Pronouns and gender: Exploring nominal classification systems in northern New Guinea

This article is intended not as an overview of the range of nominal classif ication systems that can be found in the northern part of West Papua, but a s a discussion of a typologically rare development of classification that i s found in some languages of this quarter of New Guinea. This discursion is set in a brief discussion of some of the more typical systems that are fou nd in geographically, and genetically, divergent languages of the region. T he focus of the article is the presentation of data that shows the classifi cation of the personal pronouns into different gender classes, and examines possible motivations for this unusual phenomenon.