South Bird's Head languages

South Bird's Head
South Doberai
Geographic distribution:	West Irian Jaya
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea South Bird's Head
Subdivisions:	South Bird's Head proper Inanwatan Konda–Yahadian
Glottolog:	None sout1516  (South Bird's Head proper)[1] kond1302  (Konda–Yahadian)[2] inan1242  (Inanwatan)[3]
Map: The South Bird's Head languages of New Guinea   The South Bird's Head languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

The South Bird's Head or South Doberai languages are three families of Papuan languages. They form part of the Trans–New Guinea languages in the classification of Malcolm Ross.

Languages

Ross reconstructs pronouns *na 1sg and *a 2sg, but otherwise the three families have little in common and are not obviously related:

• Inanwatan: Duriankere, Suabo (Inanwatan)
• Konda–Yahadian: Konda, Yahadian
• South Bird's Head proper (Nuclear South Bird's Head):
  • Eastern: Weriagar (Kemberano, Barau), Arandai [dialect cluster], Kokoda (Tarof, Kasuweri)
  • Kais (Kampong Baru)
  • Puragi
  • Kaburi

Pronouns

The pronouns are:

	sg	pl
1ex	*na	*ni-ri, *i-ri
1in		*na-ri, *ya-ri
2	*a	*a-ri, *i-ri

3sg *ni is reconstructable for SBH proper. There appears to be both a plural vowel change from *a to *i, as in proto-TNG, and a plural suffix *-ri.

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "South Bird's Head proper". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Konda–Yahadian". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Inanwatan". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson. Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.