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–Meyah 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 East Bird's Head–Sentani languages form a family of Papuan languages proposed by Malcolm Ross which combines the East Bird's Head and Sentani families along with the Burmeso language isolate. Sentani had been a branch of Stephen Wurm's proposal for Trans–New Guinea. It has lexical similarities with the Asmat–Kamoro languages, but Ross does not believe these demonstrate a genealogical relationship.
Wambon is a Papuan language of Papua, Indonesia.
The Bird's Head Peninsula or Doberai Peninsula, is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces of Southwest Papua and West Papua. It is often referred to as The Vogelkop, and is so named because its shape looks like a bird's head on the island of New Guinea. The peninsula at the opposite end of the island is called the Bird's Tail Peninsula. The peninsula just to the south is called the Bomberai Peninsula.
The national emblem of Papua New Guinea consists of a bird-of-paradise over a traditional spear and a kundu drum. Designed by Hal Holman, an Australian artist working for the Papuan government, Holman was also involved in the design of the National flag. Both the emblem and the flag was accepted by the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea and signed into law as the National Identity Ordinance by the Administrator Sir Leslie Johnson on 24 June 1971. The ordinance came into effect after its publication in the Papua New Guinea Gazette of 1 July 1971.
Konda–Yahadian is a pair of South Bird's Head languages spoken in Western New Guinea:
The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Malcolm Ross (2005) and Timothy Usher (2020), though Pawley and Hammarström (2018) do not consider them to be part of Trans–New Guinea. However, according to Dryer (2022), based on a preliminary quantitative analysis of data from the ASJP database, South Bird's Head languages are likely to be a subgroup of Trans–New Guinea.
Inanwatan is a small coastal town in Southwest Papua, Indonesia. The town is located on the southern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula.
West Bird's Head languages are a small family of poorly documented Papuan languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
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.
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.
Kokoda is a Papuan language of the Bird's Head Peninsula spoken by the Eme Yode people of Kokoda District, South Sorong Regency, Southwest Papua. The three dialects—Kokoda proper, Kasuweri, and Tarof—are divergent enough to sometimes be considered separate languages.
The Suabo or Inanwatan is a Papuan language of Southwest Papua. It is often classified in the South Bird's Head language family, but may alternatively form an independent language family together with Duriankere.
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.
Puragi, or Iwaro, is a Papuan language of the Bird's Head Peninsula spoken in Puragi village, Matemani District, South Sorong Regency, Southwest Papua.
Duriankari, or Duriankere, is a possibly extinct Papuan language of Indonesian Papua. It is associated with the village of Duriankari at the southern tip of the island of Salawati, which is part of the Raja Ampat Archipelago and is adjacent to the Bird's Head Peninsula of the West Papuan mainland.
Inanwatan–Duriankere or Inanwatan is a pair of South Bird's Head languages spoken in New Guinea:
The Nuclear South Bird's Head, Core South Bird's Head or East South Bird's Head languages form a small language family of western New Guinea. They either form part of a wider South Bird's Head language family, or may be an independent language family if not related to the Inanwatan and Konda–Yahadian languages.
Kovojab is a Bayono–Awbono language spoken in the highlands of Papua Province, Indonesia.
