Extended West Papuan Languages
The Extended West Papuan language family is a tentative proposal in Malcolm Ross's classification of Papuan languages. It includes the West Papuan languages of the Indonesian island of Halmahera and the Bird's Head Peninsula of far western New Guinea; the Yawa language isolate (or small family) on Yapen Island in Cenderawasih (Geelvink) Bay, Indonesian New Guinea (previously placed in the hypothetical Geelvink Bay family), and a newly proposed East Bird's Head – Sentani family scattered across northern Indonesian New Guinea.
The Extended West Papuan languages are defined by common first-person pronouns: da or di for the singular ("I"), and m- for the exclusive ("we"), which are found in all branches of the three constituent families except for the Amberbaken isolate within West Papuan proper.
The families linked by these various proposals are thus,
- West Papuan
- Yawa
- East Bird's Head – Sentani
Read more about Extended West Papuan Languages: Pronouns
Famous quotes containing the words extended, west and/or languages:
“The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;
However rare—rare it be;
And when I crumble, who will remember
This lady of the West Country?”
—Walter De La Mare (1873–1956)
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)