The Papuan languages are the non-

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

spoken on the western Pacific island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

, as well as neighbouring islands in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

, and

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. It is a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship.

is the most linguistically diverse region in the world. Besides the Austronesian languages, there arguably are some 800 languages divided into perhaps sixty small language families, with unclear relationships to each other or to any other languages, plus many

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 ...

s. The majority of the Papuan languages are spoken on the island of New Guinea, with a number spoken in the

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about . History The first inhabitants of the archipela ...

Bougainville Island Bougainville Island (; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. Its land area is . The highest point is Mount Balbi, on the main island, at . The much smaller Buk ...

and the

to the east, and in

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

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

and the Alor archipelago to the west. The westernmost language, Tambora in Sumbawa, is extinct. One Papuan language, Meriam, is spoken within the national borders of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, in the eastern

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

. Several languages of

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Administratively, it forms the largest island in the East Nusa Tenggara Province. The area is 14,250 km2. Including Komodo and Rinca islands ...

, Sumba, and other islands of eastern Indonesia are classified as Austronesian but have large numbers of non-Austronesian words in their basic vocabulary and non-Austronesian grammatical features. It has been suggested that these may have originally been non-Austronesian languages that have borrowed nearly all of their vocabulary from neighboring Austronesian languages, but no connection with the Papuan languages of Timor has been found. In general, the

Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages The Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian (CEMP) languages form a proposed branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages consisting of over 700 languages (Blust 1993). Distribution The Central Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken in the Lesser Sun ...

are marked by a significant historical Papuan influence, lexically, grammatically, and phonologically, and this is responsible for much of the diversity of the Austronesian language family.

Concept

The "Papuan languages" are a strictly geographical grouping, and does not imply a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan (non-Austronesian) speaking

Melanesians Melanesians are the predominant and Indigenous peoples of Oceania, indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in an area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands. Most speak one of the many languages of the Austronesian languages, Austronesian l ...

as distinct from Austronesian-speaking

was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892. According to William A. Foley (1986):

Speaker numbers

Most Papuan languages are spoken by hundreds to thousands of people; the most populous are found in the New Guinea Highlands, where a few exceed a hundred thousand. These include Western Dani (180,000 in 1993) and Ekari (100,000 reported 1985) in the western (Indonesian) highlands, and Enga (230,000 in 2000), Huli (150,000 reported 2011), and Melpa (130,000 reported 1991) in the eastern (PNG) highlands. To the west of New Guinea, the largest languages are Makasae in

(100,000 in 2010) and Galela in

(80,000 reported 1990). To the east, Terei (27,000 reported 2003) and Naasioi (20,000 reported 2007) are spoken on Bougainville.

History of classification

Although there has been relatively little study of these languages compared with the Austronesian family, there have been three preliminary attempts at large-scale genealogical classification, by

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...

, Stephen Wurm, and Malcolm Ross. The largest family posited for the Papuan region is the Trans–New Guinea

phylum In biology, a phylum (; : phyla) is a level of classification, or taxonomic rank, that is below Kingdom (biology), kingdom and above Class (biology), class. Traditionally, in botany the term division (taxonomy), division has been used instead ...

, consisting of the majority of Papuan languages and running mainly along the highlands of New Guinea. The various high-level families may represent distinct migrations into New Guinea, presumably from the west.Wurm 1975 Since perhaps only a quarter of Papuan languages have been studied in detail, linguists' understanding of the relationships between them will continue to be revised. Statistical analyses designed to pick up signals too faint to be detected by the comparative method, though of disputed validity, suggest five major Papuan stocks (roughly Trans–New Guinea,

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

, and

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

Papuan languages); long-range comparison has also suggested connections between selected languages, but again the methodology is not orthodox in historical linguistics. The

Great Andamanese languages The Great Andamanese languages are a nearly extinct language family of half a dozen languages once spoken by the Great Andamanese peoples of the northern and central Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, and part of the Andamanese ''sprachbund' ...

may be related to some western Papuan languages, but are not themselves covered by the term Papuan.

Wurm (1975)

The most widely used classification of Papuan languages is that of Stephen Wurm, listed below with the approximate number of languages in each family in parentheses. This was the scheme used by ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'' prior to Ross's classification (below). It is based on very preliminary work, much of it typological, and Wurm himself has stated that he does not expect it to hold up well to scrutiny. Other linguists, including William A. Foley, have suggested that many of Wurm's phyla are based on

areal feature In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a common ancestor or proto-language. An areal feature is contrasted with genetic relatio ...

s and structural similarities, and accept only the lowest levels of his classification, most of which he inherited from prior taxonomies. Foley (1986) divides Papuan languages into over sixty small language families, plus a number of isolates. However, more recently Foley has accepted the broad outline if not the details of Wurm's classification, as he and Ross have substantiated a large portion of Wurm's Trans–New Guinea phylum. According to Ross (see below), the main problem with Wurm's classification is that he did not take contact-induced change into account. For example, several of the main branches of his Trans–New Guinea phylum have no vocabulary in common with other Trans–New Guinea languages, and were classified as Trans–New Guinea because they are similar grammatically. However, there are also many

that are grammatically similar to Trans–New Guinea languages due to the influence of contact and bilingualism. Similarly, several groups that do have substantial basic vocabulary in common with Trans–New Guinea languages are excluded from the phylum because they do not resemble it grammatically. Wurm believed the Papuan languages arrived in several waves of migration with some of the earlier languages (perhaps including the Sepik–Ramu languages) being related to the Australian languages, a later migration bringing the West Papuan, Torricelli and the East Papuan languages and a third wave bringing the most recent pre-Austronesian migration, the Trans–New Guinea family. *

Amto–Musan languages Amto–Musan is a language family of two closely related but mutually unintelligible Papuan languages, Amto and Siawi, spoken along the Samaia River of Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea. Languages Foley (2018) and Usher (2020) agree that ...

(2) * '' Burmeso language'' (isolate) * '' Busa language'' (isolate) * East Bird's Head languages (3) * East Papuan languages (36) * Geelvink Bay languages (12) * '' Yuri language'' (isolate) * '' Porome language'' (isolate) * Kwomtari–Baibai languages (6) * Left May languages (7) * Sepik–Ramu languages (104) * Sko languages (7) *

Torricelli languages The Torricelli languages are a family of about fifty languages of the northern Papua New Guinea coast, spoken by about 80,000 people. They are named after the Torricelli Mountains. The most populous and best known Torricelli language is Arapesh ...

(48) *

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, a region corresponding to the country Papua New Guinea as well as Western New Guinea, parts of Indone ...

(598) * West Papuan languages (26) * '' Yalë language'' (isolate) Two of Wurm's isolates have since been linked as the * Lower Mamberamo languages (2), and since Wurm's time another isolate and two languages belonging to a new family have been discovered, * '' Abinomn language'' (isolate) * Bayono–Awbono languages (2).

Foley (2003)

Foley summarized the state of the literature. Besides Trans–New Guinea and families possibly belonging in TNG ( see), he accepted the proposals for, * Lower Sepik-Ramu ( Lower Sepik + Lower Ramu) * Middle Sepik (incl. Ndu and maybe Sepik Hill) * Torricelli * Sko * Lakes Plain and Cenderawasih Bay (probably related) * East Bird's Head * West Bird's Head * Marind * Bougainville (2 branches not close to each other: North Bougainville + South Bougainville)

Ross (2005)

Malcolm Ross re-evaluated Wurm's proposal on purely lexical grounds. That is, he looked at shared vocabulary, and especially shared idiosyncrasies analogous to English ''I'' and ''me'' vs. German ''ich'' and ''mich''. The poor state of documentation of Papuan languages restricts this approach largely to

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (Interlinear gloss, glossed ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts of speech, but so ...

s. Nonetheless, Ross believes that he has been able to validate much of Wurm's classification, albeit with revisions to correct for Wurm's partially typological approach. (See

.) ''

'' (2009) largely follows Ross. It has been suggested that the families that appear when comparing pronouns may be due to pronoun borrowing rather than to genealogical relatedness. However, Ross argues that Papuan languages have closed-class pronoun systems, which are resistant to borrowing, and in any case that the massive number of languages with similar pronouns in a family like Trans–New Guinea preclude borrowing as an explanation. Also, he shows that the two cases of alleged pronoun borrowing in New Guinea are simple coincidence, explainable as regular developments from the protolanguages of the families in question: as earlier forms of the languages are reconstructed, their pronouns become ''less'' similar, not more. (Ross argues that open-class pronoun systems, where borrowings are common, are found in hierarchical cultures such as those of

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, where pronouns indicate details of relationship and social status rather than simply being grammatical pro-forms as they are in the more egalitarian New Guinea societies.) Ross has proposed 23 Papuan language families and 9–13 isolates. However, because of his more stringent criteria, he was not able to find enough data to classify all Papuan languages, especially many isolates that have no close relatives to aid in their classification. Ross also found that the Lower Mamberamo languages (or at least the Warembori language—he had insufficient data on Pauwi) are Austronesian languages that have been heavily transformed by contact with Papuan languages, much as the Takia language has. The Reef Islands – Santa Cruz languages of Wurm's East Papuan phylum were a potential 24th family, but subsequent work has shown them to be highly divergent Austronesian languages as well. Note that while this classification may be more reliable than past attempts, it is based on a single parameter, ''pronouns,'' and therefore must remain tentative. Although pronouns are conservative elements in a language, they are short and utilise a reduced set of the language's phonemic inventory. Both phenomena greatly increase the possibility of chance resemblances, especially when they are not confirmed by lexical similarities. * Trans–New Guinea (reduced to 466–493 languages) * ? Extended West Papuan (tentative) ** West Papuan languages (27) ** East Bird's Head – Sentani languages (9) ** '' Yawa'' (1–2) *

Mairasi languages The Mairasi languages, also known as Etna Bay are a small independent language family, family of Papuan languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (linguist), Malcolm Ross and Timothy Usher, that had been part of Stephen Wurm's Trans–New ...

(4) * East Cenderawasih (Geelvink Bay) languages (10) * Lakes Plain languages (19; upper

Mamberamo River The Mamberamo (''Indonesian: Sungai Mamberamo'') is the second-longest river on the island of New Guinea, after Sepik River (1,126 km) and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after Fly River, Fly. It is located in the Indonesia ...

) * Tor–Kwerba languages (17) * Nimboran languages (5) * Skou languages (8) * Border languages (15) * Left May – Kwomtari languages (13) (problematic) ** Left May (7) ** Fas (2) **? Kwomtari (3) * Senagi languages (2) (perhaps related to Sepik) *

(40–50) (perhaps related to Sepik) *

Sepik languages The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a language family, family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik River, Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than prese ...

(51) * Ramu – Lower Sepik languages (40) (first proposed by Foley) * Yuat languages (5) * Piawi languages (2) (perhaps in Ramu) * South-Central Papuan languages (22) * Eastern Trans-Fly languages (4; one in

) * ? Yele – West New Britain languages (tentative) ** '' Yélî Dnye'' (Yele) (isolate) ** '' Anêm'' (isolate) ** '' Ata'' (Pele-Ata, Wasi) (isolate) * Baining (East New Britain) languages (8) * North Bougainville languages (4) * South Bougainville languages (9) * Central Solomons languages (4) ;Language isolates Sorted by location ''north Irian:'' * Abinomn language (Baso, Foia) * Isirawa language (Donohue links it to Kwerba) ''

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 ...

:'' * Karkar language (Yuri) – since shown to be a Pauwasi language * Busa language * Yalë language (Nagatman) ''

Sepik River The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the third largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River, Fly and Mamberamo River, Mamberamo. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provi ...

:'' * Taiap language (Gapun), located on what had been an offshore island 4000 BCE ''

:'' * Sulka language, on

New Britain New Britain () is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi Island, Umboi the Dampie ...

* Kol language, on New Britain * Kuot language (Panaras), on New Ireland ;Other Former isolates classified by Ross: * Burmeso language (Taurap), in the East Bird's Head – Sentani languages * Porome language (Kibiri), in the Kiwai family of Trans–New Guinea * Morwap language (Elseng), in the Border languages (on basic lexical resemblances) Languages reassigned to the Austronesian family: * Lower Mamberamo (Donohue argues this is a relexified Papuan family;

Yoke A yoke is a wooden beam 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, used in dif ...

may not belong) * Kazukuru language (2007) * Reef Islands – Santa Cruz (2007) Unclassified due to lack of data: *

(2) * Kenati (isolate) * Komyandaret (isolate) * Maramba (unattested) * Massep (isolate) * Molof (isolate) * Momuna family: Momina, Momuna (Somahai) * Samarokena (apparently Kwerba) * Saponi (shares basic vocab, but not pronouns, with Lakes Plains) * Tause (Ross placed it provisionally in East Bird's Head – Sentani to encourage research, but does not claim it is related) * Tofamna (isolate) * Usku (isolate) Unaccounted for: * Bayono-Awbono (TNG) * Pyu (isolate, has been classified as Kwomtari–Baibai) * Kosare * Kapori * Purari (has been linked to Eleman, but with little evidence) * There is a cluster of languages in West Papua between the upper Taritatu River and the PNG border, including Molof, Usku, and Tofamna listed above but also Namla, Murkim, Lepki, and Kembra, which do not appear to be related to each other or to other languages in the area. Namla, recently discovered, may prove to be related to Tofamna once more data comes in. Murkim and Lepki show some similarities to each other, though these may not be genetic. * Tambora (unclassified, with one lexical item possibly connecting it to languages of Timor) * Doso * Kimki

Wichmann (2013)

Søren Wichmann (2013) accepts the following 109 groups as coherent Papuan families, based on computational analyses performed by the Automated Similarity Judgment Program (ASJP) combined with Harald Hammarström's (2012) classification. Some of the groups could turn out to be related to each other, but Wichmann (2013) lists them as separate groups pending further research. 9 families have been broken up into separate groups in Wichmann's (2013) classification, which are: * Biksi (2 groups) * Dibiyaso- Doso-Turumsa (2 groups) * Kwalean (2 groups) * Lower Sepik-Ramu (5 groups) * Morehead-Wasur (2 groups) * Nuclear Trans-New Guinea (16 groups) * Pauwasi (2 groups: ''Western'' and ''Eastern'') * Sentanic (2 groups) * Sko (2 groups) # West Timor-Alor-Pantar /

-'' Bunaq'' # South Bougainville #'' Wiru'' # Namla-Tofanma #ex-Pauwasi-1 (Western Pauwasi) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-1 ( Asmat–Kamoro) # Mombum # Marindic #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-2 ( Awyu–Dumut) # Inland Gulf #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-3 ('' Oksapmin'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-4 ( Ok) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-5 ( Finisterre-Huon) # Goilalan #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-6 ( Chimbu–Wahgi) #'' Kamula'' / Awin–Pa / Bosavi / East Strickland #ex-Dibiyaso-Doso-Turumsa-1 ('' Dibiyaso'') # Angan # Duna-Bogaya #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-7 ( Engan) # Sepik / Ndu / Walio # Greater Kwerba / Tor-Orya # Nimboran / '' Kapauri'' /

Border Borders are generally defined as geography, geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by polity, political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other administrative divisio ...

#'' Elseng'' # North Halmahera #'' Yalë'' #ex-Dibiyaso-Doso-Turumsa-2 ( Doso-Turumsa) # Kwomtari #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-8 ( Mek) #ex-Morehead-Wasur-1 ('' Yey, Nambu'') # Hatam-Mansim #'' Mor'' # Pahoturi / Eastern Trans-Fly #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-9 ( Kainantu-Goroka) # Yareban / Mailuan #'' Dem'' #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-10 ( Southern Adelbert: '' Nend, Atemble, Apali, Faita, Anamgura, Mum, Musak, Moresada, Utarmbung, Anam, Paynamar, Sileibi, Wadaginam'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-11 ( Dani) # West Bomberai #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-12 ( Wissel Lakes) # Koiarian #'' Kaki Ae'' #'' Moraori'' #'' Mawes'' # Kolopom # Bulaka River #'' Molof'' # Yuat- Maramba #'' Kaure-Narau'' # Tirio # Kayagar # Suki-Gogodala / '' Waia'' / Kiwaian #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-13 ( Binanderean + Kowan: '' Binandere, Baruga, Kowan, Korafe, Suena, Waskia, Zia'') #'' Fasu''- East Kutubu #'' Pawaia''- Teberan # Turama-Kikori # North Bougainville # Eleman # Mairasi #'' Touo'' #ex-Kwalean-1 ('' Humene''-'' Uare'') #'' Tanahmerah'' #'' Savosavo'' #'' Bilua'' # Manubaran #'' Kuot'' #'' Burmeso'' # Amto-Musan / Left May / '' Busa'' #ex-Sentanic-1 ('' Sowari'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-1 ('' Ap Ma'') #'' Taiap'' #ex-Sko-1 ('' I'saka, Skou,

Vanimo Vanimo is the capital of Sandaun Province (West Sepik) in north-westernmost Papua New Guinea and of Vanimo-Green River District. It is located on a peninsula close to the Indonesia–Papua New Guinea border, border with Indonesia, nearest to Jaya ...

, Wutung; Dusur, Leitre'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-2 ( Nor–Pondo: '' Angoram, Chambri, Nor, Kopar, Yimas'') # Geelvink Bay #'' Konda''-'' Yahadian'' # South Bird's Head family / Inanwatan #Nuclear Torricelli #'' Urim'' #'' Ata'' # Monumbo #ex-Sentanic-2 ( Sentani proper) #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-3 ('' Banaro'') # Yawa #ex-Kwalean-2 ('' Mulaha'') #'' Lavukaleve'' #'' Anem'' #ex-Morehead-Wasur-2 ('' Kunja'') #'' Papi'' #'' Mpur'' #'' Abun'' / '' Maybrat'' / West Bird's Head # Lakes Plain #'' Pyu'' #ex-Biksi-1 ('' Kimki'') #ex-Sko-2 ('' Rawo, Barupu; Poo, Ramo, Sumararo, Womo'') #ex-Biksi-2 ('' Yetfa'') #'' Yeli Dnye'' # Lepki–Murkim #ex-Pauwasi-2 (Eastern Pauwasi) # East Bird's Head #'' Kosare'' #'' Usku'' #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-14 ( Croisilles) #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-15 ('' Kobon'') # Senagi # Piawi #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-4 ('' Rao'') #ex-Lower Sepik-Ramu-5 (''

Kire Kire may refer to: People with the name * Kire (surname) * Kire Grozdanov (born 1970), Macedonian football player for FK Pelister * Kire Markoski (born 1995), Macedonian football player for AEL Limassol * Kire Ristevski (born 1990), Macedonian f ...

, Kaian, Aruamu'') #ex-Nuclear Trans New Guinea-16 ( Croisilles) An automated computational analysis ( ASJP 4) by Müller, Velupillai, Wichmann et al. (2013)Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013.
ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)
'. found lexical similarities among the following language groups. Note that some of these automatically generated groupings are due to chance resemblances. * Yuat, Kwalean, Mailuan * Lower Sepik, Monumbo * Lakes Plain, Wipi, Marind * Pyu, Kimki * Biksi, Yele * Lepki-Murkim, Karkar-Yuri * Skou, Kaure- Usku, Marienberg * Mairasi, Mpur * Touo, Savosavo, Bilua * Angan, Sepik * Binandere, Waskia, Tiwi, Senagi *

, Elseng * Kwerba, Nimboran * Mek, Tayap, Abau,

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

* North Halmahera, Timor-Alor-Pantar * West Bomberai, Dani, Oriomo, Morehead * Meyah, Sougb, Hatam * Kainantu, Yareban- Manubaran * Kwomtari, Pawaia, Kwalean * Sentani, Busa, Amto-Musan, Left May * Lavukaleve, Anem, Urim * Gorokan * Kaure, Makayam * Gogodala, Tabo, Kiwaian, Madang * Kayagaric, Mor, Bulaka River * North Bougainville, Eleman * Engan, Duna-Bogaya * Marind, Asmat-Kamoro, Mombum- Kolopom * Dubu-Towei, Wiru * Tofanma, Turama-Kikorian * Awyu * Inland Gulf, Ok-Oksapmin * Bosavi, East Strickland, Kapauku, Doso * Kutubuan * Angan * Kamula, Awin-Pa, Goilalan, Leonard Schultze * Koiarian * Purari, Kaki Ae * Chimbu-Wahgi, Finisterre-Huon

Palmer (2018)

Bill Palmer et al. (2018) propose 43 independent families and 37 language isolates in the Papuasphere, comprising a total of 862 languages. A total of 80 independent groups are recognized. While Pawley & Hammarström's internal classification of Trans-New Guinea largely resembles a composite of Usher's and Ross' classifications, Palmer et al. do not address the more tentative families that Usher proposes, such as Northwest New Guinea. The coherence of the South Bird's Head, East Bird's Head, Pauwasi, Kwomtari, and Central Solomons families are uncertain, and hence are marked below as "tentative." ''Papuan independent language families (43 families)'' * Trans New Guinea (431) * Torricelli (50) * Sepik (45) * Lower Sepik-Ramu (35) * Yam (27) * Timor-Alor-Pantar (26) * Tor-Kwerba (23) * Lakes Plain (20) *

(14) * Sko (13) * East Cenderawasih Bay (10) * North Halmahera (10) * South Bird's Head (10) entative; 3 families?* Kwomtari (6) entative; 4 families?* Leonard Schultze (6) * Upper Yuat (6) * West Bird's Head (6) * East Bird's Head (5) entative; 2 families?* Baining (5) * Pauwasi (5) entative; 2 families?* Nimboran (5) * Yuat (5) * Left May (5) * Pahoturi River (5) * Eleman (5) * North Bougainville (4) * South Bougainville (4) * Central Solomons (4) entative; 4 isolates?* Oriomo (4) * Sentani (4) * Mairasi (3) * Butam-Taulil (2) * Bayono-Awbono (2) * Teberan (2) * Kaure (2) * Lepki (2) * Senagi (2) * Tofanma (2) *

Yapen Yapen (also Japen, Jobi) is an island of Papua (province), 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 ...

(2) * Amto-Musan (2) * Doso-Turumsa (2) * Komolom (2) * Yelmek-Maklew (2) ''Papuan isolates and unclassified languages (37 total)'' ; Bird's Head Peninsula / Bomberai Peninsula (5) * Abun * Mpur * Maibrat * Mor * Tanah Merah ;North coast / hinterland (12) * Abinomn * Burmeso * Elseng * Kapauri * Kembra * Keuw * Kimki * Massep * Mawes * Molof * Usku * Yetfa ;Central West Papua (2) * Dem * Uhunduni ; Sepik- Ramu basin (3) * Busa * Taiap * Yadë ; Gulf of Papua / hinterland (8) * Dibiyaso * Kaki Ae * Kamula * Karami * Pawaia * Porome * Purari * Tabo ;

(6) * Anêm * Ata * Kol * Kuot * Makolkol * Sulka ; Rossel Island ( Louisiade Archipelago) (1) * Yélî Dnye

''Glottolog'' 4.0 (2019)

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

'' 4.0 (2019), based partly on Usher, recognizes 70 independent families and 55 isolates. ;Families (70) * Nuclear Trans-New Guinea (314) **''Subgroups'': ** Madang (106) ** Finisterre-Huon (61) ** Asmat-Awyu-Ok (49) ** Kainantu-Goroka (28) ** Chimbu-Wahgi (17) ** Enga-Kewa-Huli (14) ** Dani (13) ** Greater Binanderean (13) ** Mek (8) ** Paniai Lakes (5) * Nuclear Torricelli (55) * Sepik (36) * Lower Sepik-Ramu (30) * Timor-Alor-Pantar (23) * Lakes Plain (20) * Morehead-Wasur (19) * Anim (17) *

(15) * North Halmahera (15) * Angan (13) * Ndu (13) * Tor-Orya (13) * Geelvink Bay (10) * Sko (10) * Dagan (9) * South Bougainville (9) * Greater Kwerba (8) * Koiarian (8) * Mailuan (8) * Bosavi (7) * Baining (6) * East Strickland (6) * Goilalan (6) * Kiwaian (6) * Left May (6) * South Bird's Head (6) * Eleman (5) * Nimboranic (5) * Pauwasi (5) * West Bird's Head (5) * Yareban (5) * Yuat (5) * Arafundi (4) * Eastern Trans-Fly (4) * North Bougainville (4) * Sentanic (4) * Suki-Gogodala (4) * Turama-Kikori (4) * Walioic (4) * East Bird's Head (3) * Kamula-Elevala (3) * Kayagaric (3) * Kolopom (3) * Kwalean (3) * Mairasic (3) * Ulmapo (3) * West Bomberai (3) * Amto-Musan (2) * Baibai-Fas (2) * Bayono-Awbono (2) * Bogia (2) * Bulaka River (2) * Doso-Turumsa (2) * East Kutubu (2) * Hatam-Mansim (2) * Inanwatan (2) * Konda-Yahadian (2) * Kwomtari-Nai (2) * Lepki-Murkim (2) * Manubaran (2) * Mombum-Koneraw (2) * Namla-Tofanma (2) * Pahoturi (2) * Piawi (2) * Senagi (2) * Somahai (2) * Taulil-Butam (2) * Teberan (2) * Yawa-Saweru (2) ;Isolates (55) * Abinomn * Abun * Ambakich * Anem * Ap Ma * Asabano * Bilua * Bogaya * Burmeso * Damal * Dem * Dibiyaso * Duna * Elseng * Fasu * Guriaso * Kaki Ae * Kapori * Karami * Kaure-Narau * Kehu * Kembra * Kibiri * Kimki * Kol * Kosadle * Kuot * Lavukaleve * Marori * Massep * Mawes * Maybrat-Karon * Molof * Mor * Mpur * Odiai * Papi * Pawaia * Pele-Ata * Purari * Pyu * Sause * Savosavo * Sulka * Tabo * Taiap * Tambora * Tanahmerah * Touo * Usku * Wiru *

* Yele * Yerakai * Yetfa

Usher & Suter (2024)

The following families are identified by Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter in their NewGuineaWorld project: *'' Abinomn'' * Arai and Samaia Rivers (unites Left May, Amto–Musan, and '' Pyu'') * Bulaka River * Cenderawasih Bay (= East Geelvink Bay) *Central New Guinea Highlands ( Enga – Southern Highlands and Simbu – Western Highlands = Chimbu–Wahgi) * East Trans-Fly (unites Eastern Trans-Fly, Pahoturi, and '' Waia'') *

Etna Bay Etna Bay (, ) is a bay in eastern Kaimana Regency, situated in the southeastern corner of West Papua (province), West Papua province, Indonesia. Teluk Etnaat GeoNames.Org (cc-by) post updated 2012-01-17; database downloaded on 2015-11-27 Th ...

(= Mairasi) * Kaki Ae – Kerema Bay (= Eleman) * Keram and Ramu Rivers (= Ramu) *'' Kibiri-Porome'' * Kiwai * Lakes Plains * Lower Sepik River * Madang – Upper Yuat River (unites Arafundi and Piawi) * Middle Yuat River * Morehead River (= Yam) * Nawa River (= Kaure–Kosare) * Northwest New Guinea (tentative. unites Fas, Sentani,

, Sko, and Tor–Kwerba–Nimboran) * Oro – Wharton Range (unites Binanderean and Goilalan) *

Papuan Gulf The Gulf of Papua is located in the southern coast region of New Guinea. It has a total surface area of . Geography Some of New Guinea's largest rivers, such as the Fly River, Turama River, Kikori River, Purari River, and Wawoi River flow into ...

(tentative. unites Kutubuan– Kikorian, East Strickland, Doso–Turumsa, Gogodala–Suki, and Teberan–'' Wiru''–'' Pawaia'') * Pauwasi River (expands Pauwasi with several recently discovered languages) * Senagi * Senu River (unites '' Kwomtari'', '' Nagatman'', and '' Busa'') *

* Torricelli Range – Sepik Coast (= Torricelli) * Trans–New Guinea * West Papuan In addition, poorly attested Karami remains unclassified. Extinct Tambora and the East Papuan languages have not been addressed, except to identify Yele as an Austronesian language.

Greenberg's classification

Joseph Greenberg proposed an

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

phylum containing the (Northern)

Andamanese languages The Andamanese languages are the various languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. There are two known Andamanese language families, Great Andamanese and Ongan, as well as two presumed but unattested ...

, all Papuan languages, and the Tasmanian languages, but not the

Australian Aboriginal languages The Indigenous languages of Australia number in the hundreds, the precise number being quite uncertain, although there is a range of estimates from a minimum of around 250 (using the technical definition of 'language' as non-mutually intellig ...

. Very few linguists accept his grouping. It is distinct from the Trans–New Guinea phylum of the classifications below.

External relations

proposed that the

(or at least the

) off the coast of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

are related to the Papuan or West Papuan languages. Stephen Wurm stated that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the West Papuan and Timor–Alor families "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity ..in a number of instances". However, he considered this not evidence of a connection between (Great) Andamanese and Trans–New Guinea, but of a

substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...

from an earlier migration to New Guinea from the west. Greenberg also suggested a connection to the Tasmanian languages. However, the Tasmanian peoples were isolated for perhaps 10,000 years, their disappearance wiped out their languages before much was recorded of them, and few linguists expect that they will ever be linked to another language family. William A. Foley (1986) noted lexical similarities between R. M. W. Dixon's 1980 reconstruction of proto- Australian and the languages of the East New Guinea Highlands. He believed that it was naïve to expect to find a single Papuan or Australian language family when New Guinea and Australia had been a single landmass for most of their human history, having been separated by the

only 8000 years ago, and that a deep reconstruction would likely include languages from both. However, Dixon later abandoned his proto-Australian proposal, and Foley's ideas need to be re-evaluated in light of recent research. Wurm also suggested the Sepik–Ramu languages have similarities with the Australian languages, but believed this may be due to a substratum effect, but nevertheless believed that the Australian languages represent a linguistic group that existed in New Guinea before the arrival of the Papuan languages (which he believed arrived in at least two different groups).

Typology

The West Papuan, Lower Mamberamo, and most Torricelli languages are all left-headed, as well as the languages of

and New Ireland. These languages all have SVO word order, with the exception of the language isolate Kuot, which has VSO word order. All other Papuan languages are right-headed. Tonal Papuan languages include the Sko, Lepki, Kaure, Kembra, Lakes Plain, and Keuw languages.

References

Notes

General references

* * * * * * * *

External links

TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea
(by Simon Greenhill)
2003 bibliography of languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Indonesian PapuaSummer Institute of Linguistics site on languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Papua New Guinea
* ttp://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/research_projects/delp/papuan.php Bill Foley on Papuan languages
Dryer's Papuan Language Families and GeneraTimothy Usher's Newguineaworld site
{{Authority control Languages of Indonesia Languages of Papua New Guinea