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| Northwest Papuan | |
|---|---|
| Northwest New Guinea | |
| (proposed) | |
| Geographic distribution | Papua Province,Indonesia |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
TheNorthwest Papuan languages are a proposedlanguage family ofPapuan languages.
Many of the constituent branches of Northwest Papuan were first proposed to be related by H.K.J. Cowan in the 1950s. Voorhoeve (1971) connected the Border and Tor families. Using only pronouns as a diagnostic,Malcolm Ross linked most of the western (Foja Range) branch of the family, which is now fairly secure. The current form of the proposal was worked out by Timothy Usher under the name "North(west) New Guinea"[1] (not to be confused with the proposedNorth New Guinea branch of theAustronesian language family).It is not yet certain, however, that the similarities in vocabulary between Foja Range and the other constituent families are due to inheritance rather than borrowing.
The western branch, Foja Range, is equivalent to Ross'sTor–Kwerba family with the addition of Nimboran.
Søren Wichmann (2013)[2] considersNimboran,Kapauri (under Kwerbic above),Border, and possibly alsoElseng (under Border above) to form a unified language family.