The Raja Ampat–South Halmahera languages are a branch of

Malayo-Polynesian languages The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeas ...

of eastern Indonesia. They are spoken on islands in the Halmahera Sea, and on its margins from the south-eastern coast of

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 ...

to the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat (), or the Four Kings, is an archipelago located off of the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula (on the island of New Guinea), Southwest Papua , Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and sh ...

off the western tip 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 ...

. The languages of the Raja Ampat Islands show a strong Papuan

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 * ...

influence; it is not clear that they are actually Austronesian as opposed to relexified Papuan languages.* Remijsen (2001) and Blust (1978) linked the languages of Raja Ampat to the South Halmahera languages.

Historical morphology

Reconstructions of subject markers and inalienable possessive markers for Raja Ampat–South Halmahera proto-languages according to Kamholz (2015). Note that V = vocalic conjugation, C = consonantal conjugation: Proto-Raja Ampat–South Halmahera: : : Proto-Ma'ya-Matbat: : : Subject markers and personal pronouns of Proto-Raja Ampat–South Halmahera according to Arnold (2023): : :

Languages

From Kamholz (2024). The earlier classification in Kamholz (2014) grouped Ambel and Biga together, but the innovation posited for Proto-Ambel-Biga (innovation of the inalienable possessive plural suffix ''-n''/''-no'') did not in fact exist: *Raja Ampat–South Halmahera **

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in the Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the nort ...

(Ambel) **

Biga Biga may refer to: Places * Biga, Çanakkale, a town and district of Çanakkale Province in Turkey * Sanjak of Biga, an Ottoman province * Biga Çayı, a river in Çanakkale Province * Biga Peninsula, a peninsula in Turkey, in the northwest part ...

** Batta ** Salawati ** As **Ma'ya-Matbat *** Ma'ya *** Matbat ** South Halmahera (see more) Laura Arnold (2024) presents a revised classification, placing

within Ma'ya and unifying all Raja Ampat languages into a branch with two subgroups, one containing most Raja Ampat languages into a Nuclear Raja Ampat subgroup and the other containing Ambel and As. *Raja Ampat–South Halmahera **Raja Ampat ***Ambel-As ****

(Ambel) **** As ***Nuclear Raja Ampat (= Ma'ya-Matbat) **** Matbat ****Ma'ya-Salawati ***** Ma'ya *****Salawati-Batta ****** Batta ****** Salawati ** South Halmahera (see more)

Lexical reconstructions

Reconstruction of lexemes found in Proto-Raja Ampat–South Halmahera according to Arnold (2020, 2025): Reconstruction of lexemes found in Proto-Ma'ya-Salawati according to Arnold (2023, 2024, 2025):

References

{{Languages of Indonesia South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages Languages of Western New Guinea Halmahera

Historical morphology

Languages

Lexical reconstructions

Further reading

References