Upper Sepik languages


The Upper Sepik languages are a group of ten to a dozen languages generally classified among the Sepik languages of northern Papua New Guinea.

Languages

The Upper Sepik languages are:
  • Abau–Iwam
  • *Abau
  • *Iwam languages
  • Yellow and Wanibe Rivers
  • *Amal–Kalou
  • **Amal
  • **Kalou
  • *Ram languages
  • *Yellow River languages
Although even the pronouns do not appear to be cognate, Foley classifies the Abau–Iwam languages with the Wogamus languages rather than with the Yellow and Wanibe River languages on the basis of a unique noun-class system in the numeral systems. Additionally, Foley considers Sepik Iwam and Wogamusin noun class prefixes to be likely cognate with each other. Abau is more divergent, but its inclusion by Foley is based on the similarity of Abau verbal morphology to that of the Iwam languages.
Foley observes that much of the lexicon and pronouns of these languages do not derive from proto-Sepik.

Numerals

Upper Sepik morphological numerals are :