The Piore River or Lagoon languages form a branch of

Skou languages The Sko or Skou languages are a small language family spoken by about 7000 people, mainly along the Vanimo coast of Sandaun Province in Papua New Guinea, with a few being inland from this area and at least one just across the border in the Indone ...

. Historically most have been lumped together as a single Warapu language, with Nouri variously classified. They are spoken in the

Sissano Lagoon Sissano Lagoon is a lagoon located in West Aitape Rural LLG, Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tp ...

area of West Aitape Rural LLG,

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland province of Papua New Guinea. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capital is Vanimo. In July 1998 the a ...

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 Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. The Piore River runs to the west of all the languages, and so speakers do not find it an acceptable name. However, it is not clear which name would be better, as the name of the lagoon, 'Sissano', is used for different neighboring languages.

Languages

The ''Piore River'' branch was ambiguously named ''Lagoon'' by Miller (2017).Miller, Steve A. 2017. Skou Languages Near Sissano Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia 35: 1-24. The older names of the Piore River languages were from village names; Miller submitted that the languages name were actually ''Bauni, Uni, Bouni'', and ''Bobe''. Bobe is coordinate with the rest, which might be considered (divergent) dialects of a single language. Lagoon (Piore River) * Bobe (Nouri village) *Warapu ** Bauni (Poo and Barapu/Warapu villages) ** Uni (Ramo village) ** Bouni (Sumo village)

Convergence area

The Piore River languages have influenced various other languages (other Skou, Kwomtari, Torricelli, and

Oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

languages) that have arrived relatively recently in the Sissano Lagoon area within the last century or so. Sound changes shared by genealogically unrelated languages in the

linguistic convergence area include *s > zero; *t/d, *l > r; and loss of tone, which is a phonological feature typical of Skou languages. The Sissano Lagoon convergence zone is at the northeastern end of what Donohue and Crowther refer to as the "North-Central New Guinea" (NCNG) area, which is a highly linguistically and culturally heterogeneous area marked by the lack of widespread trade and cultural diffusion due to geographical isolation among groups; the "NCNG" area ranges from just east of the Lakes Plain region to the western edge of the

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

basin.

References

* {{Skou languages Eastern Skou languages