Papuan languages
353507
225828901
2008-07-15T16:18:37Z
Chobot
259798
robot Modifying: [[zh:巴布亞諸語言]]
The term '''Papuan languages''' refers to those [[language]]s of the western Pacific which are neither [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] nor [[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian]]. That is, the term is defined negatively and does not imply a linguistic relationship.
==The languages==
The majority of the Papuan languages are spoken on the island of [[New Guinea]] (which is divided between the country of [[Papua New Guinea]] and Indonesian provinces of [[Papua (Indonesian province)|Papua]] and [[West Irian Jaya]]), with a number spoken in the [[Bismarck Archipelago]], [[Bougainville Island]], and the [[Solomon Islands]] to the east, and in [[Halmahera]], [[Timor]], and the [[Alor]] archipelago to the west. One Papuan language, [[Meriam Mir language|Meriam Mir]], is spoken within the national borders of [[Australia]], in the eastern [[Torres Strait]]. The only Papuan languages with official recognition are those of [[Languages of East Timor|East Timor]].
New Guinea is perhaps the most linguistically diverse region in the world. Besides the Austronesian languages, there are some 800 languages divided into perhaps sixty small language families, with unclear relationships to each other or to anything else, plus a large number of [[language isolate]]s. Although there has been relatively little study of these languages compared with the Austronesian family, there have been three preliminary attempts at large-scale genealogical classification, by [[Joseph Greenberg]], [[Stephen Wurm]], and [[Malcolm Ross]]. The largest family posited for the Papuan region is the [[Trans-New Guinea languages|Trans-New Guinea]] [[Phylum (linguistics)|phylum]], consisting of the majority of Papuan languages and running mainly along the highlands of New Guinea. Since perhaps only a quarter of Papuan languages have been studied in detail, linguists' understanding of the relationships between them will continue to be revised.
Several languages of [[Flores]] and nearby islands, and especially the language of [[Savu]] Island (also called [[Savu language|Sabu or Sawu]]) are usually thought to be Austronesian, but are reported to have large numbers of non-Austronesian words in their basic vocabulary. It has been suggested that these may originally have been non-Austronesian languages that have since borrowed nearly all of their vocabulary from neighboring Austronesian languages, but no connection with the Papuan languages of Timor or Halmahera has been found.
The languages of the [[Andaman Islands]] may be related to some western Papuan languages, but are not themselves covered by the term Papuan.
==Greenberg classification==
Joseph Greenberg proposed an "Indo-Pacific" phylum containing the (Northern) [[Andamanese languages]], all Papuan languages, and the [[Tasmanian languages]], but not the [[Australian Aboriginal languages]]. It has no equivalent to the Trans-New Guinea phylum of the classifications below. See [[Indo-Pacific languages]] for details. Very few linguists, even among Greenberg's students, accept this grouping.
==Wurm classification==
The most widely used classification of Papuan languages is that of Wurm, listed below with the approximate number of languages in each family in parentheses. This is the scheme used by ''[[Ethnologue]].'' It is based on very preliminary work, much of it [[language typology|typological]], and Wurm himself has stated that he doesn't expect it to hold up well to scrutiny. Other linguists, including [[William Foley]], have suggested that many of Wurm's phyla are based on [[areal feature]]s and structural similarities, and accepted only the lowest levels of his classification, most of which he inherited from prior taxonomies. Foley (1986) deconstructs Papuan languages into over sixty small language families, plus a number of isolates. However, more recently Foley has accepted the broad outline if not the details of Wurm's classification, as he and Ross have substantiated a large portion of Wurm's Trans-New Guinea phylum.
According to Ross (see below), the main problem with Wurm's classification is that he did not take [[Language contact|contact-induced change]] into account. For example, several of the main branches of his Trans-New Guinea (TNG) phylum have no vocabulary in common with other TNG languages, and were classified as TNG because they are similar [[morphology (linguistics)|grammatically]]. However, there are also many [[Austronesian languages]] that are grammatically similar to TNG languages due to the influence of contact and [[bilingualism]]. Similarly, several groups which ''do'' have substantial basic vocabulary in common with TNG languages are excluded from the phylum because they do ''not'' resemble it grammatically.
'''Papuan families proposed by Wurm''' (with approximate number of languages)
* [[Amto-Musan languages]] (2)
* ''[[Burmeso language]]'' (isolate)
* ''[[Busa language]]'' (isolate)
* [[East Bird's Head languages]] (3)
* [[East Papuan languages]] (36)
* [[Geelvink Bay languages]] (12)
* ''[[Yuri language]]'' (isolate)
* ''[[Porome language]]'' (isolate)
* [[Kwomtari languages]] (6)
* [[Left May languages]] (7)
* [[Sepik-Ramu languages]] (104)
* [[Sko languages]] (7)
* [[Torricelli languages]] (48)
* [[Trans-New Guinea languages]] (598)
* [[West Papuan languages]] (26)
* ''[[Yalë language]]'' (isolate)
Two of Wurm's isolates have since been linked as the
* [[Lower Mamberamo languages]] (2),
and since Wurm's time another isolate and two languages belonging to a new family have been discovered,
* ''[[Abinomn language]]'' (isolate)
* [[Bayono-Awbono languages]] (2).
==Ross classification==
Malcolm Ross re-evaluated Wurm's proposal on purely lexical grounds. That is, he looked at shared vocabulary, and especially shared idiosyncrasies analogous to English ''I'' and ''me'' vs. German ''ich'' and ''mich''. The poor state of documentation of Papuan languages means that this approach is largely restricted to [[pronoun]]s. Nonetheless, Ross believes that he has been able to validate much of Wurm's classification, albeit with revisions to correct for Wurm's partially typological approach. (See [[Trans-New Guinea languages]].)
It has been suggested that the families which appear when comparing pronouns may be due to ''pronoun borrowing'' rather than to genealogical relatedness. However, Ross argues that Papuan languages have [[grammatical word|closed-class]] pronoun systems, which are resistant to borrowing, and in any case that the massive number of languages with similar pronouns in a family like Trans-New Guinea preclude borrowing as an explanation. Also, he shows that the two cases of alleged pronoun borrowing in New Guinea are simple coincidence, explainable as regular developments from the protolanguages of the families in question: as earlier forms of the languages are reconstructed, their pronouns become ''less'' similar, not more. (Ross argues that [[lexical word|open-class]] pronoun systems, where borrowings are common, are found in hierarchical cultures such as those of [[Southeast Asia]] and [[Japan]], where pronouns indicate details of relationship and social status rather than simply being grammatical [[pro-form]]s as they are in the more egalitarian New Guinea societies.)
Ross has proposed 23 Papuan language families and 9-13 isolates. However, because of his more stringent criteria, he was not able to find enough data to classify all Papuan languages, especially many isolates which have no close relatives to aid in their classification.
Ross also found that the [[Lower Mamberamo languages]] (or at least the Warembori language; he had insufficient data on Pauwi) are Austronesian languages which have been heavily transformed by contact with Papuan languages, much as the [[Takia language]] has. The Reef Islands-Santa Cruz family of Wurm's [[East Papuan languages|East Papuan]] phylum are a potential 24th family, but the pronouns suggest that they may also be highly divergent Austronesian languages.
Note that while this classification may be more reliable than past attempts, it is based on a single parameter, ''pronouns,'' and therefore must remain tentative. Although pronouns are conservative elements in a language, they are both short and utilise a reduced set of the language's [[phoneme|phonemic inventory]]. Both phenomena greatly increase the possibility of chance resemblances, especially when they are not confirmed by [[lexicon|lexical]] similarities.
'''Papuan families proposed by Ross'''
* [[Trans-New Guinea]] (reduced to 466-493 languages)
* ? [[Extended West Papuan]] (tentative)
** [[West Papuan languages]] (27)
** [[East Bird's Head-Sentani languages]] (9)
** ''[[Yawa languages|Yawa]]'' (1-2)
* [[Mairasi languages]] (4)
* [[East Geelvink Bay languages|East Cenderawasih (Geelvink Bay) languages]] (10)
* [[Lakes Plain languages]] (19; upper [[Mamberamo River]])
* [[Tor-Kwerba languages]] (17)
* [[Nimboran languages]] (5)
* [[Sko languages|Skou languages]] (8)
* [[Border languages (New Guinea)|Border languages]] (15)
* [[Left May-Kwomtari languages]] (13) (problematic)
* [[Senagi languages]] (2) (perhaps related to Sepik)
* [[Torricelli languages]] (40-50) (perhaps related to Sepik)
* [[Sepik languages]] (51)
* [[Ramu-Lower Sepik languages]] (40) (first proposed by Foley)
* [[Yuat languages]] (5)
* [[Piawi languages]] (2) (perhaps in Ramu)
* [[South-Central Papuan languages]] (22)
* [[Eastern Trans-Fly languages]] (4; one in [[Australia]])
* ? [[Yele-West New Britain languages]] (tentative)
** ''[[Yélî Dnye language|Yélî Dnye]]'' (Yele) (isolate)
** ''[[Anêm language|Anêm]]'' (isolate)
** ''[[Ata language|Ata]]'' (Pele-Ata, Wasi) (isolate)
* [[Baining languages|Baining (East New Britain) languages]] (8)
* [[North Bougainville languages]] (4)
* [[South Bougainville languages]] (9)
* [[Central Solomons languages]] (4)
'''Language isolates''' proposed by Ross (sorted by location)
''north [[Papua (Indonesian province)|Irian]]:''
*[[Abinomn language]] (Baso, Foia)
*[[Isirawa language]]
''[[Sandaun Province]]:''
*[[Yuri language]] (Karkar)
*[[Busa language]]
*[[Yalë language]] (Nagatman)
''[[Sepik River]]:''
*[[Taiap language]] (Gapun), located on what had been an offshore island 4000 BCE
''[[Bismarck Archipelago]]:''
*[[Sulka language]], on [[New Britain]]
*[[Kol language (Papua New Guinea)|Kol language]], on New Britain
*[[Kuot language]] (Panaras), on [[New Ireland (island)|New Ireland]]
'''Other'''
Former isolates classified by Ross:
* [[Burmeso language]] (Taurap), in the [[East Bird's Head-Sentani languages]]
* [[Porome language]] (Kibiri), in the Kiwai family of [[Trans-New Guinea languages|Trans-New Guinea]]
* [[Morwap language]] (Elseng), in the [[Border languages (New Guinea)|Border languages]]
Unclassified due to lack of data:
* [[Amto-Musan languages]] (2)
* [[Massep language]] (isolate)
* [[Samarokena language|Samarokena]] (isolate)
* [[Kenati language|Kenati]] (isolate)
* [[Komyandaret language|Komyandaret]] (isolate)
* [[Molof language|Molof]] (isolate)
* Momuna family: [[Momina language|Momina]], [[Momuna language|Momuna]] (Somahai)
* [[Tofamna language|Tofamna]] (isolate)
* [[Usku language|Usku]] (isolate)
* [[Maramba language|Maramba]] (in Ramu?)
Unaccounted for:
* [[Bayono-Awbono languages]] (2)
* [[Kazukuru language| Kazukuru languages]] (3)
==External relations==
Several linguists, including [[Joseph Greenberg]] and Timother Usher of the [[Rosetta Project]], believe that the [[Andamanese languages]] (or at least the Great Andamanese languages) off the coast of [[Burma]] are related to the Papuan or West Papuan languages. [[Stephen Wurm]] stated that the lexical similarities between Great Andamanese and the West Papuan and Timor-Alor families "are quite striking and amount to virtual formal identity [...] in a number of instances", but considered this to be due to a linguistic [[substratum]].
Greenberg also suggested a connection to the [[Tasmanian languages]]. However, the Tasmanian peoples were isolated for perhaps 10,000 years, genocide wiped out their languages before much was recorded of them, and few linguists expect that they will ever be linked to another language family.
[[William Foley]] (1986) noted lexical similarities between [[R.M.W. Dixon]]'s 1980 reconstruction of proto-[[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian]] and the languages of the [[East New Guinea Highlands]]. He believed that it was naïve to expect to find a single Papuan or Australian language family when New Guinea and Australia had been a [[Sahul|single landmass]] for most of their human history, having been separated by the [[Torres Strait]] only 8000 years ago, and that a deep reconstruction would likely include languages from both. However, Dixon later abandoned his proto-Australian proposal, and Foley's ideas need to be re-evaluated in light of recent research.
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book | first = Lois | last = Carrington | year = 1996 | title = A linguistic bibliography of the New Guinea area | publisher = Australian National University | location = Canberra | isbn = 9780858834491 | oclc = 41223774 }}
* {{cite book | first = William A. | last = Foley | authorlink = William Foley | year = 1986 | title = The Papuan Languages of New Guinea | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 0521286212 | oclc = 13004531 }}
* {{cite book | author = [[Andrew Pawley|Pawley, Andrew]]; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson, eds. | year = 2005 | title = Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples | location = Canberra | publisher = Pacific Linguistics | isbn = 0858835622 | oclc = 67292782 }}
* {{Malcolm Ross Pronouns}}
* {{cite book | first = Stephen A., ed. | last = Wurm | authorlink = Stephen Wurm | year = 1975 | title = Papuan languages and the New Guinea linguistic scene: New Guinea area languages and language study 1 | publisher = Pacific Linguistics C-38 | location = Canberra | publisher = Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University | isbn = | oclc = 37096514 }}
* {{cite book | first = Stephen A. | last = Wurm | authorlink = Stephen Wurm | year = 1982 | title = The Papuan Languages of Oceania | location = Tübingen | publisher = Narr | isbn = 3878083572 | oclc = 8592292 }}
* {{cite journal | first = Stephen A. | last = Wurm | authorlink = Stephen Wurm | year = 1983 | title = Papuan linguistics: past and future | journal = Language and Linguistics in Melanesia ''(formerly'' Kivung'') | volume = ''14 | pages = 5–25 | issn = | id = {{OCLC|9188672}} }}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
*[http://www.papuaweb.org/bib/hays/loc/ 2003 bibliography of languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Indonesian Papua]
*[http://www.sil.org/pacific/png/index.asp Summer Institute of Linguistics site on languages (Papuan and Austronesian) of Papua New Guinea]
*[http://www.eastpapuan.ling.su.se/index.html?map.html Map of Papuan languages (formerly known as the East Papuan family) of island Melanesia]
*[http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/research_projects/delp/papuan.php Bill Foley on Papuan languages]
* [http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/papuan Dryer's Papuan Language Families and Genera]
[[Category:Papuan languages| ]]
[[Category:Languages of Papua New Guinea]]
[[Category:Languages of Indonesia]]
[[br:Yezhoù papouek]]
[[ca:Llengües papús]]
[[de:Papua-Sprachen]]
[[el:Παπούα γλώσσες]]
[[es:Lenguas papúes]]
[[eo:Papua lingvaro]]
[[fr:Langues papoues]]
[[ko:파푸아 제어]]
[[it:Lingue papuasiche]]
[[la:Linguae Papuanae]]
[[lt:Papuasų kalbos]]
[[hu:Pápua nyelvek]]
[[nl:Papoeatalen]]
[[ja:パプア諸語]]
[[oc:Lengas papós]]
[[pl:Języki papuaskie]]
[[ru:Папуасские языки]]
[[simple:Papuan languages]]
[[sk:Papuánske jazyky]]
[[fi:Papuakielet]]
[[zea:Papoeataelen]]
[[zh:巴布亞諸語言]]