West Bird's Head languages

West Bird's Head languages have been heavily influenced by Austronesian languages. Austronesian influence is evident in SVO word order (as opposed to SOV word order in most other Papuan language families), pronouns, numerals, and other typological features.{{cite book |last1=Holton |first1=Gary |last2=Klamer |first2=Marian |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird’s Head |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=569–640 |doi=10.1515/9783110295252-005 |oclc=1041880153 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}{{Rp|625}}

{{tree list}}

• West Bird's Head
• Seget–Moi (Sele Strait):
• Seget
• Moi
• South West Bird's Head (Seremuk River):
• Tehit (or Kaibus; the most populous, with 10,000 speakers)
• Kalabra (close to Tehit)
• Moraid
• ? Kuwani

{{tree list/end}}

Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct.Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. West Papuan Phylum languages on the mainland of New Guinea: Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula. Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene, ed. by S.A. Wurm, 717-28. (Pacific Linguistics C-38). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

These languages cannot be easily linked to other families of the Bird‘s Head Peninsula.{{Rp|626}} They have been plausibly connected to the geographically close North Halmahera (NH) family, a relationship considered clear by Reesink 1998;{{cite book |first = Ger P. |last = Reesink |editor-first = Jelle |editor-last = Miedema |editor-first2 = Cecilia |editor-last2 = Odé |editor-first3 = Rien A.C. |editor-last3 = Dam |chapter = The Bird‘s Head as Sprachbund |title = Perspectives on the Bird‘s Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia; Proceedings of the Conference, Leiden, 13–17 October 1997 |year = 1998 |location = Amsterdam/Atlanta |isbn = 978-9-042-00644-7 |doi = 10.1163/9789004652644_032 |oclc = 41025250 |publisher = Rodopi |pages = 603–642 |language = en}} however, the evidence does not appear to be conclusive.{{cite book |editor-first=Gunter |editor-last = Senft |date=2008 |title=Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages |series = Pacific Linguistics 594 |publisher = Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University |location = Canberra |chapter = Serial verb constructions in a linguistic area |first = Miriam |last = van Staden |first2 = Ger |last2 = Reesink |pages = 17–54 |language= en}}{{Rp|20}} In particular, the available lexical evidence is flimsy, as noted by Holton and Klamer (2018).{{Rp|626–627}} On the other hand, the geographical proximity of the two families lends credibility to this proposal. The connection between WBH and NH was first proposed by H.K.J. Cowan (1957), and further discussed by C.L. Voorhoeve (1987, 1994).{{Rp|580}}

A link between WBH and the isolates Abun and Maybrat has also been proposed (Wichmann 2013, Flassy 2002).Wichmann, Søren. 2013. [http://www.langlxmelanesia.com/wichmann313-386.pdf A classification of Papuan languages]. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.{{Rp|582}}

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. {{doi|10.15144/PL-B31}} as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.{{Cite web |url=http://transnewguinea.org/ |title=TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea |last=Greenhill |first=Simon |date=2016 |access-date=2020-11-05}}

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. kalen, kelem, kele for “bird”) or not (e.g. tolok, begu, niwi for “egg”).

:

{{reflist}}

{{West Papuan languages}}

{{Papuan languages}}

Category:Languages of Western New Guinea

Category:West and Central Bird's Head languages