Trans–New Guinea (TNG) is an extensive family of Papuan languages spoken in New Guinea and neighboring islands, perhaps the third-largest language family in the world by number of languages. The core of the family is considered to be established, but its boundaries and overall membership are uncertain. The languages are spoken by around 3 million people. There have been three main proposals.
The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a well-established branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia.
The Papuan Tip languages are a branch of the Western Oceanic languages consisting of 60 languages. All Papuan Tip languages, except Nimoa, Sudest, and the Kilivila languages, have SOV word order due to influences from nearby Papuan languages. Universally, this is considered to be a typologically unusual change.
The Lower Mamberamo languages are a recently proposed language family linking two languages spoken along the northern coast of Papua province, Indonesia, near the mouth of the Mamberamo River.
The Tor–Kwerba languages are an independent family of Papuan languages proposed in 2005 by Malcolm Ross. All the languages had been part of Stephen Wurm's 1975 Trans–New Guinea proposal, but he did not recognize them as a unit, retaining Kwerba within Capell's 1962 Dani–Kwerba proposal.
Isirawa is a Papuan language spoken by about two thousand people on the north coast of Papua province, Indonesia. It's a local trade language, and use is vigorous. Stephen Wurm (1975) linked it to the Kwerba languages within the Trans–New Guinea family, and it does share about 20% of its vocabulary with neighboring Kwerba languages. However, based on its pronouns, Malcolm Ross (2005) felt he could not substantiate such a link, and left it as a language isolate. The pronouns are not, however, dissimilar from those of Orya–Tor, which Ross links to Kwerba, and Donahue (2002) accept it as a Greater Kwerba language.
Warembori is a moribund language spoken by about 600 people in river mouths on the north coast of Papua, Indonesia.
More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia. A major part of them belong to the Austronesian language family, while over 270 Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages are spoken in eastern Indonesia.. The official language is Indonesian, a standardized form of Malay, which serves as the lingua franca of the archipelago. The vocabulary of Indonesian borrows heavily from regional languages of Indonesia, such as Javanese, Sundanese and Minangkabau, as well as from Dutch, Sanskrit and Arabic.
The Kaure–Kosare languages are a small family in West Papua, near the northern border with Papua New Guinea.
The Dani languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the highlands of Papua Province, Indonesia. Foley (2003) considers their TNG status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear. Capell (1962) had posited that their closest relatives were the Kwerba languages, which Ross (2005) rejects.
New Guinea is a large island separated by a shallow sea from the rest of the Australian continent. It is the world's second-largest, after Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi), and the largest wholly or partly within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania.
The West Trans–New Guinea languages are a suggested linguistic linkage of Papuan languages, not well established as a group, proposed by Malcolm Ross in his 2005 classification of the Trans–New Guinea languages. Ross suspects they are an old dialect continuum, because they share numerous features that have not been traced to a single ancestor using comparative historical linguistics. The internal divisions of the languages are also unclear. William A. Foley considers the TNG identity of the Irian Highlands languages at least to be established.
The Dani–Kwerba languages were a hypothetical language family proposed by Arthur Capell in 1962 and adopted by Wurm as part of his Trans–New Guinea (TNG) phylum. Malcolm Ross reassigned the Dani languages to a West Trans–New Guinea linkage and the Kwerba languages to his Tor–Kwerba family, outside of TNG altogether.
Massep is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by fewer than 50 people in a single village. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous.
Mawes is a Papuan language of Indonesia. It may be related to the Kwerba languages, but Glottolog leaves it unclassified.
Kwerba is a Papuan language of Indonesia. It goes by various names: Airmati (Armati), Koassa, Mataweja, Naibedj, Segar Tor, Tekutameso.
Kwerba Mamberamo is a Papuan language of Indonesia.
The North Papuan languages are a proposed language family of Papuan languages
The West Papuan Highland languages, also known as the Irian Highland languages, are a branch of the Trans–New Guinea language family proposed by Larson & Larson (1972) and confirmed by Timothy Usher. William A. Foley considers their Trans–New Guinea identity to be established.
