An Un-Austronesian Austronesian Language: Proto-Western Yapen And Its Lexicon

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-21-2025

Published In

NUSA: Linguistic Studies Of Languages In And Around Indonesia

Abstract

Any language will inherit some proportion of its vocabulary from the proto-language at the root of its family tree, while the remainder of forms are introduced in the intervening years through invention, derivation, and borrowing, providing important information about the language’s past. Here we explore the history of the Western Yapen languages of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea branch of Austronesian. We find that less than 15% of reconstructable Proto-Western Yapen roots can be traced back to Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and nearly 60% are not found outside Proto-Western Yapen itself. We therefore posit a swift eastwards migration, with heavy contact leading to lexical replacement since speakers’ arrival in NW New Guinea, particularly since Western Yapen split off from its sister groups. The lexical and grammatical foundations of Western Yapen may be Austronesian, but the bulk of its linguistic edifice no longer is.

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