West Bird's Head languages

West Bird's Head
Geographic; distribution	West Papua
Linguistic classification	West Papuan West–Central Bird's Head West Bird's Head; ;
Glottolog	west1493[1]

West Bird's Head languages are a small family of poorly documented Papuan languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.

The West Bird's Head family is a well-defined family of six languages spoken at the western end of the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea and the eastern part of the island of Salawati opposite the Bird's Head's western shore.

Language contact

West Bird's Head languages have been heavily influenced by Austronesian languages. Austronesian influence is evident in SVO word order (as opposed to SOV word order in most other Papuan language families), pronouns, numerals, and other typological features.[2]^:625

Languages

Seget–Moi (Sele Strait):
- Seget
- Moi
South West Bird's Head (Seremuk River):
- Tehit (or Kaibus; the most populous, with 10,000 speakers)
- Kalabra (close to Tehit)
- Moraid
? Kuwani

Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct.[3]

gollark: * note: do not necessarily do this

gollark: Have you tried... IMMEDIATELY GOING TO THE HOSPITAL?*

gollark: Well, yes, that's an example of overcomplication without having enough structure.

gollark: Probably quite often; I mean, making things simple is good, but making a simple thing which works significantly worse than a complex thing is just silly.

gollark: To be actually secure, you sometimes need complicated things.

References

Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "West Bird's Head". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. West Papuan Phylum languages on the mainland of New Guinea: Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula. Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene, ed. by S.A. Wurm, 717-28. (Pacific Linguistics C-38). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.

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[Glottolog-1] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "West Bird's Head". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Holton-Birds-Head-2] Holton, Gary; Klamer, Marian (2018). "The Papuan languages of East Nusantara and the Bird's Head". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 569–640. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.

[3] Voorhoeve, C.L. 1975. West Papuan Phylum languages on the mainland of New Guinea: Bird's Head (Vogelkop) Peninsula. Papuan Languages and the New Guinea Linguistic Scene, ed. by S.A. Wurm, 717-28. (Pacific Linguistics C-38). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.