The Mombum languages, also known as the Komolom or Muli Strait languages, are a pair of

Trans–New Guinea languages Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as parts of Indonesia. Trans–New Guinea is the third-la ...

, Mombum (Komolom) and Koneraw, spoken on

Komolom Island Komoran or Komolom is an island just south of the much larger Yos Sudarso Island, Yos Sudarso near the south coast of New Guinea in South Papua province, Indonesia. Its area is 695 km². Islands of Western New Guinea Landforms of South Pap ...

just off

Yos Sudarso Island Pulau Yos Sudarso or Pulau Dolok is an island separated only by the narrow Muli Strait from the main island of New Guinea. It is part of the Merauke Regency, in the Indonesian province of South Papua. The island is leaf-shaped, about long with an ...

, and on the southern coast of Yos Sudarso Island, respectively, on the southern coast of New Guinea. Komolom Island is at the southern end of the

Muli Strait Muli Strait (Malay: ''Selat Muli'', formerly ''Salat Moeli''), or Marianne Strait (colonial Dutch ''Straat Marianne''), named after Princess Marianne of the Netherlands, is a strait in the Indonesian province of South Papua that separates the is ...

.New Guinea World, Muli Strait
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History of classification

Mombum was first classified as a branch isolate of the

Central and South New Guinea languages The Central and South New Guinea languages (CSNG) are a proposed family of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG). They were part of Voorhoeve & McElhanon's original TNG proposal, but have been reduced in scope by half (nine families to four) in the ...

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 ...

's 1975 expansion for Trans–New Guinea, a position tentatively maintained by Malcolm Ross, though he cannot tell if the similarities are shared innovations or retentions from

proto Proto or PROTO may refer to: Language * Proto-, an English prefix meaning "first" Media * ''Proto'' (magazine), an American science magazine * Radio Proto in Cyprus Music * ''Proto'' (Holly Herndon album), 2019 * ''Proto'' (Leo O'Kelly ...

-TNG. Usher instead links them to the

Asmat languages Asmat is a Papuan language cluster of West New Guinea. Languages The principal varieties, distinct enough to be considered separate languages, are: * Kamrau Bay (Sabakor): *Casuarina Coast (Kaweinag), the most divergent *North and Central Asmat ...

. Koneraw is clearly related to Mombum, but was overlooked by early classifications. Along with the

Kolopom languages The Kolopom languages are a family of Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005). Along with the Mombum languages, they are the languages spoken on Yos Sudarso Island Pulau Yos Sudars ...

, they are the languages spoken on

(Kolopom Island). Noting insufficient evidence, Pawley and Hammarström (2018), who refer to the languages as the ''Komolom'' branch, tentatively leave it as unclassified rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea.

Pronouns

Pronouns are: :

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) and Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: :

References

External links

* Timothy Usher, New Guinea World
Proto–Muli Strait
{{Papuan languages Languages of Indonesia Languages of western New Guinea Asmat–Mombum languages