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

Question

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.

KarishmaB · Accepted Answer

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

dushyantshukla · Answer

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?

zoezhuyan · Answer

KarishmaB 
would you please clarufy further where will i get that The vocabs of PNG mainland languages are similar?

KarishmaB · Answer

Given:
The Papuan languages of the islands east of mainland PNG, including the Bismarcks, Bougainville, Solomons, and Louisiade Archipelago, have almost no detectable similarities in vocabulary.
 In contrast  to neighboring Austronesian languages (of mainland PNG because they are the neighbouring languages), linguistic analysis of these Papuan languages done by comparison of vocabularies cannot determine their historical relationships.

We are given that vocabs of Papuan languages are not similar. This is in contrast to Austronesian languages. Hence vocab of Austronesian languages must be similar.

UDEMYtutorJackson · Answer

Here, the first Yes or No Question asks us to compare the following:

1.Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons
2.Some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages

The confusing part of the question  is that it seems like the grammatical features of some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages are not being discussed.

How to solve this:

1.The reason grammatical features are discussed is that researchers hypothesized that vocabulary changes faster than grammar. So, grammar takes more time to change.
2.Hence, we can deduce that if vocabulary is still similar, then grammar definitely has to be still similar.
3.As neighboring Austronesian languages have similar vocabulary, they will definitely have similar grammar.
4.Therefore, the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons will be more different than neighboring Austronesian languages in their grammatical features.

Answer : YES

2 - They have few words, if any, determined by the researchers to be the same as words of the others. 
Answer : YES
Clearly mentioned that the Papuan languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons do not have similar vocab

3 - They evolved more recently than did Jabem or Gapapalwa, spoken on Papua New Guinea. 
Answer : No
Reason:
1.Jabem or Gapapalwa are spoken on Papua New Guinea
2."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." 
3.So they evolved before (NOT more recently) than did  Jabem or Gapapalwa

Riri15 · Answer

Another q on this set- For each of the following statements, select  Yes  if the statement is strongly implied by the researchers’ results and hypotheses. Otherwise select  No .

Yes
No
Yélî Dnye is more closely related in grammar to Rotokas than to Nasioi. 
 Yes
No
The languages of Bougainville grammatically fall in between those of the Solomon Islands and the Bismarcks. 
 Yes
No
Kuot originates from a predominant language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken.  
The official answer for first is "Yes". But can this statement be strongly implied. If the flowchart distances are just a "rough indicator"

Bunuel · Answer

The topic has been updated with two additional questions.

rish_dutton · Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

On the assumption that the migration patterns depicted in the migration map are correct, and that there were no other routes of migration of the groups under consideration, which one of the following is most strongly suggested?

Evaluate

A can be ruled out because Lavukaleve and Savosavo are moderately distant in the language tree and have closely connected migration routes, and so if anything, the migration patterns depicted suggest they may be more closely related (not less closely related) than the language tree shows them as being. 
 
B can be ruled out because Lavukaleve and Ata are moderately distant in the language tree and have only distantly connected migration routes, and so if anything, the migration patterns depicted suggest they may be less closely related (not more closely related) than the language tree shows them as being. 
 
D and E can be ruled out because in each case the languages of the two islands are moderately close in the language tree and the islands have closely connected migration routes, and so in each case the information provided does not suggest the two languages may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.

C is correct    because Lavukaleve and Kuot are very close in the language tree and have only distantly connected migration routes. Thus, while the language tree shows them to be very closely connected, the migration patterns depicted suggest otherwise. Therefore, the migration patterns strongly suggest that they may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being. 
 
The correct answer is  Lavukaleve and Kuot may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being .

rish_dutton · Answer

Q3 OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

For each of the following statements, select   Yes   if the statement is strongly implied by the researchers’ results and hypotheses. Otherwise select   No  .  
 
 Infer

RO1
In the language tree the Yélî Dnye node is closer to the Rotokas node than to the Nasioi node.
 The correct answer is  Yes .

RO2
The language tree shows that the languages of the Solomons Islands grammatically fall in between those of the Bougainville and the Bismarcks, and not that the languages of Bougainville grammatically fall in between those of the Solomon Islands and the Bismarcks.
 The correct answer is  No .

RO3
Although Kuot and Mali are very close in the language tree and have closely connected migration routes, there is no support that Kuot  originated from  a language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken, as opposed to Mali having originated from a language spoken where Kuot is now spoken, or both languages having originated from some other place.
 The correct answer is  No .

rish_dutton · Answer

Q1 OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

Infer
RO1
The first two sentences of the Discussion tab suggest the languages of the Louisiade Archipelago and the Solomons are more different than those of some groups of neighboring Austronesian languages.

The correct answer is Yes.

RO2
This is strongly suggested in the first sentence of the Discussion tab.

The correct answer is Yes.

RO3
There is no suggestion in the information given about the timelines for languages on Papua New Guinea relative to languages on the islands east of Papua New Guinea.

The correct answer is No.

Shubham.Sharma · Answer

I don't think the explanation provided here for the 3rd statement in Q1 is correct. Let's look at the statement- "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." This statement is not talking about when the languages were evolved, rather it is talking about the migration of people. Because the languages of the islands are not similar in vocabulary, the argument suggests that ancient Papuans arrived on the islands more than 5000 or 7000 years ago.

KarishmaB, please advise.

KarishmaB , please advise.

KarishmaB · Answer

"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."

This indicates that the languages evolved before the languages of PNG.

Don't focus on just what is written. Try to work out the meaning of why the author is giving this information. What it implies. It is testing your comprehension skills too. 
Languages often have common roots. When the ancient Papuans arrived on this island many years ago, they likely shared a common language. But since they lived in relative isolation from one another, their languages evolved separately over time and now they share no vocab links. They still do share grammar links because grammar changes over even longer time frames. 
On the other hand PNG languages still share vocab links too because they are relatively recent languages.

Pr4n · Answer

I don't understand this MSR has been marked as easy in the DI review. I mean the language the graphs provided are so confusing, i understand questions might be straightforward but this did consumed some mental energy.

cheshire · Answer

This isn't an easy question by any means and in all MSR questions the data interpretation is the hardest part. If you look at the timers for the individual questions, most are considered difficult or medium and the question tag itself is 805+

nrain · Answer

For question 2, why is the answer not D?  Lavukaleve and Motuna may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.  It doesn't look like the migration route (dotted line) touches Motuna at all, but the Lavukaleve and Motuna nodes are close together on the Language Tree map. I thought this would imply that, based on the migration patterns, they should not be closely related.

cheshire · Answer

D is tempting, but the missing dotted line isn’t enough to suggest Lavukaleve and Motuna are less closely related, and the map doesn’t contradict the tree strongly enough.

C is correct because it shows a direct clash between the tree’s close relationship and the map’s distant migration routes.

shreyans4757583 · Answer

Is this an official mock question?

shreyans4757583 · Answer

Yeah even 805 plus level TPA questions have been marked as medium level in the official data insights guide. Gmat Club is generally a better representation of difficulties as these questions have been attempted by atleast a 1000 students in most cases

Bunuel · Answer

Yes. Please check the tags: https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file.php?id=86654 GMAT-Club-Forum-010rs71l.png

	Lavukaleve and Savosavo may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.
	Lavukaleve and Ata may be more closely related than the language tree shows them as being.
	Lavukaleve and Kuot may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.
	Lavukaleve and Motuna may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.
	Lavukaleve and Bilua may be less closely related than the language tree shows them as being.

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

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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.

Yes	No
		Yélî Dnye is more closely related in grammar to Rotokas than to Nasioi.
		The languages of Bougainville grammatically fall in between those of the Solomon Islands and the Bismarcks.
		Kuot originates from a predominant language that was spoken where Mali is now spoken.

GMAT Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) Questions

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

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My Rewards