The Tama languages are a small family of three clusters of closely related languages of northern Papua New Guinea, spoken just to the south of Nuku town in eastern Sandaun Province. They are classified as subgroup of the Sepik languages. Tama is the word for 'man' in the languages that make up this group. Yessan-Mayo and Mehek are the best documented Tama languages.

Languages

Usher (2020) classifies the Tama languages as follows, Foley (2018), following Donald Laycock, provides the following classification. Kalou is actually related to Amal.

Phonology

The Tama languages distinguish /r/ and /l/, unlike many other Papuan languages that have only one liquid consonant.

Vocabulary comparison

The following basic vocabulary words are from Laycock (1968), as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database. The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g. suwa, huwa for “leg”) or not (e.g. namra, wapray for “eye”). ! gloss !! Mehek !! Pahi !! Yessan-Mayo !! Yessan-Mayo (Warasai dialect) ! head ! ear ! eye ! nose ! tooth ! tongue ! leg ! louse ! dog ! pig ! bird ! egg ! blood ! bone ! skin ! breast ! tree ! man ! woman ! sun ! moon ! water ! fire ! stone ! eat ! one ! two