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Language Family

Demta-Sentani

New Guinea and Pacific Language Families

The Demta-Sentani languages form a small language family of coastal Indonesian Papua, spoken near the border with Papua New Guinea.

Facts
Disputed
Proto-Language Status
No proto-Demta-Sentani language has been reconstructed. Pawley and Hammarstrom (2018) note lexical resemblances between the Sentani languages and proto-Trans-New Guinea but do not treat Demta-Sentani as a Trans-New Guinea branch. 2
Pawley and Hammarstrom (2018) classify Sentani as its own separate language family rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea, despite the noted lexical resemblances.
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Classification Confidence
Established 1
Region
Lake Sentani region, coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border. 2
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Number of Languages
4 1
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Found In

Africa

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Asia

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Australia

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Sources
1. Glottolog: Sentanic (languoid record)
Glottolog
  • Languoid record: child_language_count
    "child_language_count": 4
  • Languoid record: level and category
    "level": "family", "bookkeeping": false, "category": "Family"
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Demta-Sentani languages
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead sentence
    form a language family of coastal Indonesian Papua near the Papua New Guinea border
  • Classification section
    though they classify Sentani as a separate language family rather than as part of Trans-New Guinea
View the Source
Wikidata: Demta-Sentani
Wikidata Q17044584, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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