Language Atlas

How Languages Connect
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Language Family

Madang-Upper Yuat languages

New Guinea and Pacific Language Families

Madang-Upper Yuat is a proposed grouping linking the Madang languages of Papua New Guinea's north coast with the Upper Yuat languages, themselves comprising two smaller families, Arafundi and Piawi, spoken along the upper Yuat River. The linguist Timothy Usher proposed that Madang is most closely related to these Upper Yuat languages and to other neighboring families to the west. The Madang languages are widely but not conclusively treated as part of the large Trans-New Guinea family, and the Upper Yuat languages show more typological resemblance to Trans-New Guinea languages than other language families of the neighboring Sepik-Ramu basin, though whether the combined Madang-Upper Yuat grouping itself belongs within Trans-New Guinea remains an open question.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.