Not to be confused with Sepik Coast languages or Lower Sepik languages.
Sepik
Sepik River
Geographic distribution
Sepik River region, northern Papua New Guinea (mostly in East Sepik Province)
Linguistic classification
One of the world's primary language families
Subdivisions
Leonhard Schultze
Sepik Hills
Middle Sepik
Upper Sepik
Glottolog
sepi1257
Distribution of Sepik languages in Papua New Guinea
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by Donald Laycock in 1965 in a somewhat more limited form than presented here. They tend to have simple phonologies, with few consonants or vowels and usually no tones.
The best known Sepik language is Iatmul. The most populous are Iatmul's fellow Ndu languages Abelam and Boiken, with about 35,000 speakers each.
The Sepik languages, like their Ramu neighbors, appear to have three-vowel systems, /ɨəa/, that distinguish only vowel height in a vertical vowel system. Phonetic [ieou] are a result of palatal and labial assimilation to adjacent consonants. It is suspected that the Ndu languages may reduce this to a two-vowel system, with /ɨ/ epenthetic (Foley 1986).
The Sepik or Sepik River languages are a family of some 50 Papuan languages spoken in the Sepik river basin of northern Papua New Guinea, proposed by...
The Lower Sepik a.k.a. Nor–Pondo languages are a small language family of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. They were identified as a family...
The Sepik (/ˈsɛpɪk/) is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority...
family. The Torricelli languages occupy three geographically separated areas, evidently separated by later migrations of Sepik-language speakers several centuries...
Sepiklanguages are a group of ten to a dozen languages generally classified among the Sepiklanguages of northern Papua New Guinea. The Upper Sepik languages...
The Sepik Hill languages form the largest and most ramified branch of the Sepiklanguages of northern Papua New Guinea. They are spoken along the southern...
The Middle Sepiklanguages comprise diverse groups of Sepiklanguages spoken in northern Papua New Guinea. The Middle Sepik grouping is provisionally accepted...
migration with some of the earlier languages (perhaps including the Sepik–Ramu languages) being related to the Australian languages, a later migration bringing...
the world's hardest language". The Economist. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2009-12-23. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs"...
The Ndu languages are the best known family of the Sepiklanguages of East Sepik Province in northern Papua New Guinea. Ndu is the word for 'man' in the...
ready for transport’ Like most other Sepiklanguages, Abau overtly marks grammatical gender (see Sepiklanguages#Gender). The same object can be classified...
with the Sepiklanguages by Donald Laycock two years later. Malcolm Ross (2005) classifies them as one branch of a Ramu – Lower Sepiklanguage family....
related to the Lower Sepiklanguages, another branch of the erstwhile Sepik-Ramu phylum. They conclude that Tayap is a language isolate, though they do...
explanation for language isolates is that they developed in isolation from other languages. This explanation mostly applies to sign languages that have arisen...
leading authorities on the languages of Papua New Guinea. He performed several pioneering surveys of the languages of the Sepik region of New Guinea. The...
language isolates by continent Lists of languages List of proposed language families "What are the largest language families?". Ethnologue. May 25, 2019...
languages, word order in the Bogia languages is SOV, likely due to contact with Lower Sepik-Ramu and Sepiklanguages.: 298 There are three languages:...
a primary branch of the Sepiklanguages, though it is quite close to Kalou. Pronouns are: Amal cognates with Sepiklanguages are: tal ‘woman’ yan ‘child’...
The Yuat languages are an independent family of five Papuan languages spoken along the Yuat River in East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. They are an...
languages spoken in the country. In 2006, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare stated that "Papua New Guinea has 832 living languages (languages...
Yerakai (Yerekai) is a Sepiklanguage spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua-New Guinea. It is highly divergent from other Sepiklanguages, being only 6% cognate...
the Sepiklanguages. Tama is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. Yessan-Mayo and Mehek are the best documented Tama languages. Usher...
Global Information