Languages of New Guinea

Abstract

The New Guinea region (as defined below) is one of the most linguistically diverse and complex areas in the world, with over 1,000 languages spoken in an area of about 900,000 square km. About three to four hundred languages spoken there belong to the Austronesian family. Other, non-Austronesian,languages are often referred to as “Papuan” (see Foley 1986: 1–3, 8; 1997a; Dixon 1991: 245). The term “Papuan” is a rough denomination subsuming over sixty language families, which are not demonstrably related, and a fair number of isolates in the area. This term is used for convenience (similarly, perhaps, to terms like “Paleo-Siberian” (§ 20.1, this volume) or “Amazonian” (§ 10.1, this volume)).