Matthew S. Dryer: Work on Papuan Languages 

My research on Papuan languages is joint research with Lea Brown 

Since 2001, we have been working on two languages spoken on the north coast of Papua New Guinea, in Sandaun Province, within 100 miles of the border with West Papua, the western part of the island of New Guinea that is part of Indonesia. The focus of our work has been Walman (also known in Valman), a language in the Torricelli family, spoken about 100 miles east of the border with West Papua. There are approximately 50 languages in the Torricelli, for most of which very little information is available. The best known and best documented Torricelli language is Arapesh. We have also been working on Poko-Rawo (also known as just Rawo), a language in the Sko family spoken just in from the coast, about 50 miles to the west of where Walman is spoken. We are working on descriptive grammars and dictionaries of both languages. Below is our first paper on Walman.

Brown, Lea, and Matthew S. Dryer. Under submission. "The verbs for 'and' in Walman, a Torricelli language of Papua New Guinea". DOWNLOAD

Brown, Lea, and Matthew S. Dryer. Under submission. "An inflectional diminutive in Walman'. DOWNLOAD

Click here for photos from our field work in Papua New Guinea

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