The linguistic position of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages

The wider genealogical affiliations of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages have been the subject of much speculation. These languages are surrounded by unrelated Austronesian languages, and attempts to locate related languages have focused on Papuan languages 800 km or more distant. This chapter draws on typological, pronominal, and especially lexical evidence to examine three hypotheses regarding the higher-level affiliations of the Timor-Alor-Pantar languages: (1) the languages are related to the North Halmaheran (West Papuan) languages; (2) the languages are part of the Trans-New Guinea family; and (3) the languages are related to the West Bomberai family, with no link to Trans-NewGuinea more broadly. We rely in particular on recent reconstructions of proto-Timor-Alor-Pantar vocabulary. Of the hypotheses evaluated here, we find the most striking similarities between TAP and the West Bomberai family. However, we conclude that the evidence currently available is insufficient to confirm a genealogical relationship with West Bomberai or any other family, and hence, TAP must be considered a family-level isolate.