Papuan languages

Group of about 750 languages spoken by indigenous peoples of New Guinea and parts of some neighbouring islands, including Alor, Bougainville, Halmahera, New Britain, New Ireland, and Timor.

Spoken by perhaps five million people, Papuan languages belong to about 60 families, the higher genetic relationships of which are still uncertain. This diversity, conjoined with the numerous Austronesian languages spoken on smaller parts of New Guinea and on adjacent islands, makes the region the most linguistically heterogeneous area of the world. The vast majority of Papuan languages have fewer than 100,000 speakers; among those with more are Chimbu and Enga, spoken in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

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Introduction

      group of languages spoken in New Guinea and its surrounds. The area includes the entire island of New Guinea and the offshore islands of New Britain, New Ireland, Yapen (Yapen Island), and Biak (Biak Island), as well as the adjoining areas of eastern Indonesia, especially the islands of Timor, Alor (Alor Islands), and Halmahera. Some 1,100 languages—about a quarter of the world's known languages—are spoken in this region. These include the approximately 800 Papuan languages as well as some 300 Austronesian languages.

      Unlike the Austronesian languages, the Papuan languages do not constitute a single, genetically unified language family (hence they are often referred to by a common negative characterization, Non-Austronesian). Instead, they are organized into several dozen different language families. Comparative work will undoubtedly combine some of these families into larger genetic groupings, just as the Celtic, Germanic, and Slavic families were eventually combined with others to form the Indo-European language (Indo-European languages) family. At the beginning of the 21st century, however, such claims were still speculative in regard to Papuan languages.

The complexity of the language group

      Papuan languages are spoken by some three to four million individuals. The average Papuan language family has about 25 member languages. Because there are many hundreds of Papuan languages, most of them are spoken by relatively few individuals: the number of speakers of individual languages is generally less than 3,000. Although the most commonly spoken Papuan language, Enga, has some 165,000 speakers, many Papuan languages have fewer than 100 speakers and some fewer than 50.

 The small size of many Papuan speech communities has encouraged multilingualism. Most often, the members of a given community learn the languages of adjoining groups. The concentration of so many speech communities in a relatively confined area has also fostered the development of trade jargons (jargon). There are examples of the shifting of language allegiance (that is, the choice of which language to use in a given setting) to the languages of more powerful or economically advantaged neighbours.

      Existing within such a complex, fragmented linguistic environment, Papuan languages exhibit a pattern of enormous cross-influence in all areas. All types of linguistic features, including basic vocabulary, pronouns, grammatical patterns, and discourse styles, have been borrowed from one language into another. This borrowing makes the establishment of genetic links among Papuan languages difficult. Such determinations are also hindered by a lack of documentation, which for the vast majority of these languages stretches no further back than the mid-20th century. As a result of these factors, it is difficult to separate genetically inherited material from borrowed material, especially when the borrowings in question are from genetically related contiguous languages or from languages that are now extinct.

      Consequently, the comparative linguistic analysis of Papuan languages must proceed with the greatest care and the utmost rigour. Bound morphological (morphology) forms that appear cognate are the most reliable guide to genetic relationships among Papuan languages, because such forms seem to be the most resistant to borrowing (although they are not entirely immune). The languages in New Guinea stretching from the Huon Peninsula to the highlands of the Indonesian region of Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) provide an apt example. These languages mark the object of a transitive verb with a set of verbal prefixes: a first person singular uses /n-/, and second person singular uses a velar stop. The likelihood of such a system being borrowed is vanishingly small, indicating that these languages are all genetically related. Careful comparative work along these lines in Papuan languages is now in its infancy, and as yet very little is known about these wider genetic relations.

Classification

      The largest family of Papuan languages is the Trans-New Guinea family, which is typified by the object prefixes mentioned above. More than 650,000 people, or about 20 percent of the total Papuan-speaking population, speak one of the languages in this family. Groups of languages belonging to this family include the Finisterre-Huon group (some 60 to 65 languages with more than 130,000 speakers), the Eastern Highlands group, and the Irian Highlands group. Eastern Highlands languages are further subdivided into the four Kainantu languages (with 46,000 speakers) and the eight Gorokan languages (close to 200,000 speakers). The Irian Highlands group can be divided into the six Dani languages (250,000 speakers) and the four Wissel Lakes languages (100,000 speakers). It is also highly likely that the large Madang family of more than 80 languages (with some 80,000 speakers), which is spoken in Madang province of Papua New Guinea, is also part of this Trans-New Guinea family.

      A number of other language families are possible members of the Trans-New Guinea family. However, their relationship to the family, if any indeed exists, is less obvious than that among the groups already mentioned and has yet to be demonstrated through careful comparative work. The list of potential Trans-New Guinea members includes the Enga family of languages, spoken by more than 400,000 people in Enga province (Enga) and adjacent areas of west-central Papua New Guinea, and the Chimbu family of some 10 languages spoken in Chimbu and Western Highlands provinces of Papua New Guinea. The Binandere family (14 languages spoken by more than 50,000 people in Oro province, P.N.G.) may also be part of the Trans-New Guinea group, as may the Angan language family of the Eastern Highlands, Morobe, and Gulf provinces (12 languages with about 70,000 speakers). The Ok family of languages (14 languages spoken by some 50,000 speakers in the mountainous hub of New Guinea near the border between Papua New Guinea and Papua) may also be a member of the Trans-New Guinea group, as may the Awyu, Mek, and Asmat families and several small language families of southeast Papua New Guinea, such as Koiarian and Goilalan. If all of these language families are ultimately demonstrated to be part of the Trans-New Guinea family, then it will include almost 300 languages and two million speakers, no less than 50 percent of the total Papuan-speaking population.

      There are still many Papuan language families for which no evidence of genetic relation with the Trans-New Guinea group has been found. Many such examples exist in the lowlands areas of the north coast of New Guinea, which tend to be extremely complex linguistically and to contain a number of distinct language families. In the Sepik-Ramu basin of the north coast of Papua New Guinea, the major language groups are the Lower Sepik-Ramu family (spoken along the lower reaches of the Sepik (Sepik River) and Ramu Rivers and adjoining riverine and coastal regions); the Middle Sepik family (found in the mid region of the Sepik River and adjoining areas); the Sko family, which is spoken along the north coast of New Guinea and near the border between Papua and Papua New Guinea; and possibly the Sepik Hill group of the dense, swampy, rainforest country south of the river.

      The Torricelli family, which is spoken in the Torricelli Mountains between the north coast and the Sepik River, is highly divergent from other Papuan languages of the Sepik-Ramu basin as well as from the Trans-New Guinea family. It consists of nearly 50 languages spoken by more than 80,000 speakers.

      Along the north coast of Papua and the Mamberamo River basin there are several other major language families: the Sentani family, spoken immediately to the west of Jayapura; the Lakes Plain family, a phonologically highly exotic family spoken in the flooded plains area of the Mamberamo River basin; and the Cenderawasih Bay family, spoken on Yava Island in Cenderawasih Bay and the adjoining mainland, which probably forms a large genetic grouping with the Lakes Plain family. Finally, there are the East Bird's Head family, spoken on the eastern side of the Doberai (Vogelkop or Bird's Head) Peninsula in the far west of Papua, and the West Bird's Head family, found on the western side and central area of the Doberai Peninsula. The West Bird's Head family may be related to Papuan languages further west in the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera, but this relationship has yet to be definitively established.

      There are too many other Papuan language families to list. The lowlands areas of New Guinea are particularly complex, with many small language families with relatively low numbers of speakers. This is especially notable in the West Sepik, Western, and Gulf provinces of Papua New Guinea and adjoining areas of Papua, which also contain a number of isolate languages that cannot be classified with any larger language family. One notable lowland group is the Marind family of the south coast of Papua, comprising six languages with more than 20,000 speakers. One other important family is the Bougainville family, found on the large Papua New Guinea island of the same name and composed of two not very closely related subgroups, the North and South Bougainville subfamilies. The Bougainville group is possibly related to other Papuan languages in the large islands of Papua New Guinea (notably New Britain and New Ireland) and to some languages farther south in the Solomon Islands, but this has not yet been demonstrated conclusively.

phonology

      Papuan languages tend to use simple forms of phonology. The standard system of five phonemic vowels (vowel) (/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/, /u/) is quite common, although other systems do exist. No Papuan language has yet been found to have more than 10 vowel phonemes (phoneme). Many Papuan languages, especially those of the Sepik-Ramu basin area, have unusual vowel systems, with a very high preponderance of central vowels.

      Consonantal systems also tend to be simple. Usually, consonants (consonant) are articulated at one of three places: the lips (this is referred to as bilabial), the back of the teeth (dental), or the back of the roof of the mouth (velar). Some systems add a fourth place of articulation, the high roof of the mouth (palatal). Most languages distinguish at least two types of consonants, an oral one (e.g., /p/) and a nasal (e.g., /m/). In some languages of the Lakes Plain family, however, nasal consonants may be lacking entirely—an extremely rare characteristic among the languages of the world.

      Continuant sounds, such as /f/ and /s/, tend to be restricted in Papuan languages. Some languages lack them entirely, others have only /s/, while still others have a restricted set composed of /f/, /s/, and in some cases one other. No Papuan language comes close to having the eight continuant sounds found in English. Papuan languages also normally lack a distinction between /l/ and /r/; the spoken word commonly varies freely between these two articulations with no contrast in meaning.

      Some Papuan languages also use tone, the distinctive use of variations in pitch to distinguish words, as in Chinese (Chinese languages) or the languages of Southeast Asia. This is found sporadically throughout New Guinea, in the Eastern Highlands family, the Sko family, the Lakes Plain family, and others. In Obokuitai of the Lakes Plain family, for example, /ti/ spoken with a high pitch means ‘string bag,' but when spoken with a falling pitch it refers to a type of butterfly. A similar word, /di/, means ‘red' when spoken with a high pitch but ‘you' when spoken with a low pitch. The form /ku/ is distinctive with three pitches: spoken with a high pitch, it means ‘cassowary'; with a low pitch, ‘wood'; and with a falling pitch, it refers to a kind of soil.

morphology and grammar

      Word structure in Papuan languages exhibits great variation in complexity. In some languages there is little or no inflection, or marking of the root word for tense, person, number, gender, mood, voice, and case. In others inflection is quite complex.

      In general—and sometimes to an astounding degree—verbs have a richer capacity for inflection than nouns. The only widespread inflectional categories of nouns are case (to distinguish between nouns, pronouns, and adjectives) and gender. The number of genders range from two to a dozen or more. The languages of the Torricelli and Lower Sepik-Ramu families have a highly unusual system in which the gender of most nouns is determined by their phonological properties. Languages with noun gender typically require all modifiers of the noun to take proper inflectional affixes (prefixes, suffixes, and infixes) to agree in gender and number with the noun.

      The Yimas language (Lower Sepik-Ramu family), which has a noun inflection pattern much like that of the Bantu (Bantu languages) languages of Africa, provides an example of how entire sentences must change according to noun gender. In Yimas the sentence “I saw my two big betel nuts (patntrm)” would be rendered as patntrm tma-k ama-na-ntrm kpa-ntrm tm-pal tma-ka-tay; “I saw my two big shells (kaŋkl)” as kaŋkl kla-k ama-na-ŋkl kpa-ŋkl k-rpal kla-ka-tay; “I saw my two big bones (tanpl)” as tanpl pla-k ama-na-mpl kpa-mpl p-rpal pla-ka-tay; and “I saw my two big mats (irwawl)” as irwawl ula-k ama-na-wl kpa-wl wu-rpal ula-ka-tay.

      Verbs may be inflected only minimally, usually by adding a suffix for tense. For example, in Watam (Lower Sepik-Ramu family), neŋg-rin ‘gave' is a composite word made of the root neŋg- ‘give' and the suffix -rin, which indicates the past tense.

      However, verbs can be much more complex. They generally use affixes to mark not only tense but also the person and number of their subject and their object. Occasionally, they also mark their indirect object with affixes. For example, in Fore (Trans-New Guinea family, Eastern Highlands subgroup), the sentence na-ka-i-e might be literally translated as ‘me + see + he + (statement marker)' and means ‘he sees me.' The object of this sentence is marked with a prefix, and the sentence is marked with a suffix. This is diagnostic of Trans-New Guinea languages. In the Yimas language of the Lower Sepik-Ramu family, na-n-ŋa-ntuk-mpun ‘he gave it to them' is literally ‘it + he + give + (past tense marker) + them.' In some languages the person and the number of the subject and object are each expressed with a different affix, as in Nimboran (Nimboran family): the phrase gua-i-b-am, literally ‘live + (plural marker) + above + he,' means ‘they live above' (with “they” as the plural of “he”).

      Verbs in Papuan languages can also use inflection to indicate aspect—that is, whether the action is completed or ongoing. In Marind (Marind family), epa-no-kiparud ‘I am tying' is literally ‘(marker indicating ongoing action) + I + tie.' To render the sentence “I have tied,” one would say menda-no-kiparud, literally ‘(marker indicating completed action) + I + tie.'

      Mood, which indicates whether the action is likely or simply possible, is also a matter of verb inflection. This is illustrated by the Dani language (Dani family), in which the verb wathi ‘I killed him' can be transformed into wasik ‘I will likely kill him' and waʔle ‘I may possibly kill him.'

      Papuan verbs can also incorporate a myriad of other information. In some languages they indicate the location or direction of the action and its temporal coordinates. In Alamblak (Sepik Hill family), for instance, mi-brɲi-r ‘he went down' is literally ‘(down-go) + away + he.' To render “he first went away up at night” in Yimas, one says na-pay-wi-ŋka-pu-kia-ntut, literally ‘he + first + (up-go) + away + at night + (past tense marker).' In other languages verbs can indicate extra participants, such as the ultimate causer of the action or its beneficiary. For example, in Kewa (Engan family), ma-piraa-ru ‘I made someone sit' is literally ‘cause + sit + I + (past tense marker).' In Tairora (Trans-New Guinea family, Eastern Highlands subgroup), one renders “he tied it for me” as rumpa-ti-mi-te-ro, literally ‘tie + me + for + completed + he + (past tense marker).'

      The word order of sentences in Papuan languages tends to be varied. The languages of the Trans-New Guinea family typically have the order subject–object–verb (SOV), as do the majority of other Papuan language families, but in some languages word order is rather free. Such languages are characterized by postpositions (e.g., town in), unlike SOV languages, which tend to use prepositions (e.g., in town). Both the Torricelli and East and West Bird's Head families are exceptions to this generalization, however. Rather than using SOV word order, they use the order subject–verb–object (SVO) and use prepositions. In the case of the Bird's Head families, this may be due to Austronesian influence, but this is highly unlikely for the Torricelli family.

      Papuan languages are commonly characterized by chains consisting of a series of juxtaposed verbs, as in this example from Kalam (Trans-New Guinea family, Eastern New Guinea Highlands group, Kalam subgroup): mon pk d ap ay, literally ‘wood + hit + hold + come + put,' describes the gathering of firewood. Some Papuan languages have a very small inventory of verb roots, so verb series like this are necessary to provide explicit descriptions. Kalam is exemplary in this regard: with less than 100 verbs of largely general meanings, such serial structures are a necessity. For example, in Kalam nŋ means ‘to perceive'; wdn nŋ ‘eye + perceive' means ‘to see'; gos nŋ ‘thought + perceive' means ‘to think'; wsn nŋ ‘sleep + perceive' means ‘to dream'; and ñb nŋ ‘eat + perceive' means ‘to taste.'

      Many Papuan languages also make a formal distinction among the verbs within these chaining structures, differentiating between inflectionally simpler, formally stripped-down dependent verbs and independent verbs with full inflectional possibilities. Normally, the dependent verb precedes the independent one, which carries the bulk of the inflectional information. The Iatmul language (Middle Sepik family) illustrates this well: in the phrase vɨ-laa yə-kɨyə-ntɨ ‘having seen it, then he will come,' the first verb (vɨ- ‘to see') is dependent and the second (yə- ‘to come') independent. The latter verb is inflected for tense via the future suffix -kɨyə and for the subject via an additional suffix -ntɨ ‘he.' The dependent verb takes only the suffix -laa, which marks it as a dependent form and indicates that the action of the verb it is suffixed to precedes that of the next verb, as with ‘having…, then….'

      To take this example one step further, in Iatmul the subjects of the dependent verb must be the same as that of the next verb. If this is not the case, two independent verbs must be used: vɨ-ntɨ maa yənti ‘he saw and he (someone else) came.' This restriction does not apply to all Papuan languages; instead, many, and especially those of the Trans-New Guinea family, have a special class of dependent verb forms. These “switch reference” forms, as they are known, indicate whether the subject remains the same for the next verb or is different. In Barai (Koiarian family), for example, bu ive i-na vua kuae ‘they + food + eat + (suffix indicating that the subject remains the same) + talk + say' is translated as ‘they ate and then told stories.' The suffix -na on the dependent verb i- indicates that the subject is the same for both clauses. To render “they ate and then we told stories,” the sentence would have to include a marker indicating that the subject of the dependent clause is different from the subject of the independent clause: bu ire i-mo no vua kuae ‘they + food + eat + (switch reference marker) + we + talk + say.'

William A. Foley

Additional Reading

The major source of linguistic information on Papuan languages is William A. Foley, The Papuan Languages of New Guinea (1986). A useful text on the distribution, number of speakers, and genetic classification of these languages is Stephen A. Wurm, The Papuan Languages of Oceania (1982).Descriptions of individual languages include William A. Foley, The Yimas Languages of New Guinea (1991); L. MacDonald, A Grammar of Tauya (1990); G. Refsink, Structures and their Functions in Usan (1987); and J. Haiman, Hua: A Papuan Language of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea (1980). The periodical Pacific Linguistics is an invaluable source of comparative and descriptive materials on Papuan languages.William A. Foley

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