Raja Ampat–South Halmahera languages explained

Raja Ampat–South Halmahera
Also Known As:Halmahera Sea
Region:Halmahera Sea and Raja Ampat Islands
Familycolor:Austronesian
Fam2:Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:Central–Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Fam4:Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Fam5:South Halmahera–West New Guinea
Glotto:raja1255
Glottorefname:Raja Ampat–South Halmahera

The Raja Ampat–South Halmahera languages are a branch of Malayo-Polynesian languages of eastern Indonesia. They are spoken on islands in the Halmahera Sea, and on its margins from the south-eastern coast of Halmahera to the Raja Ampat Islands off the western tip of New Guinea.

The languages of the Raja Ampat Islands show a strong Papuan substratum influence; it is not clear that they are actually Austronesian as opposed to relexified Papuan languages.[1]

Remijsen (2001) and Blust (1978) linked the languages of Raja Ampat to the South Halmahera languages. David Kamholz (2014) breaks up Raja Ampat, so that the structure of the Halmahera Sea languages is as follows:[2]

Notes and References

  1. Kamholz, David (2014). Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and change in South Halmahera–West New Guinea . Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8zg8b1vd