The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages

— —

Nicholas Evans (Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Australian National University) Sebastian Fedden (Professor of Linguistics, Professor of Linguistics, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)

The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages

Name: The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages
Price: 531.95 AUD
Availability: OutOfStock
ISBN: 9780198849483

Nicholas Evans (Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, Australian National University), Sebastian Fedden (Professor of Linguistics, Professor of Linguistics, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)

$531.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We will update you on expected arrival time to us. If this delay is too long, please let us know within 2 business days and we can give you options regarding cancelling or adjusting your order. More details on cancelling your order can be found in our Terms of Trade.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press
08 July 2026

Sociolinguistics; Historical & comparative linguistics; Phonetics, phonology; Grammar, syntax

Series: Oxford Guides to the World's Languages

This volume presents a wide-ranging survey of the Papuan languages, spoken on the island of New Guinea and its surroundings. They make up around 12% of the world's languages, with a level of linguistic diversity comparable to the vast Eurasian zone concentrated into just 1% of the world's land area. This is true whether we count individual languages (around 890), families and isolates (around 95), or elements of structural diversity: many linguistic phenomena were first reported or are still only attested in this region. Following a detailed introduction by the editors, The Oxford Guide to the Papuan Languages is divided into four parts. The first provides structural descriptions of 23 languages from across the region, many of which have never previously been described. Part II includes typological surveys of features that are of particular interest in Papuan languages, from tone to valency change, and from information structure to kinship terminology. Chapters in Part III explore language in its cultural context, with topics including multilingualism, sign languages, and language shift, while Part IV focuses on historical and contact studies. The volume will be a crucial reference not only for scholars of Papuan languages but also for anyone interested in the human history of this fascinating and little-known part of the world.

Volume editor: Nicholas Evans (Distinguished Professor of Linguistics Distinguished Professor of Linguistics Australian National University), Sebastian Fedden (Professor of Linguistics, Professor of Linguistics, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 276mm, Width: 219mm,
ISBN: 9780198849483
ISBN 10: 0198849486
Series: Oxford Guides to the World's Languages
Pages: 1280
Publication Date: 08 July 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Nicholas Evans is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at the Australian National University. He investigates linguistic diversity and what this tells us about the nature of language, culture, deep history, and human creativity. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Northern Australia (Kayardild, Bininj Kunwok, Dalabon, Iwaidja) and Papua New Guinea (Nen, Idi); his interests range from questions of grammar-writing, linguistic typology, and translation to historical linguistics. A member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Social Sciences Academy and the British Academy, he has been awarded an inaugural Anneliese Maier Forschungspreis, and a Ken Hale Award from the Linguistics Society of America. Sebastian Fedden is Professor of Linguistics at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and is affiliated with the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and the University of Surrey. He is a typologist with a specialization in morphology and Papuan languages and linguistics. His interests span linguistic diversity, the relationship between language, mind and culture, and grammar writing. He has carried out fieldwork in Papua New Guinea (on Mian) and Indonesia (on languages of Alor and Pantar). His grammar of Mian, published in 2011, won the von der Gabelentz Award of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT) for the best published grammar from 2009 to 2012.