Mongol–Langam languages

Mongol–Langam
Kaima
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Ramu – Lower Sepik? Ramu? Mongol–Langam
Glottolog:	mong1343[1]

The Mongol–Langam languages are a language family of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.

Languages

According to Summer Institute of Linguistics data from 2003, the member languages had the following number of speakers:

• Mongol, 340 speakers^[2]
• Langam, 410 speakers^[3]
• Yaul, 1,210 speakers^[4]

Classification

Their classification is somewhat unclear. Donald Laycock (1973) noted that the Mongol–Langam languages mark nouns for pluralisation, like the Lower Sepik languages (Nor–Pondo languages) and Yuat languages, and also that the lexicon also shows many resemblances to Yuat languages, while pronouns are similar to the Grass languages (Ramu).^[5] Malcolm Ross (2005) accepts them as Ramu languages based on their pronouns.^[6] However Ethnologue (2009) keeps them as an independent family.^[7]

Notes

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Mongol–Langam". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Lewis 2009,
3. Lewis 2009,
4. Lewis 2009,
5. Laycock 1973, p. 36
6. Ross 2005
7. Lewis 2009,

References

• Laycock, Donald C. (1973), Sepik languages – checklist and preliminary classification, Pacific linguistics Ser. B Monographs, The Australian National University, Research School of Pacific Studies, Dept. of Linguistics, ISBN 978-0-85883-084-4
• Ross, Malcolm (2005), "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages", in Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; et al., Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, pp. 15–66, ISBN 0-85883-562-2, OCLC 67292782