instance_of yam languages
Papua New Guinea ( PNG Hiri Motu : " Papua Niu Gini "), officially the Independent ___MASK94___ of Papua New Guinea , is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia , a region of the southwestern Pacific ___MASK5___ north of Australia . Its capital , located along its southeastern coast , is Port Moresby . The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua . A ___MASK61___ is a natural flowing ___MASK40___ , usually freshwater , flowing towards an ___MASK5___ , ___MASK15___ , lake or another ___MASK61___ . In some cases a ___MASK61___ flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its ___MASK55___ without reaching another body of water . Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream , creek , brook , rivulet , and rill . There are no official definitions for the generic term ___MASK61___ as applied to geographic features , although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size . Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location ; examples are " run " in some parts of the United States , " burn " in Scotland and northeast England , and " beck " in northern England . Sometimes a ___MASK61___ is defined as being larger than a creek , but not always : the language is vague . New Guinea ( or , historically , "") is a large ___MASK38___ in the South West Pacific region . The languages of Papua New Guinea today ___MASK70___ over 850 . These languages are spoken by the inhabited tribal groups of Papua New Guinea making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth . Its official languages are Tok Pisin , English , Hiri Motu and Papua New Guinean ___MASK21___ . Tok Pisin , an English - based creole , is the most widely spoken , serving as the country ' s lingua franca . Papua New Guinean ___MASK21___ became the 4th official language in ___MASK10___ 2015 , as it is spoken by the deaf population all over the country . The ___MASK98___ Mountains (" Dutch ( colonial ): Sterrengebergte "; " Indonesian Pegunungan Bintang ") are a ___MASK1___ in western Papua New Guinea , stretching from the border with Indonesia , at about to the Hindenburg Range . They have an annual rainfall of more than 10 , 000 mm / year , and although no official scientific weather ___MASK13___ has ever been established it has been claimed to be one of the wettest places on earth . Sidney Herbert Ray ( 28 ___MASK10___ 1858  1 January 1939 ) was a comparative and descriptive linguist who specialized in Melanesian languages . In 1892 , he read an important paper , " The languages of British New Guinea ", to the Ninth International Congress of Orientalists . In that paper , he established the distinction between the Austronesian and Papuan languages of New Guinea . Although he never held an academic position , and was employed throughout his working life as a school teacher , S . H . Ray was an energetic fieldworker , and participated in a number of expeditions . Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia , is a ___MASK42___ comprising the mainland of the Australian ___MASK96___ , the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands . It is the world ' s sixth - largest ___MASK42___ by total area . The neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea , Indonesia and East Timor to the north ; the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north - east ; and New Zealand to the south - east . Australia ' s capital is Canberra , and its largest urban area is Sydney . Oceania ( or ), also known as Oceanica , is a ___MASK9___ centred on the islands of the tropical Pacific ___MASK5___ . Opinions of what constitutes Oceania range from its three subregions of Melanesia , Micronesia , and Polynesia to , more broadly , the entire insular ___MASK9___ between Southeast Asia and the Americas , including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago . The Fly , at , is the second longest ___MASK61___ in Papua New Guinea , after the Sepik . The Fly is the largest ___MASK61___ in Oceania , the largest in the world without a ___MASK66___ dam in its catchment , and overall ranks as the 25th - largest ___MASK61___ in the world by volume of discharge . It rises in the Victor Emanuel Range arm of the Star Mountains , and crosses the south - western lowlands before flowing into the Gulf of Papua in a large delta . A ___MASK69___ is a barrier that impounds ___MASK4___ or underground streams . Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide ___MASK4___ for activities such as irrigation , human consumption , industrial use , aquaculture , and navigability . Hydropower is often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity . A ___MASK69___ can also be used to collect ___MASK4___ or for storage of ___MASK4___ which can be evenly distributed between locations . Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining ___MASK4___ , while other structures such as floodgates or levees ( also known as dikes ) are used to manage or prevent ___MASK4___ flow into specific land regions . The Papuan languages are a ___MASK47___ of Languages of Papua New Guinea of the western Pacific ___MASK38___ of New Guinea , and neighbouring islands , that are neither Austronesian nor Australian . The ___MASK85___ does not presuppose a genetic ___MASK28___ . The concept of Papuan peoples as distinct from Melanesians was first suggested and named by Sidney Herbert Ray in 1892 . The Yam languages , also known as the Morehead and Upper Maro ___MASK61___ languages , are a family of Papuan languages . They include many of the languages south and west of the Fly ___MASK61___ in Papua New Guinea and Indonesian West Papua . The ___MASK25___ of Papua is a 400 kilometer wide region on the south ___MASK63___ of New Guinea . Papuan is an umbrella ___MASK85___ for the various indigenous peoples of New Guinea and neighbouring islands , speakers of the Papuan languages . They are often distinguished ethnically and linguistically from Austronesians , speakers of a ___MASK11___ introduced into New Guinea about three thousand years ago .