The South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) languages are a branch of the

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

, found in the islands and along the shores of the

Halmahera Sea The Halmahera Sea is a regional sea located in the central eastern part of the Australasian Mediterranean Sea. It is centered at about 1°S and 129°E and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the north, Halmahera to the west, Waigeo and West P ...

in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n province of

North Maluku North Maluku ( id, Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the south. ...

and of

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay ( id, Teluk Cenderawasih, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay ( id, Teluk Sarera) and formerly Geelvink Bay ( nl, Geelvinkbaai), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guine ...

in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. There are 38 languages. The unity of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea subgroup is well supported by lexical and phonological evidence. Blust (1978) has proposed that they are most closely related to the

Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...

, but this classification is not universally accepted. Most of the languages are only known from short word lists, but Buli on Halmahera, and

Biak Biak is an island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua (province), Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and c ...

and Waropen in Cenderawasih Bay, are fairly well attested.

Classification

Traditionally, the languages are classified into two geographic groups: *

South Halmahera languages The South Halmahera languages are the branch of Austronesian languages found along the southeast coast of the island of Halmahera in the Indonesian province of North Maluku. Irarutu is spoken in the east of the Bomberai Peninsula in West Papu ...

(along the southeastern coast of

Halmahera Halmahera, formerly known as Jilolo, Gilolo, or Jailolo, is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia, and Sofifi, the capital of the province, is located on the west coast of the island. Hal ...

, plus one language in the east of the

Bomberai Peninsula Bomberai Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Bomberai), otherwise known as the Bird's Beak Peninsula ( id, Semenanjung Paruh Burung), is located in the Western New Guinea region, opposite to and to the south of the Bird's Head Peninsula. To the west lies ...

). *West New Guinea languages (on the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding ...

west of New Guinea, and the islands and shoreline of

). The unity of the South Halmahera and Raja Ampat languages is supported by phonological changes noted in Blust (1978) and Remijsen (2002). This results in the following structure: *

(South Halmahera, in the sea between Halmahera and New Guinea, and Raja Ampat off the western tip of New Guinea) David Kamholz (2014) includes these languages as additional branches: * Lower Mamberamo (sometimes also considered to be Papuan, and may be of mixed Austronesian and Papuan origin) * Mor *

Tandia ''Tandia'' is Bryce Courtenay's 1991 sequel to his own best-selling novel '' The Power of One''. It follows the story of a young woman, Tandia, who was brutally raped and then banished from her own home. Tandia later meets up with Peekay, the ...

* Waropen The following languages groups are problematic – they may or may not be SHWNG. Kamholz (2014) does not classify them due to lack of data. Grimes & Edwards include them with the Kei–Tanimbar languages. *Irarutu–Nabi: Irarutu, Kuri (Nabi) *Bedoanas–Erokwanas: Arguni, Bedoanas, Erokwanas

Kamholz (2014)

The SHWNG languages can be categorized as follows (Kamholz 2014: 136-141):Kamholz, David (2014).
Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea
'. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd ;South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) *

Moor Moor or Moors may refer to: Nature and ecology * Moorland, a habitat characterized by low-growing vegetation and acidic soils. Ethnic and religious groups * Moors, Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during ...

* Waropen * Warembori (sometimes considered non-Austronesian) *

Yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...

(sometimes considered non-Austronesian) *RASH (Raja Ampat–South Halmahera) ** Ambel-

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

** Ma'ya- Matbat ** Maden (including the Fiawat dialect) ** As ** South Halmahera ***Southern South Halmahera:

Gane Gane is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname: *Alan Gane (born 1950), English former amateur footballer and manager *Chris Gane (born 1974), English professional golfer *Chris Gane (computer scientist), Ch ...

, Taba ***Central-Eastern South Halmahera: Buli, Maba,

Patani Patani Darussalam ( Bahasa Malayu Arabic : , also sometimes Patani Raya or Patani Besar, "Greater Patani"; th, ปาตานี) is a historical region in the Malay peninsula. It includes the southern Thai provinces of Pattani, Yala (Ja ...

, Sawai ***

Gebe Gebe is an island in Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Administratively it is part of Central Halmahera, North Maluku. The island is part of a small island group which also include Fau island, Yoi, Uta, and Sain. Gebe is part of the Halmahera rain f ...

** Biakic:

Dusner Dusner is a language spoken in the village of Dusner in the province of West Papua, Indonesia. Dusner is highly endangered, and has been reported to have just three remaining speakers. Sociolinguistic situation The language is highly endangere ...

, Meoswar, Roon **

Yapen Yapen (also Japan, Jobi) is an island of Papua, Indonesia. The Yapen Strait separates Yapen and the Biak Islands to the north. It is in Cenderawasih Bay off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. To the west is Mios Num Island a ...

***Western Yapen: Ambai, Ansus,

Marau Marau is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It was initially populated by Italian immigrants that were escaping from the war. The city name is based on the brave native chief "cacique Marau" which fought against the white ...

, Wandamen, Wooi, Central Yapen ( Munggui, Papuma, Pom, Serui-Laut) ***Eastern Yapen:

Kurudu Kurudu is an Eastern Yapen language of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, in Papua Province of Western New Guinea, northeastern Indonesia. It is spoken by the people in Kurudu Island, located in Cenderawasih Bay between Serui Island of the Yapen ...

, Wabo **Southwest Cenderawasih Bay *** Yaur- Yerisiam ***

Umar ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate o ...

Kamholz (2014) presumes the homeland of proto-SHWNG to be the southern coast of the

Typology

At least six SHWNG languages, namely Ma'ya, Matbat, Ambel,

, Yaur, and Yerisiam, are tonal. Klamer, et al. (2008) suggest that tone in these SHWNG languages originated from contact with

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 ...

of the

that are now extinct. There are few lexical similarities with present-day Papuan languages, except for a few words such as 'sago' that are shared with the two tonal Papuan isolates Abun and Mpur (both spoken on the north coast of the

Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...

):Klamer, Marian; Ger Reesink; and Miriam van Staden. 2008. East Nusantara as a Linguistic Area. In Pieter Muysken (ed.), ''From linguistic areas to areal linguistics'', 95-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. *''bi^H'' ( Ma'ya) *''bei'' ( Abun) *''bi^L'' ( Mpur) However, Arnold (2018) traces this etymology to

proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesi ...

*Rambia '

sago palm Sago palm is a common name for several plants which are used to produce a starchy food known as sago. Sago palms may be "true palms" in the family Arecaceae, or cycads with a palm-like appearance. Sago produced from cycads must be detoxified before ...

'. Arnold (2018) reconstructs tone for proto-Ma'ya-Matbat and proto-Ambel, but not for proto-SHWNG. Other than

tonogenesis Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

, these proto-languages had also gone through monosyllabization.Arnold, Laura. 2018.
A preliminary archaeology of tone in Raja Ampat
. In Antoinette Schapper, ed. ''Contact and substrate in the languages of Wallacea'', Part 2. NUSA 64: 7–37. The VRK Mutation is characteristic of most SHWNG languages (except for the RASH languages), where the phonemes /ß/, /r/, and /k/ surface as the prenasalized voiced stops b d and �gin various cluster environments. The mutation is found in the Ambai, Ansus,

, Busami,

, Meoswar,

, Munggui, Papuma, Pom, Roon, Roswar (possibly equivalent to Meoswar), Serewen (possibly a dialect of Pom), Serui-Laut,

, Wamesa, Warembori, Waropen, Wooi, Yaur, Yerisiam, and

languages.Gasser, Emily
2018
VRK Mutation: Distribution of a Crazy Rule in Cenderawasih Bay
Paper presented at the 14th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics

, Université d'Antananarivo, Madagascar, July 17-20.
Slides
Kamholz notes that SHWNG languages have relatively low lexical retention rates from

Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesi ...

, pointing to significant influence from non-Austronesian languages.

References

*Kamholz, David. 2014b.
South Halmahera–West New Guinea: The history of Oceanic's closest relative
'. LSA Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN. {{DEFAULTSORT:Halmahera-Cenderawasih languages Languages of western New Guinea Cenderawasih Bay Halmahera