South Bougainville Languages

South Bougainville Languages

The South or East Bougainville languages are a small language family spoken on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. They were classified as East Papuan languages by Wurm, but this does not now seem tenable, and was abandoned in Ethnologue (2009).

The languages include a closely related group called Nasioi and three more divergent languages tentatively classified together under the name Buin:

  • Buin branch
    • Buin (Terei) isolate
    • Motuna (Siwai) isolate
    • Uisai isolate
  • Nasioi branch: Koromira, Lantanai (Daantanai’), Naasioi, Nagovisi (Sibe), Oune (Ounge), Simeku

Read more about South Bougainville Languages:  Pronouns, See Also

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