Papuan Languages

Group of languages spoken in an area centred upon New Guinea and extending from the islands of Alor, Halmahera, and Timor in the west to the Santa Cruz Archipelago in the east. The Papuan languages include approximately 740 languages, used by about 3,000,000 speakers. The term Papuan was originally employed merely to distinguish these languages from the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian)