The Kainantu–Goroka languages are a family of Papuan languages established by Arthur Capell in 1948 under the name East Highlands. They formed the core of Stephen Wurm's 1960 East New Guinea Highlands family (the precursor of Trans–New Guinea), and are one of the larger branches of Trans–New Guinea in the 2005 classification of Malcolm Ross.

Languages

The constituent Kainantu and Goroka families are clearly valid groups, and both William A. Foley and Timothy Usher consider their TNG identity to be established. The languages are:

Pronouns

The pronouns reconstructed by Ross (2005) for proto-Kainantu–Goroka, proto-Kainantu, and proto-Goroka are as follows: ! !!sg!!du!!pl !1 !2 !3 ! !!sg!!pl !1 !2 !3 The possessive forms are: ! !!sg!!pl !1 !2 !3

Modern reflexes

Kainantu–Goroka reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are: Awa language: Tairora language: Fore language: Gende language: Innovations in proto-Kainantu-Goroka replacing proto-Trans-New Guinea forms:

Vocabulary comparison

Gorokan basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986). Despite the presence of reconstructions in the left column, the words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. ya, yafa, yava for “tree”) or not (e.g. tuva, logo, hali for “fire”). ! gloss !! Proto-Gorokan !! Gende !! Siane !! Benabena !! Kamono–Yagaria !! Fore Kainantu basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986): ! gloss !! Awa !! Auyana !! Gadsup !! Tairora

Proto-languages

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-East Kainantu and Proto-North Kainantu by Usher (2020) are: ! gloss !! Proto-East Kainantu !! Proto-North Kainantu