Madang languages

For the Madang dialect of Borneo, see Kenyah language.

Madang
Madang–Adelbert Range
Geographic distribution:	New Guinea
Linguistic classification:	Trans–New Guinea Madang
Subdivisions:	Southern Adelbert Range Rai Coast Croisilles Kalam  ? Kowan
Glottolog:	mada1298
{{{mapalt}}} Map: The Madang languages of New Guinea   The Madang languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

The Madang or Madang–Adelbert Range languages are the largest family of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG). It was classified as Trans–New Guinea by Stephen Wurm, followed by Malcolm Ross. William A. Foley concurs that it is "highly likely" that the Madang languages are part of TNG, although the pronouns, the usual basis for classification in TNG, have been replaced in Madang.

The family is named after Madang Province and the Adelbert Range.

History

Sidney Herbert Ray identified the Rai Coast family in 1919. In 1951 these were linked with the Mabuso languages by Arthur Capell to create his Madang family. John Z'graggen (1971, 1975) expanded Madang to languages of the Adelbert Range and renamed the family Madang–Adelbert Range, and Wurm (1975)[1] adopted this as a branch of his Trans–New Guinea phylum. For the most part, Ross's (2005) Madang family includes the same languages as Z'graggen Madang–Adelbert Range, but the internal classification is different in several respects, such as the dissolution of the Brahman branch.

Internal classification

There are four well-defined branches of Madang,

• Southern Adelbert Range
• Croisilles (Northern Adelbert Range)
• Rai Coast
• Kalam

plus the Kowan languages, whose classification is uncertain.

The time depth of Madang is comparable to that of Austronesian or Indo-European. Ross (2000) places the Kowan languages closest to Southern Adelbert, and links Rai Coast and Kalam. Pronouns are as follows:

	sg	pl
1	*ya	*i
2	*na	*ni, *ta
3	*nu

These replaced the TNG pronouns. However, the dual suffixes *-le and *-t remain, and the original pronouns appear to live on as Kalam verbal suffixes.

References

• Pawley, Ross, & Osmond, 2005. Papuan languages and the Trans New Guinea phylum. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 38–51.

External links

• The Madang–Adelbert Range languages in Multitree, showing both Z'graggen's and Wurm's classifications [no longer functional as of 2014]