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Amto–Musan is a
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
of two closely related but mutually unintelligible
Papuan languages The Papuan languages are the non- Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply ...
, Amto and Siawi, spoken along the Samaia River of
Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea (also known as home of the sunset). It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population ...
of
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
.


Languages

Foley (2018) and Usher (2020) agree that the family consists of two languages. ;Amto–Musan / Samaia River family * Amto (Ki) * Musan (Musian, Siawi)


External relationships

Amto–Musan was left unclassified by Ross (2005) (see Papuan languages#Ross (2005)) due to lack of data; Wurm (1975) had posited it as an independent family. The family has typological similarities with the Busa
language isolate A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages. Basque in Europe, Ainu and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, and Tiwi ...
, but these do not appear to demonstrate a genetic relationship. Timothy Usher links the Amto–Musan languages to their neighbors, the
Arai languages The Left May or Arai languages are a small language family of half a dozen closely related but not mutually intelligible languages in the centre of New Guinea, in the watershed of the Left May River. There are only about 2,000 speakers in all. Wi ...
and the Pyu language in as Arai–Samaia stock. Foley (2018) classifies them separately as an independent language family. Foley also notes that due to heavy contact and trade with Left May languages, Amto–Musan languages have borrowed much cultural vocabulary from Left May.


Cognates

Amto-Musan family cognates listed by Foley (2018): : Possible cognates between the Amto-Musan and Left May families: : Possible loanwords reflecting the close trade relationship between Amto-Musan and Left May speakers: *‘arrow’ Amto ''lamu'', Musan ''namu'', Ama ''lamu'' *‘stone’: Amto ''tabeki'', Musan ''tipeki'', Bo ''təpəki'', Ama ''tomoki''


Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Conrad & Dye (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database: The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. ''tipeki'', ''ʌbɛki'' for “stone”) or not (e.g. ''twæ'', ''nani'' for “head”). :


References


External links


Amto-Musan languages database at TransNewGuinea.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amto-Musan languages Arai–Samaia languages Languages of Sandaun Province