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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea

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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink] New post   24 Feb 2024, 16:28
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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea, including the Bismarcks, Bougainville, Solomons, and Louisiade Archipelago, have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary. In contrast to neighboring Austronesian languages, linguistic analysis of these Papuan languages done by comparison of vocabularies cannot determine their historical relationships. We thus have reason to believe that ancient Papuans arrived on the islands longer than 5,000 or 7,000 years ago, where the various groups have lived in relative isolation from one another.

On the basis of the fact that grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary, researchers developed a new method of discerning relationships, including historical relationships, on the basis of grammatical similarities. Applying this method to the Papuan languages, the researchers found, as expected, that the relationships correlated with the islands and archipelagos on which the languages occur.

One interesting result was this. Although Bougainville lies between the Solomon Islands and the Bismarcks, the languages of the Solomons grammatically fell in between those of the Bismarcks and Bougainville. The researchers hypothesize that this discrepancy arose because, ten thousand years ago, Bougainville and the Solomons were joined in a single land mass, facilitating migration, while the Bismarcks were separate.
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For each of the following statements about the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons, select Yes if the statement is strongly suggested by the discussion and research results pertaining to the Papuan languages. Otherwise, select No.
YES NO
The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are.
They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others.
They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea.
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The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are.: YES They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others.: YES They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea.: NO

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Re: The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink] New post   06 Mar 2024, 10:18
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Option 1: "The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are."

First sentence of the discussion tab states - "have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary". However it does not speak about the grammatical similarities which is asked in the first option. Hence it should be "No". Can you please enlighten me why my understanding is incorrect?
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Re: The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink] New post   01 Apr 2024, 08:37
But the correct answer is "YES". I also have similar doubt. KarishmaB MartyMurray Can you please provide your insight ?
dushyantshukla wrote:
Option 1: "The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are."

First sentence of the discussion tab states - "have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary". However it does not speak about the grammatical similarities which is asked in the first option. Hence it should be "No". Can you please enlighten me why my understanding is incorrect?

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Re: The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink] New post   01 Apr 2024, 23:45
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This is a time consuming tough question due to the sheer amount of confusing data given! But the questions are staright forward once you understand the data. 

Papua New Guinea (PNG) mainland has Austronesian languages (which are similar in vocabularies)
The islands east of PNG have Papuan languages (no similarities in vocabulary)

Grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary. Since Papuan languages had no common vocab, their grammars were compared and similarities were found. 

So we know that PNG mainland laguages which are similar in vocab must be similar in grammar too (because grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary)
The Papuan languages on the other hand are similar only in grammar, not vocab since their vocab has evolved and changed over time. But grammar has still remained similar. 


For each of the following statements about the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons, select Yes if the statement is strongly suggested by the discussion and research results pertaining to the Papuan languages. Otherwise, select No.

The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are.

YES. We can deduce that grammar of Austronesian languages will be very similar since their vocabs (which change faster than grammar) are still similar. 
But Papua languages have evolved more individually so their vocabs have changed though grammar is still similar since it takes longer to change. 
ANSWER

They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others.

YES. The Papuan languages have "almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary"
ANSWER
 
They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea.

NO. Jabem and Gapapalwa are spoken on the PNG mainland. The Papua languages evolved before them because their vocabs are all different. The vocabs of PNG mainland languages are similar so they are more recent. 
ANSWER
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Re: The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink] New post   13 Apr 2024, 08:12
KarishmaB wrote:
This is a time consuming tough question due to the sheer amount of confusing data given! But the questions are staright forward once you understand the data. 

Papua New Guinea (PNG) mainland has Austronesian languages (which are similar in vocabularies)
The islands east of PNG have Papuan languages (no similarities in vocabulary)

Grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary. Since Papuan languages had no common vocab, their grammars were compared and similarities were found. 

So we know that PNG mainland laguages which are similar in vocab must be similar in grammar too (because grammar changes more slowly than vocabulary)
The Papuan languages on the other hand are similar only in grammar, not vocab since their vocab has evolved and changed over time. But grammar has still remained similar. 


For each of the following statements about the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons, select Yes if the statement is strongly suggested by the discussion and research results pertaining to the Papuan languages. Otherwise, select No.

The two groups are more different from one another in their grammatical features than some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are.

YES. We can deduce that grammar of Austronesian languages will be very similar since their vocabs (which change faster than grammar) are still similar. 
But Papua languages have evolved more individually so their vocabs have changed though grammar is still similar since it takes longer to change. 
ANSWER

They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others.

YES. The Papuan languages have "almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary"
ANSWER
 
They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea.

NO. Jabem and Gapapalwa are spoken on the PNG mainland. The Papua languages evolved before them because their vocabs are all different. The vocabs of PNG mainland languages are similar so they are more recent. 
ANSWER

­Thank you for taking the time to explain! The question is utterly convoluted. I will probably apply "guess and move on" to this question.
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Re: The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea [#permalink]
13 Apr 2024, 08:12
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