East Papuan Languages - History of The Proposal

History of The Proposal

The East Papuan languages were identified as a phylum by linguist Stephen Wurm (1975) and others. However, their work was preliminary, and there is little evidence the East Papuan languages actually have a genetic relationship. For example, none of these fifteen languages marked with asterisks below share more than 2-3% of their basic vocabulary with any of the others. Dunn et al. (2005) tested the reliability of the proposed 2-3% cognates by randomizing the vocabulary lists and comparing them again. The nonsense comparisons produced the same 2-3% of "shared" vocabulary, demonstrating that the proposed cognates of the East Papuan languages, and even of proposed families within the East Papuan languages, are as likely to be due to chance as to any genealogical relationship. Thus in a conservative classification, many of the East Papuan languages would be considered language isolates.

Since the islands in question have been settled for at least 35 000 years, their considerable linguistic diversity is unsurprising. However, Malcolm Ross (2001; 2005) has presented evidence from comparing pronouns from nineteen of these languages that several of the lower-level branches of East Papuan may indeed be valid families. This is the classification adopted here. For Wurm's more inclusive classification, see the Ethnologue entry here.