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.[1]

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.[2]: 625 

Languages

Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct.[3]

These languages cannot be easily linked to other families of the Bird‘s Head Peninsula.[2]: 626  They have been plausibly connected to the geographically close North Halmahera (NH) family, a relationship considered clear by Reesink 1998;[4] however, the evidence does not appear to be conclusive.[1][5]: 20  In particular, the available lexical evidence is flimsy, as noted by Holton and Klamer (2018).[2]: 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).[2]: 580 

A link between WBH and the isolates Abun and Maybrat has also been proposed (Wichmann 2013, Flassy 2002).[6][2]: 582 

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[8]

glossKalabraMoiMoraidSegetTehit
head safassawasawagsadussam
hair sadinsaginsadiesalasgen
eye sifokosuosgolfunsitsifon
tooth telaefeketəlagifek-hek
leg terittelekerecekndeit
louse onsayamoŋwuthain
dog hounofunŋouŋawfu
pig beakbaikmimulamon
bird kalenkelemkeleklemklen
egg wekotolokbeguniwimesyen
blood heinsdamhijegsədamhon
bone koduskoduskedoqnədushonim
skin falak-kesikbalgnensiekfalek
tree koutoukpelubuamolom
man nadele(ne) daladlinanlanaadla
sun pundewetelutalepun
water kalakalakəlaklasem
fire salyaksalpyap
stone amakkwakampkuatamak
name nakadikedinumhamonenomokendim
eat atkarenwaknagriminateatni
one meremelemerəhməremre
two lapalitelokalila; lauh

References

  1. 1 2 G. Reesink (2022). One Head, Many Faces: New Perspectives on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of New Guinea. Boston: Brill. p. 31. ISBN 978-90-04-45438-5. OCLC 1312159896. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
  3. ↑ Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. West Papuan Phylum languages on the mainland of New Guinea: Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula. Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene, ed. by S.A. Wurm, 717-28. (Pacific Linguistics C-38). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  4. ↑ Reesink, Ger P. (1998). "The Bird's Head as Sprachbund". In Miedema, Jelle; Odé, Cecilia; Dam, Rien A.C. (eds.). Perspectives on the Bird‘s Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia; Proceedings of the Conference, Leiden, 13–17 October 1997. Amsterdam/Atlanta: Rodopi. pp. 603–642. ISBN 9789042006447. OCLC 41025250.
  5. ↑ van Staden, Miriam; Reesink, Ger (2008). "Serial verb constructions in a linguistic area". In Senft, Gunter (ed.). Serial verb constructions in Austronesian and Papuan languages. Pacific Linguistics 594. Canberra: Research School Of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. pp. 17–54.
  6. ↑ Wichmann, Søren. 2013. A classification of Papuan languages. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
  7. ↑ Voorhoeve, C.L. Languages of Irian Jaya: Checklist. Preliminary classification, language maps, wordlists. B-31, iv + 133 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1975. doi:10.15144/PL-B31
  8. ↑ Greenhill, Simon (2016). "TransNewGuinea.org - database of the languages of New Guinea". Retrieved 2020-11-05.
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