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805+ (Hard)|   Non-Math Related|            
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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea 07 Jul 2026, 23:32
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KarishmaB,

for question 3 -

I am unable to understand why statement III is no, as per the migration map, it looks like people of Mali migrated to Kuot and thus what is spoken in kuot, given those are from Mali (which are currently speaking Mali) - why is this No - Kuot originates from a predominant language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken.
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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea 07 Jul 2026, 23:59
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KarishmaB,

for question 3 -

I am unable to understand why statement III is no, as per the migration map, it looks like people of Mali migrated to Kuot and thus what is spoken in kuot, given those are from Mali (which are currently speaking Mali) - why is this No - Kuot originates from a predominant language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken.
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III. Kuot originates from a predominant language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken.

To infer that a language originated from another, we need more data than just proximity. Today the two languages spoken are Mali and Kuot in the two regions. Migration data says that people from Mali's region likely migrated to Kuot's region. So people who first migrated to Kuot's region might have spoken the same language as that spoken in Mali's region at that time. But does it mean that today's language there, Kuot, originated from today's language in Mali's region i.e. Mali? No, we don't know. Kuot is grammatically closer to Lavukaleve so all we know, some people who spoke another language moved to Kuot's region and made their language very popular there and Kuot originated from that. Mali and Kuot are today's languages in those regions and they needn't have originated from one or the other.

Also, a much easier point to understand is this: Kuot could have originated from a minority language that was spoken where Mali is spoken now. Perhaps those minority people migrated to Kuot's region. Nothing says that Kuot originated from the predominant language of that region.
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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea Updated on: 10 Jul 2026, 02:36
Originally posted by gullyboy09 on 10 Jul 2026, 01:22.
Last edited by Bunuel on 10 Jul 2026, 02:36, edited 2 times in total.
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Hi KarishmaB, how come you are assuming PNG mainland has Austronesian languages, it might be referring to other neighbouring islands? Based on that, in the last part of the question I simply rejected it as there is no such discussion of Mainland languages and island languages happened in the discussion tab.

Secondly, for my understanding, in passage it's mentioned that ancient Papauans arrived before 5000-7000 years ago, but nowhere its given they arrived from Mainland, it could be from somewhere else and later on from here they moved towards mainland. In the migration map also, direction of migration is not specified.
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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.
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The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland Papua New Guinea 15 Jul 2026, 09:33
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Hi gullyboy09,

Good news first: your instinct on statement 3 is correct, and the way you got there actually lines up with the official reasoning, not against it.

Let me take your two challenges in turn.

1. Is PNG mainland "Austronesian"? The Discussion tab does contrast the island Papuan languages with "neighboring Austronesian languages," and the Migration Map places Jabem and Gapapalwa on the PNG mainland - so that label is a reasonable read. But here's the key point: statement 3 doesn't depend on it at all. Statement 3 asks whether the island languages evolved more recently than Jabem or Gapapalwa. To answer Yes, we'd need some stated timeline for the mainland languages to compare against. The Discussion gives us a rough age for the island languages ("longer than 5,000 or 7,000 years ago"), but nothing about when Jabem or Gapapalwa arose. No comparison is possible - not strongly suggested - No.

2. Migration direction / origin. You're right that the map shows only a possible route and never states a direction or a definite starting point. But notice that statement 3 isn't about where anyone came from - it's purely about recency of evolution. So the missing direction doesn't hurt your answer; if anything it reinforces it. With no firm origin and no mainland timeline, there's simply no basis for "more recently."

So both of your objections are valid observations, and both point to the same conclusion the official explanation reaches: the statement is not supported, so the answer is No. You didn't reject it for the "wrong" reason - "there's no discussion establishing this comparison" is the reason.

Quick way to feel the principle:

- Tab A: "Runner X finished in 40 minutes."
- Tab B: (says nothing about Runner Y's time.)

Can you conclude "X was slower than Y"? No - you have one time, not two. Same move here: one age given, none for the mainland, so "more recent" can't be supported.

Answer: Yes, Yes, No

gullyboy09
Hi KarishmaB, how come you are assuming PNG mainland has Austronesian languages, it might be referring to other neighbouring islands? Based on that, in the last part of the question I simply rejected it as there is no such discussion of Mainland languages and island languages happened in the discussion tab.

Secondly, for my understanding, in passage it's mentioned that ancient Papauans arrived before 5000-7000 years ago, but nowhere its given they arrived from Mainland, it could be from somewhere else and later on from here they moved towards mainland. In the migration map also, direction of migration is not specified.

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