West Bird's Head | |
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Geographic distribution | West Papua |
Linguistic classification | West Papuan
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Glottolog | west1493 |
West Bird's Head languages are a small family of poorly documented Papuan languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
The West Bird's Head (WBH) family is a well-defined family of six languages spoken at the western end of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea and the eastern part of the island of Salawati opposite the Bird's Head's western shore. Based on pronominal evidence, they appear to be related to the North Halmahera languages of North Maluku. [1]
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. [2] : 625
Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct. [3]
These languages cannot be easily linked to other families of the Bird‘s Head Peninsula. [2] : 626 They have been plausibly connected to the geographically close North Halmahera (NH) family, a relationship considered clear by Reesink 1998; [4] however, the evidence does not appear to be conclusive. [1] [5] : 20 In particular, the available lexical evidence is flimsy, as noted by Holton and Klamer (2018). [2] : 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). [2] : 580
A link between WBH and the isolates Abun and Maybrat has also been proposed (Wichmann 2013, Flassy 2002). [6] [2] : 582
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975), [7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. [8]
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”).
gloss | Kalabra | Moi | Moraid | Seget | Tehit |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
head | safas | sawa | sawag | sadus | sam |
hair | sadin | sagin | sadie | salas | gen |
eye | sifoko | suo | sgolfun | si | tsifon |
tooth | tela | efek | etəla | gifek | -hek |
leg | terit | telek | ere | cek | ndeit |
louse | on | sayam | oŋ | wut | hain |
dog | houn | ofun | ŋouŋ | awfu | |
pig | beak | baik | mimula | mon | |
bird | kalen | kelem | kele | klem | klen |
egg | weko | tolok | begu | niwi | mesyen |
blood | hein | sdam | hijeg | sədam | hon |
bone | kodus | kodus | kedoq | nədus | honim |
skin | falak | -kesik | balg | nensiek | falek |
tree | kout | ouk | pelu | bua | molom |
man | nadele | (ne) dala | dli | nanla | naadla |
sun | pun | dewe | telu | tale | pun |
water | kala | kala | kəla | kla | sem |
fire | sal | yak | salp | yap | |
stone | amak | kwak | amp | kuat | amak |
name | nakadi | kedi | numhamone | nomo | kendim |
eat | atkaren | wak | nagrimi | nate | atni |
one | mere | mele | merəh | məre | mre |
two | lap | ali | telok | ali | la; lauh |
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Abun, also known as Yimbun, Anden, Manif, or Karon Pantai, is a Papuan language spoken by the Abun people along the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula in Sausapor 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.
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The North Halmahera (NH) languages are a family of languages spoken in the northern and eastern parts of the island of Halmahera and some neighboring islands in Indonesia. The southwestern part of the island is occupied by the unrelated South Halmahera languages, which are a subgroup of Austronesian. They may be most closely related to the languages of the Bird's Head region of West Papua, but this is not well-established.
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Molof is a poorly documented Papuan language spoken by about 200 people in Molof village, Senggi District, Keerom Regency.
Kuwani is a poorly attested Papuan language of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea. It is attested only from a single word list, and even its exact location is unknown.
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Gerard P. Reesink is a Dutch linguist who specializes in Papuan languages.