Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are the non-
New Guinea 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 isolates. The majority of the Papuan languages are spoken on the island of New Guinea, with a number spoken in the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville Island and the Solomon Islands to the east, and in Halmahera, Timor 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, in the eastern Torres Strait.
Several languages of Flores, 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 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
In accordance with William A. Foley (1986):
The term 'Papuan languages' must not be taken in the same sense as 'Austronesan languages'. While all Austronesian languages are genetically related in one family, in the sense that they all descend from a common ancestral language called Proto-Austronesian spoken some 6,000 years ago... [Papuan languages] do not all trace their origins back to a single ancestral language... when a language is termed 'Papuan', this claims nothing more than that a language is not Austronesian.[3]
Speaker numbers
Most Papuan languages are spoken by hundreds to thousands of people; the most populous are found in the
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
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, North, East, and South Papuan languages);[5] long-range comparison has also suggested connections between selected languages, but again the methodology is not orthodox in historical linguistics.[6]
The Great Andamanese languages may be related to some western Papuan languages, but are not themselves covered by the term Papuan.[4]
Greenberg's classification
Joseph Greenberg proposed an Indo-Pacific phylum containing the (Northern) Andamanese languages, all Papuan languages, and the Tasmanian languages, but not the Australian Aboriginal languages. Very few linguists accept his grouping. It is distinct from the Trans–New Guinea phylum of the classifications below.
Usher (2020)
Timothy Usher and Edgar Suter, with the advice of Papuan researchers such as William Croft, Matthew Dryer, John Lynch, Andrew Pawley, and Malcolm Ross,[7] have reconstructed low-level constituents of Papuan language families to verify which purported members truly belong to them. In many cases Usher and Suter have created new names for the member families to reflect their geographic location. Much of their classification is accepted by Glottolog (though the names are not; Glottolog invents its own names). As of 2020, the following families are identified:[8]
Papuan families proposed by Usher (2020)
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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.
Wurm (1975)
The most widely used classification of Papuan languages is that of
According to
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,[9][10] a later migration bringing the West Papuan, Torricelli and the East Papuan languages[9] and a third wave bringing the most recent pre-Austronesian migration, the Trans–New Guinea family.[9]
Papuan families proposed by Wurm (1975) (with approximate numbers of languages)
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Two of Wurm's isolates have since been linked as the and since Wurm's time another isolate and two languages belonging to a new family have been discovered,
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Foley (2003)
Foley summarized the state of the literature.
Papuan families other than TNG accepted by Foley (2003)
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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 pronouns. 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 Trans–New Guinea languages.) Ethnologue (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
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
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.
Papuan families proposed by Ross (2005)
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Sorted by location north
Former isolates classified by Ross:
Languages reassigned to the Austronesian family:
Unclassified due to lack of data:
Unaccounted for:
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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.[12] 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)
Papuan families proposed by Wichmann (2013)
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An automated computational analysis (
Selected Papuan family groupings in the ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity (version 4)
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Palmer (2018)
Bill Palmer et al. (2018) propose 43 independent families and 37 language isolates in the Papuasphere, comprising a total of 862 languages.[16] 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
Papuan families proposed by Palmer (2018)
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Glottolog 4.0 (2019)
Glottolog 4.0 (2019), based partly on Usher, recognizes 70 independent families and 55 isolates.[21]
Papuan families proposed in Glottolog 4.0
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External relations
Greenberg also suggested a connection to the Tasmanian languages. However, the Tasmanian peoples were isolated for perhaps 10,000 years, genocide wiped out their languages before much was recorded of them, and few linguists expect that they will ever be linked to another language family.
Typology
The
Tonal Papuan languages include the Sko, Lepki, Kaure, Kembra, Lakes Plain, and Keuw languages.[24]
See also
- Trans–New Guinea languages
- Proto-Trans–New Guinea
References
Notes
- ^ "Papuan". www.languagesgulper.com. Retrieved 2017-10-15.
- ^ Ray 1892.
- ^ Foley 1986, pp. 2–3.
- ^ a b Wurm 1975
- PMID 19918360.
- ^ Murray Gell-Mann et al. (2009) "Distant Language Relationship: The Current Perspective", Journal of Language Relationship·Вопросы языкового родства
- ^ Newguineaworld Advisory Board
- ^ Usher, Timothy and Edgar Suter. NewGuineaWorld.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7007-1197-0.
- ^ ISBN 9780731521326– via press.anu.edu.au.
- ^ "DELP - Papuan Languages". sydney.edu.au.
- ^ Wichmann, Søren (2013). "A classification of Papuan languages" (PDF). In Hammarström, Harald; van den Heuvel, Wilco (eds.). History, contact and classification of Papuan languages. Language and Linguistics in Melanesia. Vol. Special Issue 2012. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea. pp. 313–386.
- yrw
- ynl
- ^ 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).
- ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- OCLC 67292782.
- ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ^ Foley 1986.
- ISBN 0-521-47378-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
General references
- Carrington, Lois (1996). A linguistic bibliography of the New Guinea area. Canberra: Australian National University. OCLC 41223774.
- OCLC 13004531.
- OCLC 67292782.
- Ray, Sidney Herbert (1892). "The languages of British New Guinea". Transactions of the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists. II (1892): 754–770.
- OCLC 67292782.
- Wurm, S.A. (Ed.) (1975). OCLC 37096514.
- OCLC 8592292.
- OCLC 9188672.
Further reading
- Comparative wordlists
- Conrad, R. and Dye, W. "Some Language Relationships in the Upper Sepik Region of Papua New Guinea". In Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40:1-36. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975.
- Davies, J. and
- Foley, W.A. "Linguistic prehistory in the Sepik-Ramu basin". In Pawley, A., Attenborough, R., Golson, J. and Hide, R. editors, Papuan Pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. PL-572:109-144. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 2005.
- Franklin, K.J. "Other Language Groups in the Gulf District and Adjacent Areas". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:261-278. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973.
- Laycock, Donald C. 1968. Languages of the Lumi Subdistrict (West Sepik District), New Guinea. Oceanic Linguistics, 7 (1): 36–66.
- Macdonald, G.E. "The Teberan Language Family". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:111-148. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973.
- McElhanon, K.A. and doi:10.15144/PL-B16
- Miedema, J. and Welling, F.I. "Fieldnotes on languages and dialects in the Kebar district, Bird's Head, Irian Jaya". In Adams, K., Lauck, L., Miedema, J., Welling, F., Stokhof, W., Flassy, D., Oguri, H., Collier, K., Gregerson, K., Phinnemore, T., Scorza, D., Davies, J., Comrie, B. and Abbott, S. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 22. A-63:29-52. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1985.
- Shaw, R.D. "The Bosavi language family". In Laycock, D., Seiler, W., Bruce, L., Chlenov, M., Shaw, R.D., Holzknecht, S., Scott, G., Nekitel, O., Wurm, S.A., Goldman, L. and Fingleton, J. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 24. A-70:45-76. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1986.
- Shaw, R.D. "A Tentative Classification of the Languages of the Mt Bosavi Region". In Franklin, K. editor, The linguistic situation in the Gulf District and adjacent areas, Papua New Guinea. C-26:187-215. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1973.
- Thomson, N.P. "The Dialects of Magi". In Conrad, R., Dye, W., Thomson, N. and Bruce Jr., L. editors, Papers in New Guinea Linguistics No. 18. A-40:37-90. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975.
- doi:10.15144/PL-B31
External links
- TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea (by Simon Greenhill)
- 2003 bibliography of languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Indonesian Papua
- Summer Institute of Linguistics site on languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Papua New Guinea
- Map of Papuan languages (formerly known as the East Papuan family) of island Melanesia
- Bill Foley on Papuan languages
- Dryer's Papuan Language Families and Genera
- Endangered Languages of the Pacific Region
- Timothy Usher's Newguineaworld site