The Eleman languages are a family

Language family

A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...

 of Trans–New Guinea languages (TNG) in the classification of Malcolm Ross

Malcolm Ross

Malcolm David Ross is a linguist and professor at the Australian National University. He has published work on Austronesian and Papuan languages, historical linguistics, and language contact.-External links:**...

. The five languages of Eleman proper are clearly related. They were identified as a family by Sidney Herbert Ray

Sidney Herbert Ray

Sidney Herbert Ray was a comparative and descriptive linguist who specialized in Melanesian languages. In 1892, he read an important paper, The languages of British New Guinea, to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists. In that paper, he established the distinction between the...

 in 1907, and would later be incorporated in the Trans–New Guinea classifications of Stephen Wurm

Stephen Wurm

Stephen Adolphe Wurm was a Hungarian-born Australian linguist.- Biography :Wurm was born in Budapest, the second child to the German-speaking Adolphe Wurm and Hungarian-speaking Anna Novroczky, and was christened Istvan Adolphe Wurm...

 (1975) and of Malcolm Ross

Malcolm Ross

Malcolm David Ross is a linguist and professor at the Australian National University. He has published work on Austronesian and Papuan languages, historical linguistics, and language contact.-External links:**...

 (2005). Ross states that the Kaki Ae isolate links Eleman proper within TNG. The Purari isolate was tentatively added by Ross.

• Eleman family
  • ? Purari
    Purari language
    Purari is a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Koriki, Evorra, I'ai,Maipua and Namau. Namau is a colonial term which means "deaf , inattentive, or stupid ." Today people of the Purari Delta find this term offensive. F.E...
    
     isolate
  • Kaki Ae
    Kaki Ae language
    Kaki Ae is a language with about 500 speakers, half the ethnic population, near Kerema, in Papua New Guinea. It is related to the Eleman languages and is classified by Ross as a divergent member of that family....
    
     (Tate) isolate (links Eleman proper with TNG)
  • Eleman proper: Keuru, Opao, Orokolo, Toaripi, Tairuma (Uaripi)