Tama languages
Encyclopedia
The Tama languages are a small family
of closely related languages of northern Papua New Guinea
. They are generally classified among the Sepik languages
.
The languages are Ayi
, Pasi, Pahi, Mehek
, and Yessan-Mayo.
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
of closely related languages of northern Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
. They are generally classified among the Sepik languages
Sepik languages
-Pronouns:The pronouns Ross reconstructs for proto-Sepik are:Note the similarities of the dual and plural suffixes with those of the Torricelli languages.-See also:*Papuan languages*Sepik–Ramu languages*Donald Laycock...
.
The languages are Ayi
Ayi language (Papua New Guinea)
Ayi is a language spoken by approximately 400 people in the southeast of Sandaun Province, Papua-New Guinea....
, Pasi, Pahi, Mehek
Mehek language
Mehek is a Tama language spoken by about 6300 people in a somewhat mountainous area along the southern base of the Torricelli Mountains in northwestern Papua New Guinea. Mehek is spoken in six villages of Sandaun Province: Nuku, Yiminum, Mansuku, Yifkindu, Wilwil, and Kafle...
, and Yessan-Mayo.