Pauwasi languages
The Pauwasi languages are a likely family of Papuan languages, mostly in Indonesia. The subfamilies are at best only distantly related. The best described Pauwasi language is Karkar, across the border in Papua New Guinea. They are spoken around the headwaters of the Pauwasi River in the Indonesian-PNG border region.
| Pauwasi | |
|---|---|
| Pauwasi River | |
| Geographic distribution | Pauwasi River watershed, West New Guinea, Papua New Guinea |
| Linguistic classification | One of the world's primary language families |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | pauw1244 |
Based on earlier work, the East and West Pauwasi languages of Indonesia were classified together in Wurm (1975), though he (and later researchers) did not recognize that Yuri (Karkar) of Papua New Guinea was also East Pauwasi. That connection was made by Usher, though anthropologists had long known of the connection. Later the South Pauwasi languages were also identified by Usher, and the West Pauwasi family tentatively expanded. Wichmann (2013), Foley (2018) and Pawley & Hammarström (2018), noting the sharp differences between the three groups, are agnostic about whether West Pauwasi, East Pauwasi and South Pauwasi are related.