Abun

Abun, called Anden by its speakers and Yimbun by the neighbouring Mpur, is a Papuan language of the northern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula, spoken around Sausapor. It has no demonstrated relatives: Malcolm Ross placed it tentatively in the West Papuan family, but most reference works list it as a language isolate.

The tonal language has four dialects forming a continuum of mutual intelligibility. Long contact with Biak traders and settlers left Austronesian maritime vocabulary in Abun, which the seafaring Biak call Karon Pantai, a derogatory exonym.

From the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Bird's Head coasts entered the Sultanate of Tidore's tribute system, bound by the legendary alliance between the Biak leader Gurabesi and Sultan Al-Mansur. The Spanish expedition of Luís Vaz de Torres sailed these waters in 1606; Abun villages kept their speech and customs under this loose overlordship.