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Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives
Edited by Iker Salaberri, Dorota Krajewska, Ekaitz Santazilia and Eneko Zuloaga
[Typological Studies in Language 135] 2025
► pp. 306–333

One language or two?

The arbitrariness of isolate classifications in New Guinea

ORCID logo | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam | Langues et Civilisations à Tradition Orale (LACITO) — Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
This chapter draws attention to the arbitrariness of isolate classifications for many Papuan languages. So little is known about the history of the vast majority of Papuan languages that most classifications in the literature are founded neither on significant documentation nor intensive historical-comparative study. The chapter illustrates how arbitrary the boundaries are in defining isolates versus small language families of Papuan languages. To highlight this issue, I juxtapose case studies of Yawa-Saweru and Maybrat-Karon. Saweru and Karon are both referred to as divergent varieties, yet the former is classified as an independent language and the latter as a dialect. Based on existing literature, it is shown that there is no principled reason to give different classifications to Yawa-Saweru and Maybrat-Karon.
Keywords: Papuan languages, language classification, epistemic uncertainty, language contact, language divergence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Historical linguistics of Papuan languages
  • 3.The problem of isolates in New Guinea
  • 4.Case studies
    • 4.1Case study 1: Yawa-Saweru
    • 4.2Case study 2: Maybrat-Karon
  • 5.Conclusion and discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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