The Mombum languages are a pair of Trans–New Guinea languages, Koneraw

Koneraw language

Koneraw is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken in West New Guinea. It was missed by classifications of Papuan languages until recently, but is clearly close to Mombum....

 and Mombum, spoken just off the southern coast of New Guinea.

Mombum was first classified as a branch isolate of the Central and South New Guinea languages

Central and South New Guinea languages

The Central and South New Guinea languages are a proposed family of the Trans–New Guinea languages . They were part of Voorhoeve & McElhanon's original TNG proposal, but have been reduced in scope by half in the classification of Malcolm Ross...

 in 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...

's 1975 expansion for Trans–New Guinea, a position tentatively maintained by 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:**...

, though he cannot tell if the similarities are shared innovations or retentions from proto-TNG. Koneraw is clearly related, but was missed by early classifications.