Mek languages

Mek
Goliath
Ethnicity:	Mek people
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea Mek
Glottolog:	mekk1240[1]
Map: The Mek languages of New Guinea   The Mek languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

The Mek languages are a well established family of Papuan languages spoken by the Mek peoples. They form a branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classifications of Stephen Wurm (1975) and of Malcolm Ross (2005).

The Mek languages form three dialect chains (Heeschen 1998):

• Eastern: Ketengban (including Okbap, Omban, Bime, Onya), Una (Goliath), Eipomek
• Northern: Kosarek Yale–Nipsan, Nalca
• Western: Korupun-Sela (including Dagi, Sisibna, Deibula)

Pronouns are not well attested, but include:

	sg	pl
1	*na	*nun
2	*ka-n
3	*e-r

Mek, then called Goliath, was identified by M. Bromley in 1967. It was placed in TNG by Wurm (1975).

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Mek". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

• 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.