively, the
languages of Tasmania, both of which are remote from New Guinea. The valid cognates Greenberg found turned out to be reflexes of the less extensive
Trans–New Guinea family. Recently the
Kusunda language
Kusunda or ''Kusanda'' (endonym Mihaq ) is a language isolate spoken by a few among the Kusunda people in western and central Nepal. As of 2022, it only has a single fluent speaker, although there are efforts underway to keep the language alive. ...
(and possibly other unclassificated languages), which is generally seen as a
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 num ...
, is also included in the Indo-Pacific proposal. Greenberg did not include "
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 Au ...
" in his original 1971 proposal.
Proposal
The Indo-Pacific proposal, grouping the
non-Austronesian languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non- Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogr ...
of New Guinea with certain languages spoken on islands to the east and west of New Guinea, was first made by Greenberg in 1971. Greenberg's supporter
Merritt Ruhlen
Merritt Ruhlen (May 10, 1944 – January 29, 2021) was an American linguist who worked on the classification of languages and what this reveals about the origin and evolution of modern humans. Amongst other linguists, Ruhlen's work was recognized ...
considers Indo-Pacific an extremely diverse and ancient family, far older than Austronesian, which reflects a migration from southeast Asia that began only 6,000 years ago; he notes that New Guinea was inhabited by modern humans at least 40,000 years ago, and possibly 10,000 to 15,000 years earlier than that.
[Ruhlen, Merritt. ''The Origin of Language: Tracing the Evolution of the Mother Tongue''. John Wiley & Sons, Inc: New York, 1994] Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza (; 25 January 1922 – 31 August 2018) was an Italian geneticist. He was a population geneticist who taught at the University of Parma, the University of Pavia and then at Stanford University.
Works
Schooling and po ...
sees Indo-Pacific as a very heterogenous family of 700 languages and suggests that it may be more than 40,000 years old.
[Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca. ''Genes, Peoples, and Languages''. University of California Press: Berkeley, 2001]
Reception
Greenberg's proposal was based on rough estimation of
lexical similarity
In linguistics, lexical similarity is a measure of the degree to which the word sets of two given languages are similar. A lexical similarity of 1 (or 100%) would mean a total overlap between vocabularies, whereas 0 means there are no common words. ...
and typological similarity and has not reached a stage where it can be confirmed by the standard
comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
, including the reconstruction of a
protolanguage
In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattest ...
. The languages of Tasmania are extinct and so poorly attested that many historical linguists regard them as unclassifiable.
Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works ...
has dismissed the Indo-Pacific proposal as improbable, observing that while it "purported to be a purely linguistic exercise...it conveniently swept up all the languages of the crinklyhaired populations in the region that were not clearly Austronesian." He writes that despite decades of further research into
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian and non-Australian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands, by around 4 million people. It is a strictly geogra ...
and prehistory, Indo-Pacific is still not accepted by specialists and that it "only exists in the eye of the believer."
George van Driem
George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957) is a Dutch linguist associated with the University of Bern, where he is the chair of Historical Linguistics and directs the Linguistics Institute.
Education
* Leiden University, 1983–1987 (PhD, ''A Grammar ...
(2001) responds as follows:
Since Greenberg's work, the languages of New Guinea have been intensively studied by
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-sp ...
. Wurm's Trans–New Guinea languages family includes about 70 percent of the languages Greenberg included in Indo-Pacific,
though the internal classification is entirely different. Wurm states that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese,
West Papuan (which is not part of Trans–New Guinea), and certain languages of
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is East Timor–Indonesia border, divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western p ...
"are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity
..in a number of instances", but considers this to be due to a linguistic
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 sup ...
rather than a direct relationship.
Pawley (2008) is the only thorough review of the proposal. He found that all branches of Indo-Pacific except Tasmanian and Andamanese include languages from Trans–New Guinea, and that this explains the more reasonable cognates that Greenberg proposed, but because these Trans–New Guinea languages are mixed in with languages from other families in those branches, cognates linking the branches do not provide support for Greenberg's proposal that all Papuan languages are related.
Subdivision
According to Greenberg, Indo-Pacific consists of fourteen families, not counting a few which he could not classify. He suggested a tentative sub-classification into seven groups, listed in bold below. Some languages have not been identified.
*
Tasmanian
)
, nickname =
, image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdi ...
*
Great Andamanese
The Great Andamanese are an indigenous people of the Great Andaman archipelago in the Andaman Islands. Historically, the Great Andamanese lived throughout the archipelago, and were divided into ten major tribes. Their distinct but closely relate ...
: Southern:
Chariar,
Puchikwar,
Kede,
Kol,
Juwoi; Northern:
Beada,
Bogijiab,
Bale,
Biada
*Nuclear
**Central
***Kapauku–Baliem
****
Kapauku (Ekari, Ekagi),
Moni
Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believed t ...
,
Jabi
Jabbi Shareef ( ur, ), is one of the 51 Union Councils (administrative subdivisions) of Khushab District in the Punjab Province of Pakistan is located at 12 km North of Mitha Tiwana Station at main Sargodha Mianwali Road . It is oldest c ...
,
Simori,
Wolani Paniai_Lakes_family.html" ;"title="Paniai_Lakes_languages.html" ;"title=" TNG
Paniai_Lakes_family">Paniai_Lakes_languages.html"_;"title="_TNG_Paniai_Lakes_languages">Paniai_Lakes_family****Dem_language.html" "title="Paniai Lakes languages">Paniai Lakes family">Paniai_Lakes_languages.html" ;"title=" TNG Paniai Lakes languages">Paniai Lakes family****Dem language">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 ...
[= TNG Dem]
****Uhunduni language, Uhunduni, Enggipilu language, Enggipilu [= TNG Uhunduni]
****Dani languages, Dani (Ndani) [→ Dani]
****Northern Ngalik language, Northern Ngalik, Oeringoep language, Oeringoep,
Sawuri-Hablifuri language, Sawuri-Hablifuri,
Southern Ngalik,
Peseghem Dani_+_Isirawa_(probably_
Dani_+_Isirawa_(probably_
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****Wurm_&_Laycock's_Kainantu_languages.html" ;"title="Kwerba_languages">Kwerba).html" ;"title="Kwerba_languages.html" ;"title="Dani_languages.html" ;"title=" TNG
Dani_+_Isirawa_(probably_Kwerba_languages">Kwerba)">Kwerba_languages.html"_;"title="Dani_languages.html"_;"title="_TNG_Dani_languages">Dani_+_Isirawa_(probably_Kwerba_languages">Kwerba)***Highland
****Wurm_&_Laycock's_Kainantu_languages">Gadsup–Auyana–Awa–Tairoa_+_
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****Wurm_&_Laycock's_Kainantu_languages">Gadsup–Auyana–Awa–Tairoa_+_Erima_language">Erima
_
Erima_is_a_suburb_of_Port_Moresby,_the_capital_city_of_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__...
,_Tsinyaji_language.html" ;"title="Erima_language.html" "title="Dani languages">Dani + Isirawa (probably Kwerba languages">Kwerba)">Kwerba_languages.html" ;"title="Dani_languages.html" ;"title=" TNG Dani languages">Dani + Isirawa (probably Kwerba languages">Kwerba)***Highland
****Wurm & Laycock's Kainantu languages">Gadsup–Auyana–Awa–Tairoa + Erima language">Erima
Erima is a suburb of Port Moresby, the capital city of 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 ...
, Tsinyaji language">Tsinyaji [= TNG Kainantu + Madang]
****Wurm & Laycock's Goroka languages, Gende–Siane–Gahuku–Kamano–Fore [= TNG Goroka]
****Wurm & Laycock's Chimbu–Wahgi languages, Hagen–Wahgi–Jimi–Chumbu [= Chimbu–Wahgi]
****Wurm & Laycock's
_+_Wiru_(probably_Teberan–Pawaian).html" ;"title="Engan_languages.html" ;"title="
_+_Wiru_(probably_Teberan–Pawaian)">Engan_languages.html"_;"title="_Engan_languages">Engan_+_Wiru_(probably_Teberan–Pawaian)****Karam_language.html" ;"title="Engan languages">Engan + Wiru (probably Teberan–Pawaian)">Engan_languages.html" ;"title=" Engan languages">Engan + Wiru (probably Teberan–Pawaian)****Karam language">Karam (Aförö) [= Madang]
****Kutubu language, Kutubu, Fasu language, Fasu [= Kutubuan]
***McElhanon's Huon languages + Matap language, Matap, Jupna Valley language, Jupna Valley, Kandomin language, Kandomin,
.html" ;"title="Finisterre–Huon languages">Finisterre–Huon">Finisterre–Huon languages">Finisterre–Huon**Northern
***Murik:
+ Kambot]
***Tami: Sko language, Sko (Seko), Sangke language, Sangke, Arso language, Arso, Njao language, Njao, Wembi language, Wembi, Skofro language, Skofro, Ampas language, Ampas, Waris language, Waris,
_+_Skou_languages.html" ;"title="Border_languages_(New_Guinea).html" "title=" non-TNG Border languages (New Guinea)">Border