| West Papuan | |
|---|---|
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Halmahera (North Maluku) andBird's Head Peninsula (West Papua andSouthwest Papua) |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primarylanguage families |
| Subdivisions |
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
 Distribution of the West Papuan languages | |
TheWest Papuan languages are a proposedlanguage family of about two dozennon-Austronesian languages of theBird's Head Peninsula (Vogelkop or Doberai Peninsula) of far westernNew Guinea, the island ofHalmahera and its vicinity, spoken by about 220,000 people in all. It is not established if they constitute a proper linguistic family or anareal network of genetically unrelated families.
The best known "West Papuan" language isTernate (50,000 native speakers) of the island of the same name. Along with neighboringTidore, they are the languages of the rivalTernate andTidore sultanates, famous for their role in thespice trade.
TheNorth Halmahera (NH) languages, spoken in theMaluku Islands, share some structural similarities with certain Papuan families inMelanesia, which was noted as far back as 1900.[1]: 193 In addition, there is a number of lexical and morphemic correspondences between NH andWest Bird’s Head (WBH).[2]: 78 These are not easily explainable as chance resemblance. The question then is whether they are due to language contact (i.e., borrowing) or to common descent (i.e., genealogical inheritance). On the other hand, there is little evidence linking the individual families of the Vogelkop Peninsula to each other, with the relationship perhaps better considered areal (i.e., aSprachbund).[3]: 626 In spite of the shared morpho-syntactic features, many of these languages exhibit little in the way of lexical resemblance.[4]
It is not clear if East Bird’s Head (Mantion–Meyah andHatam–Mansim),Maybrat,Mpur, andAbun are related to any of the remaining groups.[3] However, a connection between WBH/NH and theYawa languages appears to be relatively likely.[3]: 626 TheSouth Bird’s Head andTimor–Alor–Pantar families, while included in older formulations of the proposal, are no longer thought of as part of West Papuan.[5]
All of these languages show traces of old Austronesian influence.[4] Much of the basic vocabulary in NH (~30%) can be linked with various Austronesian sources, suggesting a long period of contact.[1]: 194–195 The languages of theBird’s Head have undergone extensive contact with theCenderawasih Bay languages, such asBiak.[3]: 625
The term "West Papuan" has also been used in an areal sense, encompassing most of the non-Austronesian languages of Halmahera and Bird's Head.[5]
The German linguistWilhelm Schmidt first linked the West Bird's Head and North Halmahera languages in 1900. In 1957 H.K.J. Cowan linked them to the non-Austronesian languages ofTimor as well.Stephen Wurm believed that although traces of West Papuan languages were to be found in the languages of Timor, as well as those ofAru andGreat Andaman, this was due to asubstratum and that these languages should be classified asTrans–New Guinea,Austronesian, andAndamanese, respectively. Indeed, most of the languages ofEast Nusa Tenggara andMaluku appear to have some non-Austronesian influence.[6]
In 2005,Malcolm Ross made a tentative proposal, based on the forms of their pronouns, that the West Papuan languages form one of three branches of anextended West Papuan family that also includes theYawa languages, and a newly proposedEast Bird's Head – Sentani family as a third branch.
Søren Wichmann (2013)[7] considersWest Bird's Head,Abun, andMaybrat to form a unified family, but does not accept West Papuan as a coherent language family.
Timothy Usher, also somewhat tentatively, accepts Yawa and East Bird's Head, but not Sentani, as part of West Papuan itself, so the family can remain under that name.[8]
Holton and Klamer (2018) do not unequivocally accept the unity of West Papuan, but note that certain proposals linking "West Papuan" groups together may eventually turn out to be fruitful.[3] Ger Reesink suggests that the West Papuan family should be considered anareal network of unrelated linguistic families, noting the lack of adequate evidence forgenetic relatedness.[5]
The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-West Papuan are,
| I | *da, *di- | exclusive we | *mam, *mi- |
| inclusive we | *po- | ||
| thou | *ni, *na, *a- | you | *nan, *ni- |
| she | *mV | they | *yo, *ana, *yo- |
These are shared by the "core" West Papuan families. Hattam reflects only "I" and "thou", andAmberbaken only "thou", "you", and "she".
Ross's Extended West Papuan languages have forms in*d for "I" and*m for "we". (Most Yawa forms of "we" havem, such asimama, but they are too diverse for an easy reconstruction.) These are found in all branches of the family except for theAmberbaken isolate.
Ross's West Papuan proper is distinguished fromYawa andEBH-Sentani in having forms likena orni for the second-person singular ("thou")pronoun.
| family | I | thou | we |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Papuan | *da, *di- | *na, *ni, *a- | *mam, *mi |
| EBH-Sentani | *da, *di | *ba~wa, *bi | *meme, *me |
| Yava | *rei | *wein | (imama etc.) |
Word order is SVO in theWest Bird's Head family and in westernNorth Halmahera languages (Ternate,Tidore,West Makian, andSahu; due to Austronesian influence). SVO word order is also present in the isolatesAbun,Mpur, andMaibrat.[3]
TheSouth Bird's Head family generally has SOV word order, although SVO word order is also permitted in transitive clauses. TheTimor-Alor-Pantar languages also have verb-final word order.[3]
All Papuan languages of EastNusantara have five or more vowels.[3]
Abun andMpur are fully tonal languages, with Mpur having 4 lexical tones, and Abun having 3 lexical tones.Meyah andSougb arepitch-accent languages. All other languages of theBird's Head Peninsula are non-tonal.[9]: 134–135
Of all the Papuan languages spoken in the Bird's Head Peninsula,Abun has the largest consonant inventory with 20 consonants, while neighboringMaybrat has the smallest with 11 consonants. Large consonant inventories similar to that of Abun are also found in theNorth Halmahera languages, such as Tobelo, Tidore, and Sahu.[3]: 583
The following is a basic vocabulary table of twoWest Bird's Head languages (WBH) (Moi andTehit) and threelanguage isolates (Mpur,Abun,Maibrat), quoted by Holton & Klamer (2018)[3] from Miedema & Reesink (2004: 34) and (Reesink 2005: 202); these show diverse non-cognate forms among Papuan languages of theBird's Head Peninsula:[10][11]
| gloss | Moi (WBH) | Tehit (WBH) | Mpur | Abun | Maibrat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arm/hand | nin | naa | wom | cim | atem |
| leg/foot | eelik | deit | pet | wis | ao |
| house | keik | mbol | jan | nu | amah |
| good | bok | hnjo | mafun | ndo | mof |
| dog | oofun | mqaan | per | ndar | mtah |
| pig | baik | qorik | dwaw | nok | fane |
| chicken | kelem tole | kokok | kokor | dam kukur | kok |
| louse | -jam | hain | im | im | sruom |
| water/river | kla | kla | war | aja | |
| banana | o | ogo | fa | weu | apit |
Below are lexical lookalikes betweenNorth Halmahera languages (NH) (Galela andPagu) andWest Bird's Head languages (WBH) (Moi andTehit) from Voorhoeve (1988: 194), as quoted by Holton & Klamer (2018):[1][3]
| gloss | Galela (NH) | Pagu (NH) | Moi (WBH) | Tehit (WBH) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ‘head’ | sahe | saek | sawa | safakos |
| ‘fruit’, ‘eye’ | sopo | sowok | suwo | sfuon |
| ‘egg’ | gosi | – | – | esyen |
| ‘man’ | ya-nau | naul | ne | nau |
| ‘meat’ | lake | lakem | kem | qan |
| ‘tree’ | gota | – | – | kot |
| ‘water’ | ake | akel | kala | kla |
| ‘drink’ | oke | okel | ook | ooqo |
| ‘stab’ | saka | sakal | saa | sqaa |