Guided views

A few short ways into the data.

• The Austronesian–Papuan seam

  Austronesian sweeps west to east across the archipelago; in the east sit dozens of separate families called “Papuan” for where they are, not because they are related. The seam between them runs through Halmahera and is visible on the map.

  262 languages are emphasised in this view

• Isolates

  Languages with no known relatives. Rare, and interesting precisely because they have none.

  23 languages are emphasised in this view

• Most endangered

  Filtered to the categories nearest extinction according to Glottolog’s AES.

  98 languages are emphasised in this view

• One word, across the archipelago

  The words for five, two, eye: forms sharing one origin from Sumatra to Papua, the evidence that these languages are one family.

  106 languages are emphasised in this view

• Grammar on the map

  Where the verb goes, and whether “we” splits in two: the Austronesian–Papuan seam is a grammatical seam too.

  49 languages are emphasised in this view