West Bomberai languages

The (Greater) West Bomberai languages are a family of Papuan languages spoken on the Bomberai Peninsula of western New Guinea and in East Timor and neighboring islands of Indonesia.

Of the three languages on the mainland, Baham and Iha are closely related to each other while the third is distant, forming a third branch of the family along with the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages:[1][2] This split, with two of the three branches on the mainland, suggests that Timor–Alor–Pantar may be the result of a relatively recent migration from New Guinea, perhaps arriving in the Timor area shortly before the Austronesian languages did, as Austronesian influence post-dates Proto–West Bomberai and even Proto-Timor–Alor–Pantar.

[2] Wurm, Voorhoeve & McElhanon included Timor–Alor–Pantar and mainland West Bomberai as separate stocks within Trans–New Guinea.

[1][2] Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the following inventory of consonants:[2] Word-initial *k and *kʷ become *ʔ and *w in TAP.

Usher & Schapper (2022) reconstruct the free pronouns as:[2] The correspondences are mostly straightforward; initial *k has been lost from Timor-Alor-Pantar.