Raja Ampat languages

Raja Ampat
Geographic
distribution:
Yapen Island, New Guinea
Linguistic classification: Austronesian
Subdivisions:

The Raja Ampat languages are the branch of Malayo-Polynesian languages spoken on the Raja Ampat Islands of the western tip of New Guinea.

The languages are As, Biga, Gebe (Minyaifuin), Kawe, Legenyem, Ma'ya, Waigeo, Wauyai, Matbat (Biga), Maden.

A 2008 analysis of three Raja Ampat languages in the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database[1] found that they were certainly related, with Matbat and As closer to each other than to Gebe, and that their nearest relatives were the South Halmahera languages.

References