The Finisterre languages are a
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...
, spoken in the
Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea, classified within the original
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) proposal, and
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 TNG identity to be established. They share with the
Huon languages
The Huon languages are a language family, spoken on the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea, that was classified within the original Trans–New Guinea (TNG) proposal, and William A. Foley considers their TNG identity to be established. They ...
a small closed class of verbs taking pronominal object prefixes some of which are cognate across both families (Suter 2012), strong morphological evidence that they are related.
The most populous Finisterre languages are Wantoat, Rawa, and Yopno, with about 10,000 speakers apiece, and Iyo, with about half that number.
Internal structure
Huon and Finisterre, and then the connection between them, were identified by
Kenneth McElhanon
Kenneth is an English given name and surname. The name is an Anglicised form of two entirely different Gaelic personal names: ''Cainnech'' and '' Cináed''. The modern Gaelic form of ''Cainnech'' is ''Coinneach''; the name was derived from a by ...
(1967, 1970). They are clearly valid language families. Finisterre contains six clear branches. Beyond that, classification is based on lexicostatistics, which does not provide precise classification results. The outline below follows McElhanon and Carter et al. (2012).
* Finisterre family
** Erap branch
***Boana:
Nuk–
Nek
Filippo Neviani (born 6 January 1972), known by his stage name Nek, is an Italian singer-songwriter and musician. Nek is popular in Italy and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, and has performed and released most of his albums in both Italian ...
,
Nakama,
Numanggang,
Munkip
***
Finongan,
Gusan,
Mamaa
***
Nimi,
Sauk (Ma Manda),
Uri Uri may refer to:
Places
* Canton of Uri, a canton in Switzerland
* Úri, a village and commune in Hungary
* Uri, Iran, a village in East Azerbaijan Province
* Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, a town in India
* Uri (island), an island off Malakula Islan ...
** Gusap–Mot branch
***
Madi Madi may refer to:
Places
* Madi, Chitwan, a municipality in Chitwan District in Nepal
* Madi Municipality, Sankhuwasabha, a municipality in Sankhuwasabha District in Nepal
* Madi Rural Municipality, Rolpa, a rural municipality in Rolpa Distric ...
(Gira),
Neko,
Nekgini
***
Ngaing,
Rawa
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) (Persian:جمعیت انقلابی زنان افغانستان, ''Jamiʿat-e Enqelābi-ye Zanān-e Afghānestān'', Pashto:د افغانستان د ښڅو انقلابی جمعیت) ...
,
Ufim,
Iyo (Nahu)
** Uruwa branch:
Sakam (Kutong) –
Som,
Nukna (Komutu),
Yau, ?
Weliki
** Wantoat branch:
Awara–
Wantoat
Wantoat, named after the Wantoat River, is one of the Finisterre languages 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 ...
(Yagawak, Bam),
Tuma-Irumu
** Warup branch:
Asaro'o (Morafa) –
Molet,
Bulgebi,
Degenan–Tanda,
Forak,
Guya (Guiarak),
Gwahatike
Gwahatike (also called Dahating or Gwatike) is a language generally classified in the Warup branch of the Finisterre family of Finisterre–Huon languages. As of 2003, it was spoken by 1570 people in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in several villa ...
(Dahating),
Muratayak (Asat, Yagomi)
** Yupna branch:
Domung–
Ma (Mebu),
Nankina,
Bonkiman–
Yopno (Kewieng, Wandabong, Nokopo, Isan), ?
Yout Wam
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from McElhanon & Voorhoeve (1970) and Retsema et al. (2009), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:
:
References
External links
ELAR archive of Documenting Yupna Diversity
Bibliography
*
* Suter, Edgar (2012). Verbs with pronominal object prefixes in Finisterre-Huon languages. In: Harald Hammarström and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.). ''History, contact and classification of Papuan languages.''
pecial Issue 2012 of Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 23-58. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
* Claassen, Oren R. and Kenneth A. McElhanon. 1970. Languages of the Finisterre Range. ''Papers in New Guinea Linguistics'' No. 11, 45–78. Caberra: Pacific Linguistics.
* Carter, John, Katie Carter, John Grummitt, Bonnie MacKenzie and Janell Masters. 2012. ''A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Mur Village Vernaculars''. Dallas: SIL International.
urvey of Warup languages* Smith, Geoffrey P. 1988. Morobe counting systems. ''Papers in New Guinea Linguistics'' No. 26, 1–132.
{{Trans–New Guinea languages
Languages of Papua New Guinea