PAPUAN LANGUAGES. The languages spoken in New Guinea (q.v.) and other islands peopled by Papuas differ more widely from the Malayo-Polynesian languages than those of the Negritos in the Philippine Islands do from the dialects of the contiguous Malayan tribes. In fact, they form as separate a class by themselves as the Melanesian languages do as contradistinguished from the Polynesian group. From the meagre grammatical sketch of the Mafôr (or Nufδr) language—the only one to which the Dutch missionaries have paid some attention, but which may be taken as a type of the class—we gather that the verb has the subject pronoun prefixed in the singular, dual, and plural; past time is expressed by the word kwâr, “already,” prefixed, and futurity by nerri, “still,” added to the verb; certain modifications of the sense are effected by i being prefixed, and others by i being affixed, to the radical vowels a, o, or u, and others again by the substantive affix ia (plur. sia). Much uncertainty, however, still prevails as to the precise import of those grammatical forms. See J. L. van Hasselt’s Woordenboek and Beknoρte Spraakkunst der Noefoorsche taal, both of which appeared at Utrecht in 1876; Fr. Miiller’s Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft, i., ii. p. 30 sq. ; and more especially G. von der Gabelentz and A. B. Meyer, Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Melanesischen, Mikronesischen, und Papuanischen Sprachen, Leipsic, 1882, and their essay, “Einiges über das Verhältniss des Mafoor zum Malayischen,” in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land-, en volkenkunde van Neder- landsch-Indi'è, for 1883. The former of these publications contains also a survey of the literature on the subject. Vocabularies of the languages spoken by the various coast tribes with whom Europeans have come in ...