The Greater Awyu language family of West Papua

Abstract

Healey (1970) and Voorhoeve (2001) established the Awyu-Dumut family of Papuan languages in the Digul Basin of West Papua and presented a proto Awyu-Dumut phonology. This paper presents an outline of a proto AwyuDumut morphology and discusses the linguistic position of Korowai and Kombai in relation to the Awyu-Dumut family. It is argued that Korowai is not a member of the Awyu-Dumut family but a member of a sister branch of Awyu-Dumut within a larger genetic group that we call Greater Awyu. Kombai is a member of the Awyu-Dumut family but is not a member of one of the two subgroups, Awyu and Dumut, proposed by Healey (1970). Rather, Kombai is a member of a third subgroup that we call the Ndeiram subgroup of the Awyu-Dumut family