The East Papuan languages, also called the East Papuan phylum, is a group of Papuan languages spoken on the islands east of New Guinea, including the New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, and Santa Cruz Islands. In Papuan linguistics, groups of languages with a genetic relationship, elsewhere referred to as language families, are referred to as phyla.
The East Papuan Languages were identified as a phylum by linguist S.A. Wurm and others. It was originally suggested that these languages form a family, but recent work has thrown doubt on whether all of the East Papuan languages have a genetic relationship. The subgroups identified by linguists may actually represent separate families.
Some of the languages of this phylum are:
- Bougainville languages
- East Bougainville languages
- West Bougainville languages
- Reef Islands-Santa Cruz languages
- Yele-Solomons-New Britain languages
- New Britain Languages
- Yele-Solomons languages