The Finisterre 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...

 within the original Trans–New Guinea (TNG) proposal, and William Foley

William Foley

William Foley is an American linguist and professor at the University of Sydney. He specialises in Papuan and Austronesian languages. He is perhaps best known for his 1986 book The Papuan Languages of New Guinea and his partnership with Robert Van Valin in the development of role and reference...

 considers their TNG identity to be established. They share with the Huon languages

Huon languages

The Huon languages are a family within the original Trans–New Guinea proposal, and William Foley considers their TNG identity to be established...

 verbs that are suppletive

Suppletion

In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even "highly irregular". The term "suppletion" implies...

 depending on the person & number of the object, strong morphological evidence that they are related.

Internal structure

Huon and Finisterre, and then the connection between them, were identified by Kenneth McElhanon (1967, 1970). They are clearly valid language families. However, their internal classification is difficult. Below is the classification of the 16th edition of Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

, which follows McElhanon (1975) except that the Abaga language

Abaga language

Abaga is a nearly extinct Kalam language of Papua New Guinea. It had once been classified as Finisterre....

, an erstwhile isolate within Finisterre, has been reclassified as one of the Kalam languages

Kalam languages

The Kalam languages are a small family of languages in the Madang branch of the Trans–New Guinea languages phylum of New Guinea.The languages are:They are famous for having perhaps the smallest numbers of lexical verbs of any languages in the world, with somewhere in the range of 100 to 120 verbs...

 (Madang branch of TNG).

• Finisterre family
  • Erap branch: Finongan, Gusan, Mamaa, Munkip, Nakama, Nimi
    Nimi language
    Nimi is a language spoken in Papua New Guinea. There were about 1400 native speakers as of 1980....
    
    , Nuk, Nek, Numanggang, Sauk, Uri
  • Gusap–Mot branch: Madi (Gira), Iyo
    Iyo language
    Iyo is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea....
    
     (Nahu), Neko, Nekgini, Ngaing, Rawa
    Rawa language
    Rawa is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea. The two dialects, Rawa and Karo, are on opposite sides of the Finisterre Range....
    
    , Ufim
  • Uruwa branch: Nukna (Komutu), Sakam (Kutong), Weliki, Yau
    Yau language
    Yau, also called Uruwa, is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea....
    
    
  • Wantoat branch: Awara, Tuma-Irumu, Wantoat
    Wantoat language
    Wantoat, named after the Wantoat River, is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Wapu , Central Wantoat, Bam, Yagawak ....
    
     (Yagawak, Bam)
  • Warup branch: Asaro'o (Morafa), Bulgebi, Degenan, Forak, Guya (Guiarak), Gwahatike
    Gwahatike language
    Gwahatike is a language generally classified in the Warup branch of the Finisterre family of Finisterre–Huon languages. As of 2003, it was spoken by 1570 people in Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in several villages located south of Saidor....
    
     (Dahating), Muratayak (Asat), Yagomi
  • Yupna branch: Bonkiman, Domung, Ma
    Ma language
    Ma, also known as Amadi, Madi, Madyo, is a Ubangian language spoken in DRC Congo....
    
     (Mebu), Nankina, Yopno
    Yopno language
    Yopno is one of the Finisterre languages of Papua New Guinea. Dialects are Kewieng, Nokopo, Wandabong, Isan....
    
     (Kewieng, Wandabong, Nokopo, Isan), Yout Wam