Indo-Pacific languages

A hypothesized group of languages, centred on Papua New Guinea, located in the middle of the geographical area of the Austronesian group, but independent of it linguistically. There seem to be about 3·5 million speakers, but little is known of the languages, and many tribes have not been contacted. The isolation of some of these tribes means that they are able to maintain independent languages with in some cases as few as 100 speakers. The grouping is highly speculative, linking the Papuan languages (themselves genetically diverse) with Andamanese and the extinct languages of Tasmania.

The Indo-Pacific language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1971 consists of the non-Austronesian languages of New Guinea and neighboring islands, the languages of Tasmania, and the languages of the Andaman Islands.

Tasmanian Tasmanian languages Andamanese Andamanese languages (perhaps only the Great Andaman languages) Nuclear New Guinea Central New Guinea languages Kapauku-Baliem languages Highlands Huon North New Guinea languages South New Guinea languages Southwest New Guinea languages West Papuan West New Guinea languages North Halmahera languages Timor-Alor languages East New Guinea East New Guinea languages Northeast New Guinea Northeast New Guinea languages Pacific Bougainville languages (see East Papuan languages) New Britain languages (see East Papuan languages) Central Melanesian languages (see East Papuan languages) Central Solomons languages Santa Cruz language

This classification was never widely accepted, and has largely been supplanted by that of Stephen Wurm (see Papuan languages). For example, Greenberg's North New Guinea family corresponds to Wurm's Sko, Sepik-Ramu, and Torricelli families plus the Northern branch of the Trans-New Guinea languages; while Greenberg's West New Guinea family corresponds to the Wurm's East Bird's Head and Geelvink Bay families, the South Bird's Head and West Bomberai branches of Trans-New Guinea, and the Bird's Head branch of the West Papuan languages. However, there are some significant similarities: Greenberg's Northeast New Guinea family closely matches Wurm's Madang-Adelbert Range branch of Trans-New Guinea, while Greenberg's Eastern New Guinea family and Wurm's Eastern Main-Section branch of Trans-New Guinea both preserve Thomas Dutton's Southeast New Guinea family.