Ok–Oksapmin languages

Ok–Oksapmin
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea Central & South New Guinea ? Ok–Oksapmin
Subdivisions:	Ok Oksapmin
Glottolog:	okok1235[1]
Map: The Ok–Oksapmin languages of New Guinea   The Ok–Oksapmin languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

The Ok–Oksapmin languages are a family of a score of related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in a contiguous area of eastern Irian Jaya and western Papua New Guinea. The most numerous language is Ngalum, with some 20,000 speakers; the best known is probably Telefol. They are:

• Oksapmin
• Ok family
  • Tangko–Nakai
  • Western Ok: Kopkaka, Kwer–Burumakok
  • the Ngalum language
  • Lowland Ok: Iwur, Muyu (Kati), Ninggerum, Yonggom
  • Mountain Ok (Min): Bimin, Faiwol, Mian–Suganga, Setaman, Tifal, Telefol, Urapmin

Relationships between the branches has not been worked out.

The Ok languages are clearly related. Alan Healey identified them as a family in 1962. He later noted connections with the Asmat languages and Awyu–Dumut families (Healey 1970). Voorhoeve developed this into a Central and South New Guinea (CSNG) proposal. As part of CSNG, the Ok languages form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea, a position tentatively maintained by Malcolm Ross, though reduced nearly to Healey's original conception. Ross states that he cannot tell if the similarities in CSNG are shared innovations or retentions from proto-TNG. Voorhoeve argues specifically for an Awyu–Ok relationship, and Foley believes that these two families may be closest to Asmat among the TNG languages.

The pronouns for proto-Ok are as follows (Healey, Ross):

	m.sg	f.sg	pl
1	*na-		*nu[b], *ni[b]
2	*ka-b-	*ku-b-	*ki[b]
3	*ya	*yu	*[y]i

Loughnane and Fedden (2011)^[2] demonstrated that the erstwhile isolate Oksapmin is related to the Ok family.

The Ok languages have dyadic kinship terms.^[3]

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ok–Oksapmin". 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.
3. The Oksapmin Kinship System, retrieved May 21, 2009.

• 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.