The Sepik-Ramu languages are an obsolete proposed language family of New Guinea, put forward by Donald Laycock and John Z'graggen in 1975 to link around one hundred languages of the Sepik and Ramu river basins in northern Papua New Guinea, spoken by roughly 200,000 people combined. Malcolm Ross and William Foley separately re-evaluated the proposal in 2005 and found insufficient evidence for a unified family, though its individual constituent branches, such as the Ndu languages including Iatmul, Abelam and Boiken, remain recognized.
Facts
Open Questions
Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language for the whole family; the family proposal is obsolete 1 The source calls the proposed family obsolete but does not state whether a proto-language was ever reconstructed for the whole family; only proto-Ndu, proto-Lower Sepik and proto-Ottilien are mentioned for constituent branches. RegionSepik and Ramu river basins, northern Papua New Guinea 1 Speaker Count In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Australia, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Sepik-Ramu languages
Introduction, region clause
a hundred languages of the Sepik and Ramu river basins of northern Papua New Guinea
Introduction, speaker total clause
spoken by only 200,000 people in all
Lead paragraph, first sentence
are an obsolete language family of New Guinea
View the SourceWikidata: Sepik-Ramu languages
Wikidata Q1324531, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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