Halmahera–Cenderawasih languages

Halmahera–Cenderawasih
South Halmahera – West New Guinea
Geographic distribution:	The Maluku Islands in the Halmahera Sea, and the region of Cenderawasih Bay
Linguistic classification:	Austronesian Paiwanic Malayo-Polynesian (MP) Nuclear MP (Central–Eastern) Halmahera–Cenderawasih
Subdivisions:	Halmahera Sea Cenderawasih Bay Irarutu–Nabi Bedoanas–Erokwanas ("Bomberai") Mor Tandia Waropen ? Lower Mamberamo (perhaps Papuan)
Glottolog:	sout2850[1]
The Halmahera–Cenderawasih languages (red). The group at left is the Halmahera Sea languages; the one at right is the Cenderawasih Bay. (The black line is the Wallace Line.)

The Halmahera–Cenderawasih languages, or South Halmahera – West New Guinea (SHWNG) languages, are a branch of the Malayo-Polynesian, found in the islands and along the shores of the Halmahera Sea in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and of Cenderawasih Bay in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

The unity of Halmahera–Cenderawasih is well supposed. They are traditionally said to be most closely related to the Oceanic languages, but there is little evidence for this view.

Most of the languages are only known from short word lists, but Buli on Halmahera, and Biak and Waropen in Cenderawasih Bay, are fairly well attested.

Classification

The traditional classification of the languages is into two geographic groups,

• South Halmahera languages (along the southeastern coast of Halmahera, plus one language in the east of the Bomberai Peninsula).
• West New Guinea languages (on the Raja Ampat Islands west of New Guinea, and the islands and shoreline of Cenderawasih Bay).

However, the unity of the South Halmahera and Raja Ampat languages is supported by phonological changes noted in Blust 1978 and by Bert Remijsen, the principal researcher of the Raja Ampat languages. This results in the following structure:^[2]

• Cenderawasih Bay
• Halmahera Sea (South Halmahera, in the sea between Halmahera and New Guinea, and Raja Ampat off western tip of New Guinea)

David Kamholz (2014) brings in or separates a few more languages as additional branches:

• Irarutu–Nabi: Irarutu, Kuri (Nabi)
• Bedoanas–Erokwanas: Arguni, Bedoanas, Erokwanas
• Lower Mamberamo (if they are not Papuan)
• Mor
• Tandia
• Waropen

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "South Halmahera – West New Guinea". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Raja Ampat–South Halmahera". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

• Kamholz, David. 2014. South Halmahera–West New Guinea: The history of Oceanic's closest relative. LSA Annual Meeting. Minneapolis, MN.