Western Pantar language

Although speakers often use Malay in political, religious, and educational contexts, Western Pantar remains the first language of children of the region, and is acquired to some extent by immigrants.

[4] This hypothesis was later countered by Wurm et al. (1975), who classified the languages as members of the Trans–New Guinea family.

[5] However, the authors offered little evidence for this classification and remained somewhat doubtful, noting, "whichever way they [the Timor–Alor–Pantar languages] are classified, they contain strong substratum elements of the other [families] involved" (Wurm et al. 1975:318).

This kind of variation is to be expected, since by a "linkage" Ross means a dialect chain which has diversified in situ via overlapping innovations.

Recent work by Donohue & Schapper (2007) suggests that both Capell and Wurm may be right and that TAP may involve an overlay of both Trans–New Guinea and West Papuan elements.

[7] Clearly, much more work is needed in order to unravel the complex linguistic pre-history of the TAP languages.