Nomenclature

Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute

Some of the terminology used on Newguineaworld to designate language families differs from that used in previous taxonomic literature, even where no substantial changes to the received classification have been proposed. This page explains why these differences exist and the rules and principles by which our femily names are generated:

1) A proper name refers to only one node.

•No families are named after only one of their members, e.g. Boazi, Tirio, Binanderean, etc.

•Derived forms with suffixes such as “-an” and “-ic” are avoided.

•Qualifiers such as “macro,” “nuclear” and “proper” are avoided.

2) Family names based upon reconstructed terms are generally avoided. Apparent exceptions such as Ok and Mek, which are reconstructed terms for “water,” are allowed because the motivation behind their selection was geographical, as rivers and hence habitable locations in these mountain valleys include these terms; e.g. Eipomek, Ok Sibil, etc.

3) Family names which are acronyms formed from the names or former names of their members are avoided, for example Ramu subfamily names which superfically appear to be native terms but are really made-up words, e.g. Agoan, Aian, Ataitan, etc.

4) Geographical designations are preferred where they are reasonably representative of the distribution of a family's members.

•Where a geographical designation is used, it is accompanied by a specification of the designated feature type where appropriate; e.g. Sepik River, Torricelli Range, etc.

•Province names are not thusly qualified; e.g. Oro, not Oro Province.

•Sometimes district names are used where there is no obvious alternative; e.g. Goroka, Kainantu, etc.

5) Established names of ethnic groups are acceptable where they are reasonably inclusive of a family's members; e.g. Asmat, Awyu, Wambon, Marind, etc.

6) Binary names are acceptable when they represent both immediate descendants of a family, e.g. Enga-Southern Highlands, Humene-Uare, etc.