The West Papuan Highland languages, also known as the Irian Highland languages, are a branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family proposed by Larson & Larson (1972) and confirmed by Timothy Usher.NewGuineaWorld - West Papuan Highlands
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William A. Foley William A. Foley (''William Auguste "Bill" Foley;'' born 1949) is an American linguist and professor at Columbia University He was previously located at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Papuan and Austronesian languages. Foley develo ...

considers their Trans–New Guinea identity to be established. * Dani (Balim Valley) family * Paniai Lakes (Wissel Lakes) family * Amung–Dem ** Amung (Uhunduni, Damal) **

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 ...

History

Capell linked the Dani languages to Kwerba in 1962, a position followed by Wurm, who included Dani-Kwerba and the Wissel Lakes (Paniai Lakes) languages as branches of Trans–New Guinea. Larson & Larson (1972) proposed that the Dani and Paniai Lakes families, along with the Amung and Dem isolates, grouped together within TNG. Ross (2005) suggests a possible link between Dani and Paniai with his West TNG proposal. Usher confirms Larson & Larson and finds that the Amung and Dem languages are closest to each other.

Lexical comparison

The lexical data below is from the Trans-New Guinea database and Usher (2020). The Bayono-Awbono data is from Wilbrink (2004).Wilbrink, Ans (2004). ''The Kopkaka of Papua: Provisional notes on their language, its language affiliation and on the Kopkaka culture.'' MA thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Neighboring languages not traditionally classified within West Papuan Highlands are also included for comparison.

References

{{Papuan languages Trans–New Guinea languages Languages of western New Guinea