Amto–Musan is a language family of two closely related but mutually unintelligible Papuan languages, Amto and Siawi, spoken along the Samaia River of Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea.

Languages

Foley (2018) and Usher (2020) agree that the family consists of two languages.

;Amto–Musan / Samaia River family

  • Amto (Ki)
  • Musan (Musian, Siawi)

External relationships

Amto–Musan was left unclassified by Ross (2005) (see Papuan languages#Ross (2005)) due to lack of data; Wurm (1975) had posited it as an independent family. The family has typological similarities with the Busa language isolate, but these do not appear to demonstrate a genetic relationship.

Timothy Usher links the Amto–Musan languages to their neighbors, the Arai languages and the Pyu language in as Arai–Samaia stock.

Foley (2018) classifies them separately as an independent language family. as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database:

The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. tipeki, ʌbɛki for “stone”) or not (e.g. twæ, nani for “head”).

:{| class="wikitable sortable"

! gloss !! Amto !! Siawi

|-

! head

| twæ || nani

|-

! hair

| (twæ) iwɔ || nanigi

|-

! ear

| ye || eʔ

|-

! eye

| mo || mene

|-

! nose

| ni || Ǐimʌ

|-

! tooth

| i || ʔi

|-

! tongue

| hæne; hʌne || hanɛ

|-

! louse

| nanu || nani

|-

! dog

| hɔ || soː

|-

! pig

| ma || kinʌdiʔ

|-

! bird

| ai || ʔai

|-

! egg

| aiː || iǏɔ

|-

! blood

| nʌkei || hařʔ

|-

! bone

| hae || hařʔ

|-

! skin

| ka || ʔaoko

|-

! breast

| ne || ne

|-

! tree

| amɩ || ameʔ

|-

! man

| kyu || yɛnokono

|-

! woman

| hama || ʔeǏo

|-

! water

| wiː || wi

|-

! fire

| maři || maǏi

|-

! stone

| tipeki || tʌbɛki

|-

! road, path

| mo || mono

|-

! eat

| meːne || pe

|-

! one

| ohu || sʌmo

|-

! two

| kiyaA || himolo

|}

References

  • Amto-Musan languages database at TransNewGuinea.org