The Bosavi or Papuan Plateau languages are a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of the
Trans–New Guinea languages
Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive Language family, family of Papuan languages spoken on the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands ‒ corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as Western New Guinea, parts of Indonesia.
...
in the classifications of
Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher. The family is named after
Mount Bosavi
Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, part of the Kikori River basin.Feld, pp.3–4 The crater is approximately 4 km wide ...
and the
Papuan Plateau
The Great Papuan Plateau is a karst plateau in the Southern Highlands, Hela and Western Provinces of Papua New Guinea. It is bordered the upper stretches of the Kikori River and the Strickland River on the east and west, respectively, and the ...
.
Languages
The languages, which are closely related (though they may have only 10–15% of their vocabulary in common), are:
*
Mount Bosavi
Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, part of the Kikori River basin.Feld, pp.3–4 The crater is approximately 4 km wide ...
:
Kaluli–
Sonia
Sonia, Sonja or Sonya, a name of Greek origin meaning wisdom, may refer to:
People
* Sonia (name), a feminine given name (lists people named, Sonia, Sonja and Sonya)
:* Sonia (actress), Indian film actress in Malayalam and Tamil films
:* Sonia ...
,
Aimele (Kware),
Kasua
*
Onobasulu
*
Mount Sisa
Mt. Sisa is a heavily eroded Pleistocene stratovolcano in Hela, 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 Ste ...
:
Edolo–
Beami
*
Dibiyaso (Bainapi)
The unity of the Bosavi languages was quantitatively demonstrated by Evans and Greenhill (2017).
Palmer et al. (2018) consider
Dibiyaso to be 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 nu ...
.
Pronouns
Pronouns are:
:
Vocabulary comparison
The following basic vocabulary words are from the Trans-New Guinea database:
References
*
*Shaw, R.D.
The Bosavi language family. In Laycock, D., Seiler, W., Bruce, L., Chlenov, M., Shaw, R.D., Holzknecht, S., Scott, G., Nekitel, O., Wurm, S.A., Goldman, L. and Fingleton, J. editors, ''Papers in New Guinea Linguistics'' No. 24. A-70:45-76. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986.
*Shaw, R.D.
A Tentative Classification of the Languages of the Mt Bosavi Region. In Franklin, K. editor, ''The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea''. C-26:187-215. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973.
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Languages of Papua New Guinea
Papuan Plateau languages