South Halmahera–West New Guinea languages
language family
The South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) languages are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, found in the islands and along the shores of the Halmahera Sea in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and of Cenderawasih Bay in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. There are 38 languages.
The unity of the South Halmahera–West New Guinea subgroup is well supported by lexical and phonological evidence. Blust (1978) has proposed that they are most closely related to the Oceanic languages, but this classification is not universally accepted.
Most of the languages are only known from short word lists, but Buli, Patani and Taba on Halmahera, Ambel on Raja Ampat, and Biak, Wamesa, Wooi, and Waropen in Cenderawasih Bay, are fairly well attested.
Classification
Traditionally, the languages are classified into two geographic groups:
South Halmahera languages (along the southeastern coast of Halmahera, plus one language in the east of the Bomberai Peninsula).
West New Guinea languages (on the Raja Ampat Islands west of New Guinea, and the islands and shoreline of Cenderawasih Bay).
The unity of the South Halmahera and Raja Ampat languages is supported by phonological changes noted in Blust (1978) and Remijsen (2002). This results in the following structure:
Cenderawasih Bay
Raja Ampat–South Halmahera (RASH) (South Halmahera, in the sea between Halmahera and New Guinea, and Raja Ampat off the western tip of New Guinea)
David Kamholz (2014) includes these languages as additional branches:
Lower Mamberamo (sometimes also considered to be Papuan, and may be of mixed Austronesian and Papuan origin)
Mor
Tandia
Waropen
The following language groups are problematic – they may or may not be SHWNG. Kamholz (2014) does not classify them due to lack of data. Grimes & Edwards include them with the Kei–Tanimbar languages, and Kamholz (2024) does not list them as part of SHWNG.
Irarutu–Nabi: Irarutu, Kuri (Nabi)
Bedoanas–Erokwanas: Arguni, Bedoanas, Erokwanas
Although the Kowiai language is considered part of SHWNG in Blust's Austronesian Comparative Dictionary, it is not listed as such by Kamholz (2024).
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