Finisterre languages

Finisterre
Geographic
distribution
Finisterre Range, New Guinea
Linguistic classificationTrans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
  • Erap
  • Gusap–Mot
  • Uruwa
  • Wantoat
  • Warup
  • Yupna
Language codes
Glottologfini1245

The Finisterre languages are a language family, spoken in the Finisterre Range of Papua New Guinea, classified within the original Trans–New Guinea (TNG) proposal, and William A. Foley considers their TNG identity to be established. They share with the Huon languages a small closed class of verbs taking pronominal object prefixes some of which are cognate across both families (Suter 2012), strong morphological evidence that they are related.

The most populous Finisterre languages are Wantoat, Rawa, and Yopno, with about 10,000 speakers apiece, and Iyo, with about half that number.