The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider them to be part of Trans–New Guinea. However, according to

Dryer Dryer (or drier) may refer to: Drying equipment * Hair dryer * Hand dryer * Clothes dryer, also known as a tumble-dryer * Belt dryer * Desiccant, a substance that absorbs or adsorbs water * Grain dryer, for storage grain bins * Oil drying agent, a ...

(2022), based on a preliminary quantitative analysis of data from the ASJP database, South Bird's Head languages are likely to be a subgroup of Trans–New Guinea.

Languages

The languages are as follows, * Konda-Yahadian (Yabin):

Konda Konda may refer to: *Kondia or Konda, 18th century Mansi principality, Russia *Konda (river) in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Konda (Vitim), river in Buryatia, Russia * Konda, Indonesia, a town in West Papua * Konda, Angola, municipal ...

, Yahadian *

Inanwatan Inanwatan is a small coastal town in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. The town is located on the southern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanju ...

(West South Bird's Head): Duriankere,

(Suabo) * South Bird's Head proper (East South Bird's Head): ** Kais (Kampong Baru) ** Iwaro–Kaburi *** Kaburi *** Puragi (Iwaro) ** Kokoda–Arandai *** Kokoda (Tarof, Kasuweri) *** Arandai **** Kemberano (Weriagar, Barau) **** Dombano (Tomu) Noting low cognacy rates, Holton and Klamer (2018) tentatively consider the following three language groups to each be independent language families, pending further evidence. * Konda–Yahadian * Inanwatan–Duriankere * Nuclear South Bird's Head Usher classifies the South Bird's Head languages as part of a wider ''

Berau Gulf The Berau Gulf ( id, Teluk Berau), formerly the MacCleur Gulf, separates the Vogelkop (Doberai) and Bomberai Peninsulas of Western New Guinea. It opens on the Ceram Sea to the west and ends in Bintuni Bay to the east. Geography Berau Bay is for ...

'' branch of Trans–New Guinea.Usher, Timothy
New Guinea World, North Berau Gulf
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Pronouns

The pronouns are: : 3sg *ni is reconstructable for SBH proper. There appears to be both a plural vowel change from *a to *i, as in proto-TNG, and a plural suffix *-ri.

Cognates

Below are cognates in Nuclear South Bird's Head languages ( Arandai, Kokoda, Kemberano, Kaburi, Kais, Puragi) demonstrating their relatedness, as listed by Holton & Klamer (2018): : South Bird's Head basic vocabulary quoted by Holton & Klamer (2018) from de Vries (2004), showing diverse non-cognate vocabulary across different language groups:de Vries, Lourens. 2004. ''A Short Grammar of Inanwatan: An endangered language of the Bird’s Head of Papua, Indonesia''. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. :

Morphology

Except for the outlier languages

and Yahadian, all South Bird's Head languages have nouns classified according to masculine and feminine genders, which are determined with final vowel quality.

West Bird's Head languages West Bird's Head languages are a small family of poorly documented Papuan languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea. The West Bird's Head (WBH) family is a well-defined family of six languages spoken at the western end of the B ...

also mark nouns for gender.

Syntax

Unlike many other languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula which display SVO word order (such as Abun, Mpur, Maibrat, West Bird's Head, and others), the South Bird's Head languages have SOV word order.

References

External links

East South Bird's Head
New Guinea World. {{Papuan languages Languages of Papua New Guinea Berau Gulf languages