Central and South New Guinea languages

Central and South New Guinea
Asmat–Ok
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea Central and South New Guinea
Subdivisions:	Asmat–Kamoro Greater Awyu Mombum Ok–Oksapmin Bayono-Awbono? Somahai?
Glottolog:	cent2116[1]
Map: The Central and South New Guinea languages of New Guinea   The Central and South New Guinea languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

The Central and South New Guinea languages (CSNG) are a proposed family of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG). They were part of Voorhoeve & McElhanon's original TNG proposal, but have been reduced in scope by half (nine families to four) in the classification of Malcolm Ross. According to Ross, it is not clear if the pronoun similarities between the four remaining branches of Central and South New Guinea are retentions for proto-TNG forms or shared innovations defining a single branch of TNG. Voorhoeve argues independently for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley echoes that Asmat may be closest to Awyu and Ok of the TNG languages. Regardless, the four individual branches of reduced Central and South New Guinea are themselves clearly valid families.

• Central and South New Guinea (Asmat–Ok)
  • Asmat–Kamoro family [a recent expansion along the south coast]
  • Greater Awyu family
  • Mombum family
  • Ok–Oksapmin family

Ethnologue (2009) retains only Awyu–Dumut and Ok, calling the branch Ok–Awyu, and places Asmat and Mombum as independent branches of TNG. Loughnane & Fedden (2011) link Ok to the Oksapmin language.^[2]

The Somahai languages and the recently discovered Bayono-Awbono may also belong here, but there is little data to go on.

History

In the mid 1960s, Alan Healey, a colleague of Laycock, noted connections between the Ok, Asmat, and Awyu–Dumut families. Voorhoeve (1968) expanded on this and coined the name CSNG; his proposal added Trans-Fly and Marind to the mix. Collaboration with McElhanon and his Finisterre–Huon family in 1970 found a connection between them, which was named Trans–New Guinea. Wurm's 1975 expansion of TNG also expanded CSNG, with the addition of Awin–Pa, Bosavi, Duna–Pogaya, East Strickland, Mombum, and Momuna. Ross's recension in 2005 retained nothing from Voorhoeve and only Mombum from Wurm, though the Momuna languages were too sparsely attested for him to classify.

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Central and South New Guinea". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
2. Loughnane, Robyn and Fedden, Sebastian (2011) 'Is Oksapmin Ok?-A Study of the Genetic Relationship between Oksapmin and the Ok Languages', Australian Journal of Linguistics, 31: 1, 1-42.

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide, Jack Golson, eds. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.

External links

• Online Bibliography of Asmat Ethnographic Resources