Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Central Asmat is spoken across a large a portion of New Guinea's southwest coastal and interior lowlands, from the Jac River in the northwest to the Casuarina Coast to the south (q.v. Voorhoeve 1980: viii.) Central Asmat, especially the Kawenak dialect, is the best-documented Asmat language, with Drabbe's (1959) dictionary and grammar of Kawenak, (1963) survey of three dialects, Voorrhoeve's (1965) Kawenak grammar and dictionary and (1980) extensive survey involving 32 Central Asmat villages.
Building upon Drabbe (1963: CITE,) Voorhoeve (1980: 6-14, 24-28) classifies Central Asmat dialects and subdialects as follows:
Central Asmat
Keenok
Sokoni
Keenakap
Kawenak
Simai
Kainak
Mismam
Mecemup
Divergence between dialects is illustrated by lexicostatistical percentages as follows (1980: 8-9, 12):
| Keenok | Sokoni | Keenak | Simai | Mismam | |
| Keenok | — | 86 | 85 | 87 | 86 |
| Sokoni | 86 | — | 87 | 84 | 85 |
| Keenak. | 85 | 87 | — | 89 | 90 |
| Simai | 87 | 84 | 89 | — | 98 |
| Mismam | 86 | 85 | 90 | 98 | — |
Feuilletau de Bruijn (1915) Kaja Kaja variety of Asmat (unobtained)
Drabbe (1950) unpublished comparative vocabulary of Simai Kawenak (unobtained)
Drabbe (1953: 96-104) 378 comparative terms for Simai Kawenak
Drabbe (1954: 232-255) 100 comparative terms fo Simai Kawenak
Drabbe (1959) grammar of Simai Kawenak (unobtained)
Drabbe (1959) dictionary of Simai Kawenak (unobtained)
Drabbe (1963) study of Asmat dialects and (pp. 212-233) 377 comparative terms for Kawenak, Keenok and Keenakap varieties
Voorhoeve (1965) dictionary and grammar of Flamingo Bay variety of Kawenak
Voorhoeve (1980) survey of Asmat dialects and (pp. 61-121) 455 reconstructed terms for Proto-Asmat with exemplars from 33 Central Asmat villages
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Drabbe (1963: 36-66) provides an extensive description of verbal desinence morphology for Keenok, Keenakap and Kawenak.