West Bird's Head languages

West Bird's Head
Geographic
distribution
West Papua
Linguistic classificationWest Papuan
  • West–Central Bird's Head
    • West Bird's Head
Glottologwest1493

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.

Language contact

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.: 625 

Languages

Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct.

These languages cannot be easily linked to other families of the Bird‘s Head Peninsula.: 626  They have been plausibly connected to the geographically close North Halmahera (NH) family, a relationship considered clear by Reesink 1998; however, the evidence does not appear to be conclusive.: 20  In particular, the available lexical evidence is flimsy, as noted by Holton and Klamer (2018).: 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).: 580 

A link between WBH and the isolates Abun and Maybrat has also been proposed (Wichmann 2013, Flassy 2002).: 582 

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

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 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

This page was last updated at 2023-09-06 12:46 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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