Upper Yuat languages

Upper Yuat
Upper Yuat River
Geographic
distribution		Upper Yuat River watershed, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classificationNortheast New Guinea and/or Trans–New Guinea
Subdivisions
GlottologNone

The Upper Yuat languages consist of two small language families, namely Arafundi and Piawi, spoken in the region of the upper Yuat River of New Guinea. The connection was first suggested by William A. Foley[2] and confirmed by Timothy Usher, who further links them to the Madang languages.[1]

Upper Yuat languages display more typological similarities with Trans-New Guinea than the other neighboring language families of the Sepik-Ramu basin (namely the Lower Sepik-Ramu and Yuat families).[2] The Madang languages are frequently included in Trans–New Guinea classifications, but the connection is not yet demonstrated.

The Piawi languages are morphologically much simpler than the Arafundi languages.[2]

  1. ^ a b New Guinea World, Upper Yuat River
  2. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Foley-Sepik was invoked but never defined (see the help page).