Abun, also known as Yimbun, Anden, Manif or Karon Pantai, is a Papuan language spoken by about 3,000 people across some 18 villages and several isolated hamlets in the Ayamaru, Moraid and Sausapor sub-districts of Tambrauw Regency on the Bird's Head Peninsula in Southwest Papua province, Indonesia. Malcolm Ross assigned it to the West Papuan language family in 2005 based on pronoun similarities, but more recent authorities, including Bill Palmer in 2018, Ethnologue and Glottolog, classify it instead as a language isolate. The language historically had three lexical tones but is losing its tonal contrasts, with only two tones still distinguishing meaning in a limited vocabulary today.
Facts
RegionNorthern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula, Sausapor District, Tambrauw Regency, West Papua, Indonesia 1 Speaker Count Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language is reconstructed: Palmer (2018), Ethnologue and Glottolog all classify Abun as a language isolate with no known relatives, so it has no sister language to compare it against. 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Abun Language
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, location sentence
Abun is a Papuan language spoken by the Abun people along the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula in Sausapor District, Tambrauw Regency.
Lead section, speakers sentence
The speakers number about 3,000 spread across 18 villages and several isolated hamlets.
Classification section
Palmer (2018), Ethnologue, and Glottolog list it as a language isolate.
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