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.

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Quick Facts Geographic distribution, Linguistic classification ...

Kainantu–Goroka
East Highlands
Geographic distribution	highlands of Kainantu and Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea
Linguistic classification	Trans–New Guinea Morobe – Eastern Highlands Kainantu–Goroka
Subdivisions	Goroka Kainantu
Glottolog	kain1273
Map: The Kainantu–Goroka languages of New Guinea   The Kainantu–Goroka languages   Other Trans–New Guinea languages   Other Papuan languages   Austronesian languages   Uninhabited

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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:^[1]

The pronouns reconstructed by Ross (2005) for proto-Kainantu–Goroka, proto-Kainantu, and proto-Goroka are as follows:

The possessive forms are:

Kainantu–Goroka reflexes of proto-Trans-New Guinea (pTNG) etyma are:^[2]

Awa language:

• are 'ear' < *kand(e,i)k(V]
• nu 'louse' < *niman

Tairora language:

• ato 'ear' < *kand(e,i)k(V]
• ir 'tree' < *inda
• (n)am 'breast' < *amu
• nume 'louse' < *niman
• kubu 'short' < *k(a,u)tu(p,mb)aC
• mi- 'give' < *mV-

Fore language:

• na- 'eat' < *na-
• numaa 'louse' < *niman
• mi- 'give' < *mV-
• amune 'egg' < *mun(a,i,u)ka
• kasa 'new' < *kVndak
• mone 'nose' < *mundu

Gende language:

• ami 'breast' < *amu
• mut 'belly' < *mundun 'internal organs'
• mina- 'stay' < *mVna-
• nogoi 'water < *[n]ok
• (tu)nima 'louse' < *niman
• me- 'give' < *mV-

Innovations in proto-Kainantu-Goroka replacing proto-Trans-New Guinea forms:^[2]

• *tá[za] '1pl' replaces pTNG *ni, *nu
• *tá-na '2pl' replaces pTNG *ŋgi, *ja
• genitive forms ending in *-i

Gorokan basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986):^[3]

Kainantu basic vocabulary from William A. Foley (1986):^[3]

Some lexical reconstructions of Proto-East Kainantu and Proto-North Kainantu by Usher (2020) are:^[4][5]

• East New Guinea Highlands languages, an expansion of Kainantu–Goroka in Wurm 1975, which was later abandoned by Ross due to a lack of unifying morphological data.

• Ross, Malcolm (2005). "Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages". In Andrew Pawley; Robert Attenborough; Robin Hide; Jack Golson (eds.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 15–66. ISBN 0858835622. OCLC 67292782.
• Ross, Malcolm. 2014. Proto-Kainantu-Goroka. TransNewGuinea.org.
• Ross, Malcolm. 2014. Proto-Goroka. TransNewGuinea.org.
• Ross, Malcolm. 2014. Proto-Kainantu. TransNewGuinea.org.
• Proto-Eastern Kainantu-Goroka. TransNewGuinea.org. From Scott, G. 1978. The Fore language of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• Proto-Eastern-Central Gorokan. TransNewGuinea.org. From Scott, G. 1978. The Fore language of Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.