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East Bird’s Head languages
Information concerning the « East Bird’s Head » languages
Where are these languages spoken ?
These languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea.
Total number of speakers (estimate) :
Roughly 70 000 according to the SIL
Classification:
This group includes 8 languages
East Bird’s Head
Manikion
Meax (alternative name: Meyah)
Meninggo (alternative name: Moskona)
Sentani
Sowari (alternative name: Demta)
Nafri
Sentani
Tabla
Burmeso (alternative name : Taurap)
Comments on the classification of the « East Bird’s Head » :
These languages have sometimes been classified with the Trans-New Guinea language group, but there is slim linguistic proof of this relationship and it is probably preferable to consider these languages as a separate group at this time. The similarities between the « East Bird’s Head » and the « Sentani » language families is a proposal by Ross (2005) which we have adopted here.
Sources
Ross, Malcolm. «Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages« . dans: Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Robin Hide, Jack Golson, eds. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. (2005).
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