The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages
Will be published approx. on 15. December 2026
Book
Hardback
1280 pages
978-0-19-884948-3 (ISBN)
Description
This volume presents a wide-ranging survey of the Papuan languages, spoken on the island of New Guinea and its surroundings. They make up around 12% of the world's languages, with a level of linguistic diversity comparable to the vast Eurasian zone concentrated into just 1% of the world's land area. This is true whether we count individual languages (around 890), families and isolates (around 95), or elements of structural diversity: many linguistic phenomena were first reported or are still only attested in this region.
Following a detailed introduction by the editors, The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages is divided into four parts. The first provides structural descriptions of 23 languages from across the region, many of which have never previously been described. Part II includes typological surveys of features that are of particular interest in Papuan languages, from tone to valency change, and from information structure to kinship terminology. Chapters in Part III explore language in its cultural context, with topics including multilingualism, sign languages, and language shift, while Part IV focuses on historical and contact studies. The volume will be a crucial reference not only for scholars of Papuan languages but also for anyone interested in the human history of this fascinating and little-known part of the world.
Following a detailed introduction by the editors, The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages is divided into four parts. The first provides structural descriptions of 23 languages from across the region, many of which have never previously been described. Part II includes typological surveys of features that are of particular interest in Papuan languages, from tone to valency change, and from information structure to kinship terminology. Chapters in Part III explore language in its cultural context, with topics including multilingualism, sign languages, and language shift, while Part IV focuses on historical and contact studies. The volume will be a crucial reference not only for scholars of Papuan languages but also for anyone interested in the human history of this fascinating and little-known part of the world.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 276 mm
Width: 219 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-19-884948-3 (9780198849483)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Nicholas Evans is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the Australian National University. He investigates linguistic diversity and what this tells us about the nature of language, culture, deep history, and human creativity. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Northern Australia (Kayardild, Bininj Kunwok, Dalabon, Iwaidja) and Papua New Guinea (Nen, Idi); his interests range from questions of grammar-writing, linguistic typology, and translation to historical linguistics. A member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Social Sciences Academy and the British Academy, he has been awarded an inaugural Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis, and a Ken Hale Award from the Linguistics Society of America.
Sebastian Fedden is Professor of Linguistics at the Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and is affiliated with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich and the University of Surrey. He is a typologist with a specialization in morphology and Papuan languages and linguistics. His interests span linguistic diversity, the relationship between language, mind and culture, and grammar writing. He has carried out fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (on Mian) and Indonesia (on languages of Alor and Pantar). His grammar of Mian, published in 2011, won the von der Gabelentz Award of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT) for the best published grammar from 2009 to 2012.
Sebastian Fedden is Professor of Linguistics at the Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and is affiliated with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich and the University of Surrey. He is a typologist with a specialization in morphology and Papuan languages and linguistics. His interests span linguistic diversity, the relationship between language, mind and culture, and grammar writing. He has carried out fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (on Mian) and Indonesia (on languages of Alor and Pantar). His grammar of Mian, published in 2011, won the von der Gabelentz Award of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT) for the best published grammar from 2009 to 2012.
Content
1: Nicholas Evans and Sebastian Fedden: Papuan languages: A general introduction Part I. Language descriptions 2: Ger Reesink and Cecilia Ode: Mpur (Isolate, Birds Head) 3: Brendon Yoder: Abawiri (Lakes Plain) 4: Marian Klamer: Sentani (Sentanic) 5: Mark Donohue: Skou (Sko) 6: Jose Antonio Jodar-Sanchez, Lea Brown, and Matthew S. Dryer: Srenge (Torricelli) 7: Sylvain Loiseau: Tuwari (Walio) 8: Bernard Comrie and John Davies: Haruai (Piawi) 9: Gerd Jendraschek: Iatmul (Sepik, Ndu) 10: Darja Hoenigman: Awiakay (Arafundi) 11: Birgit Hellwig, Cindy Schneider, and Tonya Stebbins: Baining (New Britain) 12: Angela Terrill and Michael Dunn: Touo (Isolate, Solomon Is.) 13: Christian Doehler: Bine (Oriomo) 14: Mae Carroll: Yei (Yam) 15: Don Daniels: Soq (TNG, Madang) 16: Carl R. Whitehead: Menya (TNG, Angan) 17: Volker Heeschen: Eipo (TNG, Mek) 18: Bernhard Waelchli and Erik Svaerd: Nalca (TNG, Mek) 19: Sebastian Fedden: Telefol (TNG, Ok Oksapmin) 20: Bruno Olsson: Yaqay (TNG, Anim) 21: Jason Brown: Urama (TNG, Kiwaian) 22: Katherine Walker and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann: Iha (TNG, West Bomberai) 23: Eline Visser: Kalamang (TNG, West Bomberai) 24: Frantisek Kratochvil, George Saad, and Benediktus Delpada: Abui (TNG, Alor Pantar) Part II. The typology of Papuan languages 25: John Hajek and Timothy C. Brickell: A typology of Papuan segmental phoneme inventories 26: Sebastian Fedden: Tone in Papuan languages 27: Birgit Hellwig: Semantic typology in Papuan languages 28: Antoinette Schapper: Lexical typology in Papuan languages, with special reference to colexification 29: Nicholas Evans, Wolfgang Barth, Simon J. Greenhill, Bruno Olsson, and Sam Passmore: Kinship terminology in Papuan languages 30: Chris Healey, Janet Gagul, and Alfred Kik: Ethnobiological nomenclature in Papuan languages 31: Volker Heeschen and Sonja Riesberg: Lexicography and lexicology of Papuan languages 32: Bruno Olsson and Christian Doehler: Alignment in Papuan languages 33: Bruno Olsson: Valency change in Papuan languages 34: Nicholas Evans: Reciprocal constructions in Papuan languages 35: Nicholas Evans and Sebastian Fedden: Tense, aspect, and mood systems in Papuan languages 36: Lila San Roque: Evidentiality and epistemic marking in Papuan languages 37: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald: Serial verbs in Papuan languages 38: Sonja Riesberg and Bruno Olsson: Coverb constructions in Papuan languages 39: Frantisek Kratochvil: Demonstratives in Papuan languages 40: Bernard Comrie: Numeral systems in Papuan languages 41: Sebastian Fedden: Nominal classification in Papuan languages 42: Gary Holton and Henry Osborne: Possession in Papuan languages 43: I Wayan Arka, Mary Dalrymple, and Keira Mullan: Grammatical number in Papuan languages 44: Tina Gregor: Suppletion in Papuan languages 45: Don Daniels: Switch reference in Papuan languages: Synchronic and diachronic 46: Hannah S. Sarvasy: Clause chaining in Papuan languages 47: Ger Reesink and Nicholas Evans: Reported speech in Papuan languages 48: Don Daniels: Information structure in Papuan languages 49: Nikolaus P. Himmelmann and Sonja Riesberg: Discourse patterns and emerging grammar in Papuan languages Part III. Papuan languages in their cultural context 50: Christian Doehler: Multilingualism in the Papuasphere 51: Darja Hoenigman: Speech styles and registers in Papuan languages 52: Alan Rumsey and Don Niles: Language, song, and sung tales in the Papuan region 53: Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald: Names and naming in Papuan languages of New Guinea 54: Kensy Cooperrider and Rafael E. Nunez: Gesture in New Guinea 55: Lauren W. Reed: Sign languages of the Papuasphere 56: James Slotta: Sociocultural processes of Papuan linguistic diversification 57: Eri Kashima and Dineke Schokkin: Sociolinguistic variation in New Guinea 58: Yusuf Sawaki and I Wayan Arka: The contemporary sociolinguistics of Tanah Papua 59: Don Kulick and Lise M. Dobrin: Rampant language shift in Papua New Guinea 60: Birgit Hellwig, Hannah S. Sarvasy, and Marisa Casillas: Acquisition of Papuan languages 61: Lila San Roque and Bambi B. Schiefflin: Language socialization in Papuan languages 62: Lourens de Vries, Rene van den Berg, and Bert Voorhoeve: An overview of the missionary linguistics of New Guinea Part IV. Papuan historical and areal linguistics 63: Simon J. Greenhill: Tentatively tracing Trans New Guinea 64: Don Daniels: The Madang branch of Trans New Guinea 65: Edgar Suter: Comparative grammar of the Huon peninsula languages 66: Edgar Suter: Contact-induced morphological change in Dedua 67: Nicholas Evans, Christian Doehler, and Mae Carroll: Historical linguistics of the Yam family 68: Marian Klamer: Papuan-Austronesian contact in pre-modern eastern Indonesia 69: Laura Arnold and Emily Gasser: Austronesian-Papuan contact in Northwestern New Guinea 70: Sylvain Loiseau: Papuan-Papuan contact: Sepik 71: Angela Kluge: Papuan Malay 72: Chris Ballard: Papuan histories and linguistics