Massep language
Encyclopedia
Massep is a poorly documented Papuan language
spoken by under 50 people in a single village. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous. Donohue et al. (2002) conclude that it is definitely not a Kwerba language, as it had been classified by Wurm (1975), and they did not notice connections to any other language family. Ethnologue (2009) thus considers it a language isolate
, but it has not been included in wider surveys such as Ross (2005). The pronouns are not dissimilar from those Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.
Papuan languages
The Papuan languages are those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. The term does not presuppose a genetic relationship. The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892.-The...
spoken by under 50 people in a single village. Despite the small number of speakers, however, language use is vigorous. Donohue et al. (2002) conclude that it is definitely not a Kwerba language, as it had been classified by Wurm (1975), and they did not notice connections to any other language family. Ethnologue (2009) thus considers it a language isolate
Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
, but it has not been included in wider surveys such as Ross (2005). The pronouns are not dissimilar from those Trans–New Guinea languages, but Massep is geographically distant from that family.