Lepki–Murkim languages
| Lepki–Murkim | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: | Papua |
| Linguistic classification: | no demonstrated relatives |
| Subdivisions: | |
| Glottolog: | lepk1239[1] |
The Lepki–Murkim languages are a pair of apparently related but otherwise isolated languages of New Guinea,[1] Lepki and Murkim.
In 2007, on a Papuan language website, a Mark Donohue reported that,
- Murkim [and] Lepki [and] Kembra are, along with a number of other languages, unclassified groups living between the main cordillera and Mt. 6234, in the north of Papua near the PNG border (where 'near' = up to about 6 days' walk). They don't appear to be related to each other, based on wordlists, and they don't appear to show external affiliations.
Hammarström (2010) is of the opinion that the few lexical similarities with Murkim are likely to be loans, and that Lepki should probably be considered a language isolate; he did not have access to any Kembra data.[2] However, Glottolog 2.4 (2015), edited by Hammarström, said,
- Though not forthcoming from the lexicostatistical counts in Theresia Wambaliau 2004, looking the actual words in the two languages, there are too many similarities to be mere chance (contra Harald Hammarström 2010).[1]
References
- 1 2 3 Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Lepki–Murkim". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Harald Hammarström, 2010, 'The status of the least documented language families in the world'. In Language Documentation & Conservation, v 4, p 183
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