How large could the Trans-New Guinea family become if proposed relationships are confirmed?

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Papuan languages Map of the languages found on the Doberai Peninsula of New Guinea.

If all the currently proposed language families are ultimately confirmed to be part of the Trans-New Guinea family, the group would expand to include nearly 300 languages and approximately two million speakers. This would represent at least 50 percent of the total Papuan-speaking population.1

Currently, the Trans-New Guinea family is the largest of the Papuan languages, with more than 650,000 speakers, or about 20 percent of the total population. While its core membership is well-established through shared grammatical features like object prefixes, the inclusion of other groups—such as the Enga, Chimbu, Binandere, Angan, Ok, Awyu, Mek, Asmat, Koiarian, and Goilalan families—remains a subject of ongoing comparative linguistic research.12