West Bomberai languages

West Bomberai
Geographic distribution:	West New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea ? West Trans–New Guinea ? West Bomberai
Subdivisions:	Karas West Bomberai proper
Glottolog:	west2604[1]

The West Bomberai languages are a small family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea. Two of the languages, Baham and Iha, are closely related to each other; the third is distant. The West Bomberai family is included as part of Ross' West Trans–New Guinea proposal.^[2]

• Karas isolate
• West Bomberai proper
  • Baham (Mbaham)
  • Iha

Ross reconstructs the pronouns as *na 1sg, *ka 2sg, *bi(r) 1ex, *in 1in, *ki 2pl, of which 1sg, 2sg, and 2pl correspond to proto-Trans–New Guinea.

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "West Bomberai". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
2. • 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.