West Papua, formerly Irian Jaya Barat or Irian Barat, is a province of Indonesia. It covers the two western peninsulas of the island of New Guinea, Bird's Head Peninsula and Bomberai Peninsula, along with nearby islands. The province is bordered to the north by the Pacific Ocean, to the west by the Halmahera Sea and the Ceram Sea, to the south by the Banda Sea, and to the east by the province of Papua and the Cenderawasih Bay. Manokwari is the province's capital, while Sorong is its largest city. West Papua is the second-least populous province in Indonesia, with a population of 1,134,068 at the 2020 Census.
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, is the western portion of the island of New Guinea controlled by Indonesia since 1962. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region is also called West Papua. Lying to the west of Papua New Guinea, it is the only Indonesian territory situated in Oceania. Considered to be a part of the Australian continent, the territory is mostly in the Southern Hemisphere and includes the Schouten and Raja Ampat archipelagoes. The region is predominantly covered with ancient rainforest where numerous traditional tribes live such as the Dani of the Baliem Valley although a large proportion of the population live in or near coastal areas with the largest city being Jayapura.
The West Papuan languages are a proposed language family of about two dozen non-Austronesian languages of the Bird's Head Peninsula of far western New Guinea, the island of Halmahera and its vicinity, spoken by about 220,000 people in all. It is not established if they constitute a proper linguistic family or an areal network of genetically unrelated families.
The Mantion–Meax or (South)East Bird's Head languages are a language family of three languages in the "Bird's Head Peninsula" of western New Guinea, spoken by all together 20,000 people.
The Yawa languages, also known as Yapen languages, are a small family of two closely related Papuan languages, Yawa and Saweru, which are often considered to be divergent dialects of a single language. They are spoken on central Yapen Island and nearby islets, in Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesian Papua, which they share with the Austronesian Yapen languages.
The Bird's Head Peninsula or Doberai Peninsula is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea and the major part of the Province of West Papua, Indonesia. The peninsula on the opposite side of the island is called the Bird's Tail Peninsula.
Saukorem is a coastal village in West Papua, Indonesia, located about 125 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Manokwari. The town is located on the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula and administratively it is the principal settlement of Amberbaken subdistrict of the Manokwari Regency.
Mpur, is a language isolate spoken in and around Mpur and Amberbaken Districts in Tambrauw Regency of the Bird's Head Peninsula, New Guinea. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) tentatively assigned it to the West Papuan languages, based on similarities in pronouns, Palmer (2018), Ethnologue, and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.
Hatam is a divergent language spoken on the island of New Guinea, specifically in the Indonesian province of West Papua.
Abun, also known as Yimbun, Anden, Manif, or Karon, is a Papuan language spoken along the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula in Abun District, Tambrauw Regency. It is not closely related to any other language, and though Ross (2005) assigned it to the West Papuan family, based on similarities in pronouns, Palmer (2018), Ethnologue, and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.
Sumuri or Sumeri is a language spoken in Sumuri District, Teluk Bintuni Regency on the Bomberai Peninsula by about a thousand people.
Meyah (Meax) is a West Papuan language spoken in Miyah District, Tambrauw Regency of West Papua, Indonesia. The Meyah language is agglutinative and head-marking and has no grammatical cases. It has subject-object-verb word order, which comes from nearby Austronesian languages.
Mairasi is a Papuan language of the Bomberai Peninsula of West Papua, Indonesia.
Meninggo, or Moskona or Sabena, is a Papuan language spoken in Teluk Bintuni Regency on the north coast of West Papua, Indonesia.
Irarutu, Irahutu, or Kasira, is an Austronesian language of most of the interior of the Bomberai Peninsula of north-western New Guinea in Teluk Bintuni Regency. The name “Irarutu” comes from the language itself, where “ira” conjoins with “ru” to create “their voice”. When put together with “tu”, which on its own means “true”, the meaning of the name becomes “Their true voice” or “The people’s true language”.
Wamesa is an Austronesian language of Indonesian New Guinea, spoken across the neck of the Doberai Peninsula or Bird's Head. There are currently 5,000-8,000 speakers. While it was historically used as a lingua franca, it is currently considered to under-documented, endangered language. This means that fewer and fewer children have an active command of Wamesa. Instead, Papuan Malay has become increasingly dominant in the area.
Roon (Ron) is an Austronesian language spoken in West Papua Province, Indonesia.
Gerard P. Reesink is a Dutch linguist who specializes in Papuan languages.
The Berau Gulf, formerly the MacCleur Gulf, separates the Vogelkop (Doberai) and Bomberai Peninsulas of Western New Guinea. It opens on the Ceram Sea to the west and ends in Bintuni Bay to the east.
