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Language Family

Inanwatan-Duriankere

New Guinea and Pacific Language Families

Inanwatan-Duriankere, also called simply Inanwatan, is a pair of South Bird's Head languages of New Guinea, Inanwatan and Duriankere. Noting low cognacy rates between them, linguists Gary Holton and Marian Klamer tentatively treat Inanwatan-Duriankere, together with Konda-Yahadian and the Nuclear South Bird's Head family, as independent families until further evidence can be demonstrated.

Facts
Open Questions
Proto-Language Status
Holton and Klamer (2018), noting low cognacy rates between Inanwatan and Duriankere, tentatively treat Inanwatan-Duriankere as an independent language family pending further evidence. 1
Tentative classification pending further evidence; no competing named alternative grouping found in this pass.
Partially Attested
Speaker Count
800 2
Reflects only Inanwatan (also called Suabo): approximately 800 speakers (2004, cited here). No published speaker count found for Duriankere in this pass; likely a small remnant population.
Region
West Papua province, Indonesia (South Bird's Head area) 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: South Bird's Head languages
Wikipedia
  • Infobox, Geographic distribution field
    West Papua
  • Languages section
    Noting low cognacy rates, Holton and Klamer (2018) tentatively consider the following three language groups to each be independent language families, pending further evidence.
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Inanwatan (Suabo) language
WikipediaInfobox, Native speakers field
Quote, Infobox, Native speakers field
Native speakers: 800 (2004)
View the Source
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