The Awyu–Dumut languages (other languages not shown)
Other Trans–New Guinea languages
Other Papuan languages
Austronesian languages
Uninhabited
The Greater AwyuorDigul River languages, known in earlier classifications with more limited scope as Awyu–Dumut (Awyu–Ndumut), are a family of perhaps a dozen Trans–New Guinea languages spoken in eastern West Papua in the region of the Digul River. Six of the languages are sufficiently attested for a basic description; it is not clear how many of the additional names (in parentheses below) may be separate languages.
The Awyu (pronounced like English Ow you) and Awyu–Dumut families were identified by Peter Drabbe in the 1950s.
Voorhoeve included them in his proposed Central and South New Guinea group.[2] As part of Central and South New Guinea, they form part of the original proposal for Trans–New Guinea.[3]
The classification below is based on Usher[4] and de Vries et al. (2012),[5] who used morphological innovations to determine relatedness, which can be obscured by lexical loanwords.
Sawi is classified on pronominal data, as the morphological data used for the rest of the family is not available.
Pawley and Hammarström (2018) exclude Awbono-Bayono, treating it as a separate family.[6]
Various other languages can be found in the literature. Airo-Sumaxage (Airo-Sumaghage)[7] is listed in Wurm, Foley, etc., but not in the University of Amsterdam survey and has been dropped by Ethnologue. Ethnologue lists a 'Central Awyu', but this is not attested as a distinct language (U. Amsterdam). In general, the names in Ethnologue are quite confused, and older editions speak of names from Wurm (1982), such as Mapi, Kia, Upper Digul, Upper Kaeme, which are names of language surveys along the rivers of those names, and may actually refer to Ok languages rather than to Awyu.
van den Heuvel & Fedden (2014) argue that Greater Awyu and Greater Ok are not genetically related, but that their similarities are due to intensive contact.[8]
The following selected reconstructions of Proto-Awyu-Dumut, Proto-Awyu, and Proto-Dumut by Voorhoeve are from Healey (1970)[10] and Voorhoeve (2000),[11] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:[12]
^Voorhoeve, C.L. 1968. “The Central and South New Guinea Phylum: a report on the language situation in south New Guinea. Pacific Linguistics, Series A, No. 16: 1-17. Canberra: Australian National University.
^McElhanon, Kenneth A.and C.L. Voorhoeve. 1970. The Trans-New Guinea phylum: explorations in deep-level genetic relationships. Pacific Linguistics, Series B, No. 16. Canberra: Australian National University.
^Lourens de Vries, Ruth Wester, & Wilco van den Heuvel. 2012. "The Greater Awyu language family of West Papua", pp. 269–312 of Hammarström & van den Heuvel (eds.), History, Contact and Classification of Papuan Languages. (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia Special Issue). Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.
^ abPawley, Andrew; Hammarström, Harald (2018). "The Trans New Guinea family". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 21–196. ISBN978-3-11-028642-7.
^van den Heuvel, W. & Fedden, S. (2014). Greater Awyu and Greater Ok: Inheritance or Contact? Oceanic Linguistics 53(1), 1-36. University of Hawai'i Press.
^Healey, A. 1970. Proto-Awyu-Dumut Phonology. In Wurm, S.A. and Laycock, D. C. (eds). Pacific Linguistic Studies in honour of Arthur Capell. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
^Voorhoeve, C. L. 2000. Proto Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 361–381). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN0858835622. OCLC67292782.
Proto-Awyu-Dumut. TransNewGuinea.org. From (1) Voorhoeve, C. L. 2000. Proto Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 361–381). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ; (2) Healey, A. 1970. Proto-Awyu-Dumut Phonology. In Wurm, S.A. and Laycock, D. C. (eds). Pacific Linguistic Studies in honour of Arthur Capell. Pacific Linguistics: Canberra.
Proto-Awyu. TransNewGuinea.org. From (1) Voorhoeve, C. L. 2000. Proto Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 361–381). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ; (2) Healey, A. 1970. Proto-Awyu-Dumut Phonology. In Wurm, S.A. and Laycock, D. C. (eds). Pacific Linguistic Studies in honour of Arthur Capell. Pacific Linguistics: Canberra.
Proto-Dumut. TransNewGuinea.org. From (1) Voorhoeve, C. L. 2000. Proto Awyu-Dumut phonology II. In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The Boy from Bundaberg: studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 361–381). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. ; (2) Healey, A. 1970. Proto-Awyu-Dumut Phonology. In Wurm, S.A. and Laycock, D. C. (eds). Pacific Linguistic Studies in honour of Arthur Capell. Pacific Linguistics: Canberra.
