The South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) languages are a branch of the
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 ...
, found in the islands and along the shores of the
Halmahera Sea in the
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, ...
n province of
North Maluku and of
Cenderawasih Bay in the provinces of
Papua and
West Papua. There are 38 languages.
The unity of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea subgroup is well supported by lexical and phonological evidence. Blust (1978) has proposed that they are most closely related to the
Oceanic languages, but this classification is not universally accepted.
Most of the languages are only known from short word lists, but
Buli,
Patani and
Taba on Halmahera,
Ambel on Raja Ampat, and
Biak,
Wamesa,
Wooi, and
Waropen in Cenderawasih Bay, are fairly well attested.
Classification
Traditionally, the languages are classified into two geographic groups:
*
South Halmahera languages (along the southeastern coast of
Halmahera, plus one language in the east of the
Bomberai Peninsula).
*West New Guinea languages (on the
Raja Ampat Islands west of New Guinea, and the islands and shoreline of
Cenderawasih Bay).
The unity of the South Halmahera and Raja Ampat languages is supported by phonological changes noted in Blust (1978) and Remijsen (2002). This results in the following structure:
*
Cenderawasih Bay
*
Raja Ampat–South Halmahera (RASH) (South Halmahera, in the sea between Halmahera and New Guinea, and Raja Ampat off the western tip of New Guinea)
David Kamholz (2014) includes these languages as additional branches:
*
Lower Mamberamo (sometimes also considered to be
Papuan, and may be of mixed Austronesian and Papuan origin)
*
Mor
*
Tandia
*
Waropen
The following languages groups are problematic – they may or may not be SHWNG. Kamholz (2014) does not classify them due to lack of data.
Grimes & Edwards include them with the
Kei–Tanimbar languages, and Kamholz (2024) does not list them as part of SHWNG.
*Irarutu–Nabi:
Irarutu,
Kuri (Nabi)
*Bedoanas–Erokwanas:
Arguni,
Bedoanas,
Erokwanas
Kamholz (2014, 2024)
The SHWNG languages can be categorized as follows (Kamholz 2014: 136-141, Kamholz 2024: 183):
[Kamholz, David (2014). ]
Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea
''. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd
*South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG)
**
Tandia
**
Moor
**
Waropen
**
Warembori (sometimes considered
non-Austronesian)
**
Yoke (sometimes considered
non-Austronesian)
**
Raja Ampat–South Halmahera
***
Ambel
***
Biga
***
Salawati (including the
Fiawat dialect)
***
As
***Ma'ya-Matbat
****
Ma'ya
****
Matbat
***
South Halmahera
****
Gebe
****Central-Eastern South Halmahera
*****
Buli
*****
Maba
*****
Patani
*****
Sawai
****Southern South Halmahera
*****
Gane
*****
Taba
**
Nuclear Cenderawasih Bay
***Biakic
****
Biak (Numfor)
****
Dusner
****
Meoswar
****
Roon
***
Yapen
****Western Yapen (Central–Western Yapen)
*****
Ambai
*****
Ansus
*****
Marau
*****
Wandamen
*****
Woi
*****Central Yapen
******
Munggui
******
Pom
******
Papuma
******
Serui-Laut
******
Busami
****Eastern Yapen
*****
Kurudu
*****
Wabo
***Southwest Cenderawasih Bay
****
Umar
****Yaur-Yerisiam
*****
Yaur
*****
Yerisiam
Kamholz (2014) presumes the homeland of proto-SHWNG to be the southern coast of the
Cenderawasih Bay, around 3,500 years ago.
Kamholz (2024) revises the tree shown above, separating
Ambel-
Biga into two primary branches of RASH.
Typology
At least six SHWNG languages, namely
Ma'ya,
Matbat,
Ambel,
Moor,
Yaur, and
Yerisiam, are
tonal. Klamer, et al. (2008) suggest that tone in these SHWNG languages originated from contact with
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 ...
of the
Raja Ampat Islands that are now extinct. There are few lexical similarities with present-day Papuan languages, except for a few words such as 'sago' that are shared with the two tonal Papuan isolates
Abun and
Mpur (both spoken on the north coast of the
Bird's Head Peninsula):
[Klamer, Marian; Ger Reesink; and Miriam van Staden. 2008. East Nusantara as a Linguistic Area. In Pieter Muysken (ed.), ''From linguistic areas to areal linguistics'', 95-149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.]
*''bi
H'' (
Ma'ya)
*''bei'' (
Abun)
*''bi
L'' (
Mpur)
However, Arnold (2018) traces this etymology to
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *Rambia '
sago palm'.
Arnold (2018) reconstructs tone for Proto-Ma'ya-Matbat and Proto-Ambel, but not for Proto-SHWNG. Other than
tonogenesis, these proto-languages had also gone through monosyllabization through
apocope.
[Arnold, Laura. 2018.]
A preliminary archaeology of tone in Raja Ampat
. In Antoinette Schapper, ed. ''Contact and substrate in the languages of Wallacea'', Part 2. NUSA 64: 7–37.
The VRK Mutation is characteristic of most SHWNG languages (except for the RASH languages), where the phonemes , , and surface as the prenasalized voiced stops , , and in various cluster environments. The mutation is found in the
Ambai,
Ansus,
Biak,
Busami,
Dusner,
Kurudu,
Marau,
Meoswar,
Moor,
Munggui,
Papuma,
Pom,
Roon,
Roswar (possibly equivalent to
Meoswar),
Serewen (possibly a dialect of
Pom),
Serui-Laut,
Umar,
Wamesa,
Warembori,
Waropen,
Wooi,
Yaur,
Yerisiam, and
Yoke languages.
Gasser, Emily
2018
VRK Mutation: Distribution of a Crazy Rule in Cenderawasih Bay
Paper presented at the 14th International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics
, Université d'Antananarivo, Madagascar, July 17-20.
Slides
Kamholz notes that SHWNG languages have relatively low lexical retention rates from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, pointing to significant influence from non-Austronesian Papuan languages.
Historical morphology
Reconstruction of subject markers and inalienable possessive markers for Proto-South Halmahera–West New Guinea according to Kamholz (2015). Note that V = vocalic conjugation, C = consonantal conjugation:
:
:
Lexical reconstructions
Reconstruction of numerals in Proto-South Halmahera–West New Guinea according to Barlow (2022).
Reconstruction of innovative lexemes found in Proto-South Halmahera–West New Guinea according to Kamholz (2024).
References
*Kamholz, David. 2014b.
South Halmahera–West New Guinea: The history of Oceanic's closest relative
'. LSA Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN.
*Kamholz, David (2015)
The reconstruction of Proto-SHWNG morphology
*Barlow, Russell (2022)
Papuan-Austronesian contact and the spread of numeral systems in Melanesia
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halmahera-Cenderawasih languages
Languages of Western New Guinea
Cenderawasih Bay
Halmahera