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South Bird's Head languages

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Geographic distribution
  
West Irian Jaya

South Bird's Head languages

Linguistic classification
  
Trans–New Guinea South Bird's Head

Subdivisions
  
South Bird's Head proper Inanwatan Konda–Yahadian

Glottolog
  
None sout1516  (South Bird's Head proper) kond1302  (Konda–Yahadian) inan1242  (Inanwatan)

The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross.

Contents

Languages

Ross reconstructs pronouns *na 1sg and *a 2sg, but otherwise the three families have little in common and are not obviously related:

  • Inanwatan: Duriankere, Suabo (Inanwatan)
  • Konda–Yahadian: Konda, Yahadian
  • South Bird's Head proper (Nuclear South Bird's Head):
  • Eastern: Weriagar (Kemberano, Barau), Arandai [dialect cluster], Kokoda (Tarof, Kasuweri)
  • Kais (Kampong Baru)
  • Puragi
  • Kaburi

    • Pronouns

    The pronouns are:

    3sg *ni is reconstructable for SBH proper. There appears to be both a plural vowel change from *a to *i, as in proto-TNG, and a plural suffix *-ri.

    References

    South Bird's Head languages Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA