Upper Sepik languages

Upper Sepik
Upper Sepik River
Geographic distribution	Sandaun Province and western East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classification	Sepik Upper Sepik
Subdivisions	Abau–Iwam Yellow and Wanibe Rivers
Glottolog	None
The Sepik languages as classified by Foley (2018)

The Upper Sepik languages are a group of ten to a dozen languages generally classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea.^[1]

Languages

The Upper Sepik languages are:^[2]

• Abau–Iwam
  • Abau
  • Iwam languages
• Yellow and Wanibe Rivers
  • Amal–Kalou
    • Amal
    • Kalou
  • Ram languages (see)
  • Yellow River languages (see)

Although even the pronouns do not appear to be cognate, Foley classifies the Abau–Iwam languages with the Wogamus languages rather than with the Yellow and Wanibe River languages on the basis of a unique noun-class system in the numeral systems (see Wogamus languages#Noun classes). Additionally, Foley considers Sepik Iwam and Wogamusin noun class prefixes to be likely cognate with each other. Abau is more divergent, but its inclusion by Foley (2018) is based on the similarity of Abau verbal morphology to that of the Iwam languages. Foley observes that much of the lexicon and pronouns of these languages do not derive from proto-Sepik.^[1]

Numerals

Upper Sepik morphological numerals are (Foley 2018):^[1]

gloss	Abau	Sepik Iwam	Wogamusin	Chenapian
‘one’	-eyn ~ -mon ~ -ron	-or	-Vd	-rə
‘two’	-(r)eys	-is	-us	-si
‘three’	-(r)ompri	-um	-um	-mu

References

1. Foley, William A. (2018). "The Languages of the Sepik-Ramu Basin and Environs". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 197–432. ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
2. Upper Sepik River, NewGuineaWorld

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.