The Ndu language family (Sepik district, New Guinea)

Abstract

This thesis is based on linguistic material collected during fieldwork in the Sepik District, Territory of New Guinea, during the period May 1959 to March 1960, Before my departure for the field no one, least of all myself, had more than an outline knowledge of what I might expect to find in the way of languages and their internal relationships throughout the Sepik District, Accordingly, fieldwork was planned as a survey of the languages of a large, geographically continuous segment of the Sepik River basin, the area to be enlarged or reduced as time and circumstances permitted. When it became apparent that the most profitable line of research was to concentrate on the large interrelated group of languages clustered around the Middle Sepik area, the survey plan was not abandoned, but was modified to include, as far as possible, only languages of the related group and those languages which surrounded this group on the northern, western and eastern sides - the southern side proving impossible to visit. A few exceptions were made because of prevailing circumstances. (First two paragraphs of Preface.) Show more