View source for Social:East Bird's Head – Sentani languages

{{Infobox language family
|name={{nowrap|East Bird's Head – Sentani}}
|region=Papua
|familycolor=Papuan
|fam1=Extended West Papuan ?
|child1=East Bird's Head
|child2=Burmeso
|child3=Sentani
|glotto=none
}}

The '''East Bird's Head – Sentani languages''' form a [[Social:Language family|family]] of Papuan languages proposed by Malcolm Ross which combines the East Bird's Head and [[Social:Sentani languages|Sentani]] families along with the Burmeso [[Social:Language isolate|language isolate]]. Sentani had been a branch of Stephen Wurm's proposal for Trans–New Guinea. It has lexical similarities with the Asmat–Kamoro languages, but Ross does not believe these demonstrate a genealogical relationship.

Ross also included the unclassified language Tause, but as a stimulus for investigation rather than as a serious proposal.

The East Bird's Head – Sentani languages, together with the [[Social:West Papuan languages|West Papuan languages]] and the [[Social:Yawa languages|Yawa]] isolate, form part of a tentative proposal for an Extended West Papuan family. They are distinguished from the West Papuan family in having forms like ''ba'' or ''wa'' for the second-person singular ("thou") pronoun.

==Classification==
East Bird's Head – Sentani unifies two groups that Wurm placed at the family level, and one or two isolates.
{{clade
|1={{clade
|label1={{nowrap|&nbsp;'''East Bird's Head'''&nbsp;}}
|1={{clade
|1=''Mantion (Manikion)''
|2=Meax: Meax (Meyah), Meninggo (Moskona)
|3=? [[Social:Saponi language|Saponi]]
}}
|2=''Burmeso (Taurap)'' 
|3=? ''Tause'' (perhaps two languages, Tause and Weirate)
|label4=&nbsp;'''[[Social:Sentani languages|Sentani]]'''&nbsp;
|4={{clade
|1=''Demta'' 
|2=Sentani proper: Sentani, Nafri, Tabla (Tanah Merah)
}}
}}
}}
Tause is best considered unclassified. Clouse (1997) classified it as a [[Social:Lakes Plain languages|Lakes Plain language]], but its pronouns are not a good match. Ross included it here partially to spark further investigation. [[Social:Saponi language|Saponi]] shares half of its basic lexical vocabulary with Rasawa, but its pronouns instead resemble those of East Bird's Head.

==Pronouns==
These families share no common vocabulary, and are linked only by their pronouns. The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-families are,

;Sentani
:{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
|-
! || colspan="3"| Number
|-
! rowspan="2"| Person || rowspan="2"| Singular || colspan="2"| Plural
|-
! exclusive || inclusive
|-
! 1st
|''*də'' || ''*me'' || ''*e''
|-
! 2nd
| ''*wa'' || colspan="2"| ?
|-
!3rd
| ''*nə'' || colspan="2"| ?
|}

;East Bird's Head
:{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
|-
! || colspan="3"| Number
|-
! rowspan="2"| Person || rowspan="2"| Singular || colspan="2"| Plural
|-
! exclusive || inclusive
|-
! 1st
|''*da, *di-'' || ''*meme, *me-'' || ''*mimi, *mi-''
|-
! 2nd
| ''*ba, *bi-'' || colspan="2"| ''*ia, *i-''
|-
!3rd
| ''*e, *-'' || colspan="2"| ''*rua, *ri-''
|}

Burmeso and Tause correspond in their first and second singular pronouns:
*Burmeso ''da (de-), ba (be-)''
*Tause ''di, ba''

Saponi corresponds in first person and second singular:
*Saponi ''mamire'' "I, we", ''ba'' "thou".

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
{{Malcolm Ross Pronouns}}
{{Refend}}

{{Language families}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:East Bird's Head - Sentani languages}}
[[Category:Proposed language families]]

{{Sourceattribution|East Bird's Head – Sentani languages|1}}