37.2414, Books: The Papuan Languages of Yapen Island: van Schie (2026)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-2414. Mon Jul 20 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.2414, Books: The Papuan Languages of Yapen Island: van Schie (2026)

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Date: 20-Jul-2026
From: Jan Martin [lotdissertations-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: The Papuan Languages of Yapen Island: van Schie (2026)


Title: The Papuan Languages of Yapen Island
Subtitle: History and typology
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke
(LOT)
           http://www.lotpublications.nl/
Book URL: https://dx.medra.org/10.48273/LOT0718

Author(s): Anne van Schie

Paperback
ISBN: 978-94-6093-503-9
Pages: 608
Price: 58,00 euros

Abstract:

Yapen Island in Cenderawasih Bay, Indonesia, is home to a small group
of closely related Papuan languages: the Yawa-Saweru languages. Up
until now, the Yawa-Saweru languages have remained largely undescribed
and there is no scholarly consensus on the genetic affiliations of the
family. Even though multiple attempts at establishing genetic
relationships have been made, such hypotheses cannot be properly
evaluated without detailed descriptions of the language family and
rigorous bottom-up reconstruction.
This thesis addresses this issue by providing the necessary
descriptive and reconstructive foundation. It first describes aspects
of the phonology, morphology and syntax of three distinct varieties of
Yawa-Saweru. It then applies the comparative method to these
descriptions and reconstruct aspects of the phonology, lexicon and
morphosyntax of the shared ancestor of the Yawa-Saweru varieties,
Proto-Yawa-Saweru.
The descriptions in this work extend our knowledge of the typological
diversity in Cenderawasih Bay and on Yapen Island significantly.
Throughout this work, it becomes clear that the Yawa-Saweru varieties
have diversified rapidly into highly distinct varieties, perhaps due
to intense Papuan-Austronesian language contact in the past and, more
recently, to language shift to Papuan Malay. The reconstructions
presented in this thesis may open new avenues for determining the
genetic affiliations of Yawa-Saweru and contribute to a better
understanding of the complex linguistic history of the New Guinea
region.

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics

Language Family(ies): Yapen (yape1249)
                      Yawa-Saweru (yawa1259)




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